Shabbat Bemidbar

Last year, I was walking down my street when a car pulled over to ask me for directions. Or so I thought. A man in his late twenties, with a map in one hand rolls down his passenger side window and said the following: "I found a yarmulke on the ground the other day so I picked it up”. He smiled and asked me "Is it ok if I keep it and wear it from time to time?" I was quite surprised by his question. I thought about it and then said to him "Do me a favor; Please be careful and very responsible when you wear it in public". "When you wear the Yarlmuke, people are going to think that you're Jewish. So do good things when you have it on and be aware that people are watching you." He smiled and seemed to agree to take on his newfound task in life and then he drove off.

When Bnei Yisrael received the Torah on Har Sinai, the Jewish people received their philosophical, and intellectual identity. In parashat Bemidbar however, the Jewish people receive their physical identity. As we shall experience once again at the summer Olympics, the basic component of a nation's identity is its flag, its language, and its physical geographic location. B'nei Yisrael are also commanded to have a flag or banners representing each tribe. Each tribe member, depending on the patrilineal decent is also designated a physical location on the desert grid vis-à-vis the Mishkan's position. The uniqueness however of this new found physical identity of the Jewish people, is that at its center, it must always have the Mishkan, The Torah and the The Aron Hakodesh. Our physical location and sense of identity must always be in relation to the Torah and its ideals. The same with our bodies; We have an outer physical layer that defines us and our physical location, especially our face, yet on “the inside” is our soul.

If however, one's physical identity as a Jew becomes the central component, the Jewish identity looses its true colors. The physical shell is the most basic way to relate to one another but it is shallow and surprisingly divisive. The Torah is the central point of the circle bringing the nation together. So if you ever come upon someone up to no good who is wearing a Yarmulke, don’t feel bad, it’s probably the guy who just found it on the street.