Parshat B’midbar/Shavuot

Parshat B’midbar (“In the desert”) is usually read on the Shabbat before Shavuot, the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The ancient rabbis taught that, just as our ancestors had to venture into the desert before they could receive the Torah, the same is true for us. We must make ourselves hefker (ownerless) like the desert in order to be truly open to hearing God’s voice. In other words, we must break free of the false values and priorities that “own” us, that monopolize our attention, in order to remember where our deepest obligations really lie.

In a sense, every Shabbat is Shabbat B’midbar, a time of breaking free of false obligations, of making ourselves ownerless so that we can hear a deeper call. May this Shabbat of being in the desert serve as an example of what every Shabbat is for:  to help us clear away the clutter in our hearts, to make space for ourselves to hear the still-small voice of Sinai.