Bamidbar - "I Led Her in the Desert" (Hoshea 2:1-21)

 

a. Like one person with one heart

As we know, there are many different customs with regard to the choice of the haftora.  We generally distinguish between the Ashkenazi, Sefardi and Yemenite customs, but there are many others, some of which are no longer practiced anywhere and which are mentioned only in only chumashim and machzorim or in manuscripts.  The entry for "haftora" in the Talmudic Encyclopedia provides a list of the haftarot for each Shabbat of the year according to the various sources and customs.  A glance at this list reveals that there are almost no Shabbatot where exactly the same haftora is read according to all customs.  Of course, for some Shabbatot the list of different customs is longer while for others it is shorter.  In some instances, different communities have chosen completely different prophecies as the haftora for the same Shabbat, while in other instances the difference is limited to the closing verses of the haftora.

 

There is only one Shabbat in the year when all of Israel are unanimous in the choice of the haftora, and that is the Shabbat of parashat Bamidbar.

 

Keeping in mind that parashat Bamidbar is almost always read on the Shabbat preceding Shavuot, the festival when we celebrate receiving the Torah, this represents a sort of renewed expression of what took place in the desert prior to the giving of the Torah.  At that time, the entire nation was unified "like one man with a single heart" (see Mekhilta on Shemot 19:1, "And Israel encamped [in the singular] there facing the mountain").

 

This too echoes the haftora: "And the children of Yehuda and the children of Israel will gather together and will make for themselves a single head" (2:2).  But it is also a complementary mirror image of what arises from the parasha: the parasha describes the division of the nation into tribes and camps and flags, and it would seem that this is right and proper.  The haftora comes to fill in the other side of the picture and to show that in the future all of Israel will arise together, with a common purpose.

 

b. Will they or won't they be counted?

At first glance there would appear to be an inverse relationship between the parasha and the haftora.  While the parasha describes a census of the children of Israel, the haftora opens with the declaration, "And the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea that cannot be measured and cannot be counted."

 

This may be an expression of a changed situation.  The desert period was temporary; they were on their way "towards," and lived a camping life.  Therefore, they needed to be counted.  The counting was also a preparation for the conquest of the land.  The prophecy, in contrast, describes the permanent state of affairs following the settling of the land, when the nation multiplies and there is no need for (nor perhaps any possibility of) counting them.  But – the haftora adds – this great number will in no way affect their unity.

 

In any event, the fact that the number of the children of Israel is so great that they cannot be counted brings to mind the thought that the census is not really something positive. This, too, is a message that comes in the wake of the parasha. One could have thought that there is a permanent mitzva to conduct a census (we are not told here, as we were in parashat Ki Tisa, that there would be no plague in the wake of the census – a statement that hints at the negative connotation of the census and the danger that it entails).  The haftora comes to teach us that census is a concept of the past, at a time when the whole and complete blessing did not yet shine upon the nation.

 

c. The love of your betrothal

A closer look reveals another connection between the parasha and the haftora.  Towards the conclusion of the haftora, the prophet Hoshea speaks of God once again leading Israel into the wilderness.  What does the wilderness symbolize? From the perspective of the history of the nation of Israel, it represents the period of courting that precedes the couple's life together.

 

Of course, Yerushalayim represents the dwelling place of our very essence, and in the Land of Israel, the groom and the bride – God and Knesset Yisrael – are meant to build together, as it were, their home.  But the wilderness is the place where they wandered together with demonstrations of love and affection.  Indeed, Yirmiyahu calls in God's name to remind the nation, "I have remembered in your favor the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride when you walked after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown" (Yirmiyahu 2:2).

 

Once the nation entered the land and their joint life was institutionalized, there were ups and downs in the relationship, as is usually the case when life is institutionalized.  And the relationship was marred to the point of separation and alienation: "For she is not My wife and I am not her husband" (2:4).  And at that point, they are reminded of that early period of youthful devotion and bridal love (which, although it also contained problematic instances, is recollected through the haze of all the years only as a general picture of love).

 

Indeed, life in the desert was a temporary way of life (see Ramban's introduction to the Sefer, where he explains that most of the mitzvot in this Sefer are valid only for that period), but it would eternally be remembered as being magical, and there would always be moments and situations in which there would be a wish to return to that temporary way of life, a life tasting of Creation.  (Someone who sees a desert recites the blessing, "...who performs the works of Creation" – Berakhot 54b).

 

d. Engagement forever

It may be for this reason that this prophecy of Hoshea was selected as the haftora for this parasha.  We find ourselves at the beginning of Sefer Bamidbar, which describes all that happened to the children of Israel and all that they did in the desert, all their complaints and reactions, Massa and Merivah, murmurings and spies.  But these are pictures of a temporary life, while from a wider perspective the period of the desert is more accurately seen for what it was – a special experience that was forever inscribed in the hearts of the nation.  The time in the wilderness was the engagement period.

 

It is the nature of the world that one cannot return to the period of one's engagement.  The memory of it fills the soul, the images sear the heart with longing, but such longing cannot be realized.  Hoshea's prophecy comes to teach us that the relationship between God and Israel is not, after all, exactly like the relationship between a husband and wife.  It is possible for them to renew their youth and to renew their covenant as it was in the beginning, turning the initial one-time experience into a continual vision that inspires their lives – "And I will betroth you to Me forever" (2:21).

Translated by Kaeren Fish