Parsha Bemidbar

This week, Rabbi Miriam shares a 90-second video sermon on Parashat Bemidbar. She reflects:

"A 90 second sermon for Bemidbar! Beneath the surface of the book we begin tomorrow is the question of which generation is being spoken of - the generation who left Egypt or the generation who entered the Land of Israel 40 years later. That context transforms the meaning of the words we read - is this a generation of downtrodden slaves struggling to channel their new liberty, or a generation born into freedom with all the self-belief and also disappointment entailed? Somewhere in parashat Chukat, there's a 38 year jump, which Aviva Zornberg calls the "black hole" in Bemidbar. In the shadow of that trauma, everything must be read differently.

Every generation to this day carries a different set of experiences and memories. May our own generation have the lightness of the first, and the maturity of the second."