This Shabbat, we have opened the fourth book of the Torah. Its English name, ‘Numbers’, reflects its concern with numbering and ordering the tribes for their journey through the wilderness. The Hebrew name, taken from the first significant words that distinguish the book and its first portion, parashah, from all others, is B’midbar. We read (Numbers 1:1):
Va-y’dabbeir Adonai el-Moshe b’midbar Sinai.
The Eternal spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai.
The phrase ‘The Eternal spoke to Moses’ is ubiquitous in the Torah. It’s the words that follow – ‘in the wilderness of Sinai’ (b’midbar Sinai’) – that provide the signal for the new book and its first parashah.
This year, we are beginning to read B’midbar just two days before the festival of Shavuot, ‘Weeks’, which falls seven weeks after the first day of Pesach.[1] In biblical times, Shavuot, also known as ‘chag ha-katzir’, ‘the feast of harvest’, and ‘yom ha-bikkurim’, ‘the day of first fruits’ (Exodus 23:14-16) was the early summer harvest festival. In the century following the destruction of the last Temple by the Romans in 70 CE and the final conquest of the land, the sages transformed the meaning of Shavuot, from an agricultural celebration to z’man matan Torateinu, ‘the season of the giving of our Torah’.[2]
The transformation meant that the observance of the festival could continue, wherever Jews live in the world. And significantly, the change connected the festival to the narrative of the Exodus. Having been liberated from Egypt in the first month of the year – named Aviv, ‘Spring’ in the Torah (Exodus 12:2 and 13:4) – we learn in Exodus chapter 19, verse 1, that the ex-slaves entered the wilderness of Sinai on the first day of the third month – which in Talmudic times became known as Sivan, a word which is Babylonian in origin.
Just as significant as the linking of Shavuot with the Exodus narrative, is the location of the giving of the Torah: ba-midbar, ‘in the wilderness.’ Divine Revelation did not take place in the land beyond the Jordan, which was the destination of the ex-slaves. Rather, the Eternal spoke in thunder on a mountain top in no-one’s-land. Equally important, those who stood at the foot of the mountain were not just b’nei Yisraeil, ‘the children of Israel’ – that is Jacob (Genesis 32:29) – the descendants of the ancestors, the family, who were the first to journey with the one God. The rabble who huddled together as the mountain shook above them, included the erev rav, the ‘mixed multitude’ (Exodus 12:38), who went out of Egypt with them. Jews are not a race, defined by a shared biological inheritance. We are not a nation, defined by geography. We are a people whose identity was formed, when the Eternal made a covenant at Sinai with that diverse array of former slaves ba-midbar, ‘in the wilderness’.
We are a people whose identity was forged in the experience of oppression and liberation. And it is that experience that forms the bedrock to this day of our ethical values and practices. Significantly, laws concerning the treatment of the sojourner are repeated thirty-six times in the Torah – more than any other prescriptions. And the rationale is repeated again and again: ‘ki geirim heyyitem b’ertez Mitzrayim – for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt’.
And so, we read in the first code of law in the Torah, Mishpatim, in Exodus chapter 22, verse 20:
A sojourner you shall not wrong, neither shall you oppress them, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
And then in the same code, at Exodus chapter 23, verse 9:
A sojourner you shall not oppress; because you know the nefesh – the inner being – of the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
A similar commandment in the Holiness Code, Leviticus 19, verse 34, stresses the implications of this commonality between the people of Israel and the sojourner:
The sojourner who sojourns with you in your land shall be as the home-born among you – k’ezrach mi-kem – and you shall love them as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. I am the Eternal your God.
The implications remain for Jews today, wherever we live. A few years ago, I wrote a Prayer for Refugees that is recited in Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue on Shabbat mornings as part of the community prayers. It includes these words:
Eternal Teacher of Your people Israel, as the children and grandchildren and descendants of refugees, aware of your teachings of justice and our sacred obligations towards the stranger, we express our commitment before you now to open our hearts and our hands and our communities to welcome those in need of refuge, and to do what we can to contribute to the alleviation of their suffering.
How can we do otherwise? Just two weeks ago, Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism voted to become one movement, Progressive Judaism. As the name of this congregation suggests, North West Surrey Synagogue, which is a constituent of MRJ, has not made the choice to broadcast its affiliation. I don’t know the reasons for this, but I would hazard a guess that one reason may be that for this shul, living Jewishly implies living ethically, without any need for an adjective. Teachings of justice demanding the practice of justice are at the heart of the Torah. The entire rationale for the liberation of the slaves was that the people formed in the covenant at Sinai would serve the Eternal, and create a society rooted in those teachings.
During the past twenty months since the horrific massacres and abductions orchestrated by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, we have witnessed the actions of a government in Israel dominated by ultraright politicians, which has abandoned the ethical teachings of the Torah, and which continues to ignore the obligations incumbent upon a state that claims to be ‘Jewish’. The modern State of Israel established on May 14, 1948 – 5th Iyyar in the Hebrew calendar – is the first sovereign Jewish state since the Hasmonean dynasty succumbed to Roman domination over two thousand years ago in 37 BCE.[3] Tragically, throughout the history of Jewish nationhood that goes back almost three thousand years, the adage that ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’[4] has been played out again and again. We are reminded of this when we read the haftarah, the portion from the books of the Prophets that concludes the reading from Scripture on Shabbat and festival mornings. The prophets, those God-inspired individuals, who spoke ‘Truth to Power’[5] and called out injustice, addressed, not just the people, but very pointedly, the rulers of their day. The prophets demonstrated two key aspects of the prophetic task: to act on behalf of the poor, homeless, persecuted, vulnerable and marginal; and to call out one’s own people.
The first chapter of the Book of Isaiah could not be clearer. The opening verse sets the scene:
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzzaiah, Yotham, Ahaz, and Hezikiah, Kings of Judah.
Isaiah goes on to present a searing critique of what he bewails as ‘a sinful nation, of people laden with iniquity. A seed of evil-doers that deal corruptly; they have forsaken the Eternal, they have spurned the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backwards’ (1:4). And in the midst of his condemnation, the prophet makes it clear what is needed to put things right (1:17-18a):
Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away your evil doings from before My eyes, cease to do evil. / Learn to do good; seek justice, defend the oppressed.
According to the Talmudic sages, a sage, chacham, literally, a ’wise one’ is ‘greater than a prophet’ and ‘wisdom is greater than prophecy’ (Bava Batra 12a 14). And so, in their view the age of prophecy had been replaced by their new age of learning. Nevertheless, when Progressive Judaism emerged in Germany in the wake of emancipation two-hundred years ago, the founders looked to the prophets for inspiration, and it is evident in our own day that prophetic voices are now speaking loud and clear across the Jewish world. The prophetic voices of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel[6] and Israel’s Human Rights Watch, B’tselem.[7] The prophetic voices of all those Israelis, who work together with Palestinians for a better future for both peoples in projects such as the Parents Circle Bereaved Families Forum,[8] Combatants for Peace,[9] and Standing Together, the grassroots organisation of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis committed to ‘peace, equality and social justice’.[10] Beyond the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we can also see prophetic Jewish voices being raised here in Britain concerning other major humanitarian and global concerns, most notably in the work of the human rights project, René Cassin,[11] the social justice project, HIAS-JCORE[12], and Eco-Judaism.[13]
Back in January, overwhelmed by the horrors of the impact of ceaseless war in Gaza on the civilian population, and the continuing captivity of the remaining hostages, I felt completely powerless. What could I do? What could we do? Like many of us, I was already supporting various Israeli- Palestinian coexistence and peace efforts. Meanwhile, the voices of our prophetic heritage were haunting me. I realised that we must reclaim prophetic Jewish teachings by establishing ‘a platform for prophetic voices and prophetic action, championing justice, peace, equality, human rights, and the planet.’[14]
Fortunately, a number of my colleagues agreed with me, and Voices for Prophetic Judaism will be launched tomorrow evening with an online Tikkun Leil Shavuot. We have started gathering materials for our new website, where anyone interested will be able to access resources to support prophetic thinking and action, including prophetic biblical, talmudic, mediaeval, modern and contemporary teachings, sermons, articles, pamphlets, and podcasts, as well as sign-posting for organisations that act as pathways to prophetic action. In the absence of an institutional structure, formal membership and official leadership, Voices for Prophetic Judaism is open to all those Jews and fellow-travellers, who want to contribute to the work of pursuing justice, peace, and equality, establishing human rights, and ensuring a sustainable future for the planet. Voices for Prophetic Judaism is open to you, to everyone gathered here today, and to this special congregation, which while rejecting labels remains, no doubt, wholly committed to the core ethical and sacred teachings of Judaism. And let us say: Amen.
Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah
North West Surrey Synagogue
31st May 2025 / 4th Sivan 5785
The name, Shavuot, ‘Weeks’, derives from it falling on the fiftieth day, seven weeks after the first day of Pesach/Passover (in biblical times: seven weeks from the Shabbat, ‘Sabbath’ during Pesach – Leviticus 23:15-16). ↑
We read in the midrash, Exodus Rabbah, chapter 31, in reference to the three pilgrim festivals ‘fixed by God’, that the second of these is, according to the second century sage, Rabbi Meir, ‘the festival of the harvest on which the Torah was given to Israel – chag ha-katzir shebo nit’nah Torah l’Yisraeil’. ↑
First articulated by Lord Acton on April 5, 1887 in a letter to Archbishop Mandell Creighton https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/165acton.html ↑
From the strap-line of the Voices for Prophetic Judaism website: https://voicesforpropheticjudaism.uk/ ↑