Exams are coming to an end and we now can set out on our adult life. Or can we? In this week’s Sedra we are setting out from Sinai on our journey to the Promised Land but three days later we already start to argue and complain. Why is this?
God gave us hope, Torah as a guide and all the signs and wonders which brought us out of Egypt. However, he also gave us free will (on reflection perhaps that was a step too far!) but God also listens: The complaint that someone who was unable to comply with the laws of Passover was met with a second chance with Pesach Sheni. The response to the dissatisfaction with manna was met with an overdose of meat! But God did not give up. Somehow, somewhere, there is always compromise and understanding of our frailty.
We are all flawed, after all “we are only human”. We are described as a perverse people, but we are still a people. Two silver trumpets are sounded as we move on.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying
Make two trumpets of silver; make them of hammered work. They shall serve you to summon the congregation and cause the camps to journey.
We may live in different camps, Charedi, Orthodoxy, Masorti or Reform but we journey on together as a congregation, grumbling, and argumentative; but always as Jews.
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