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Bamidbar (2026)

Shabbat Bamidbar

Dvar Torah - Celebrating the individualism within the collective This week’s portion opens up with a chronicle of the encampment as the Israelites started their journey through the desert. We learn how everyone was organized in one encampment encircling the Tabernacle with the Holy Arc and the tablets at its center, but that this was split into banners, tribes, and families.

This organization formed the model of the Jewish people for centuries and indeed today. At our core is the Torah and its timeless values. We are all encamped around it, albeit from different directions and under different banners. Ashkenazim, Sefardim, Yeminites and others. Mystics and rationalists. Doers and thinkers.

These differences are not a hazard, but a cause for celebration - everyone under their own camp and banner (c.f. Num 1:52). Together, we all bring our individual way, skills, and characteristics to the unity of the Jewish People.

Shabbat Shalom!


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