Bamidbar Excerpts

במדבר

Shabbat Shalom

There is no pride in a flag anymore. Half the people on Israel's Day of Independence were using the flag as a shawl...That does say a lot about the comfort of the flag and how cold it was....Last Simchat Torah, the kids carrying flags around the shule was a busha...They were tiny Bernie. Not all the money has to go into the building fund...We just fixed the whole structure of the shule. After that $200,000, now we are moving?...

Each encampment of the children of Israel had a different flag, but they came together to be counted as the children of Israel (2:33). And that wasn't including the Leviim- they were counted separately....As if the flag is saying, 'We are not you.'...We do not wear our flags for warmth. We are not superheroes...You can't wear the little plastic flags we give our kids. It is pathetic...

The differences brings us closer together. No source for this. But it does give us identity. Yes, there were four different encampments, but there was pride. There was unity...

The shule color war tournament was a show of no patriotism at all...Everybody defected the Yellow team. We understand they were losing. Even so, when you have pride in your flag, you stick with Yellow. Yellow is a very safe color at night...The Purple team had the best egg balancer. We all knew they were taking the win, when the guy bobbed the apple on the third try...

(2:34) Bnei Yisrael did everything H' commanded Moshe, 'so they encamped according to their flags and they traveled, man with his family...' It is with family. Even more microcosmic than the flag...That is where Torah starts. And it is the Torah that leads to the unity. When family is not like the Simchavitzs, there is a keeping of the Torah. Unity starts in the small. First you need allegiance to your family, then to community, then to your people and your country, and then to the world. But we can't have that when your families are hoarding all the kiddush food, telling their children to load up their plates, before Kiddush. Monopolizing every bit of food. Yes, the Red team came in a close second on the Kiddush table approach competition. They got knocked out of the way by Himmie when the choolante came out. His natural attack abilities came out of the way, and he knocked over Mrs. Hemlitz, of the Red team...

Families have to follow the rules of H' and truth, to have the unity. That is when difference is beautiful. When difference leads to the greater people. When difference does not lead one kid holding up a huge cloth flag, because they come from the only family whose parents pay dues...all your pathetic little children with plastic flags...

This congregation couldn't even follow the rules of the human wheelbarrow race. It was like everybody joined the same team. But there was still hatred in your hearts. The kind of hatred shown when people do not share the armrest. A fight for the leadership of a flag that doesn't even light up at night. Camouflaged, like a kid with a flag they cannot use as a shawl...

As Shavuot is upon us, may we also do as H' commanded Moses and pay your dues.