Is Bamidbar a Broken Book?
From one perspective we can look at Bamidbar and see a broken book, both physically and spiritually. Physically, Bamidbar is split in two by psukim 10:35-36. These psukim are set off from the rest of the Torah by a flipped letter nun on each side. They describe the way we would carry the Aron HaKodesh in the desert, and Rebbe considers them an entire sefer on their own (see Shabbat 116a). This would make Bamidbar one book, broken into three separate books: the book up until these verses, these two verses, and then the end of the book.
These verses mark a breaking point spiritually and thematically in the Sefer. At the beginning of Bamidbar we, as a nation, are at Har Sinai, connected completely to Moshe. Our journey from Har Sinai was meant to be a short process, culminating in entering Eretz Yisrael together with Moshe and living in a miraculous state that was almost like Gan Eden. The end of Sefer Bamidbar is another journey entirely. It is a journey of wandering in circles in the desert for forty years while an entire generation dies out. The first path which led so clearly to the spiritual fulfillment of history was shattered. The second path brings us to where we are today.
Bamidbar is therefore the story of two generations: the generation of the desert and the generation that went into the land of Israel. The Midrash Rabbah looks at Bamidbar through this prism, teaching that the five times that light is mentioned in the creation story relate to the five books of the Torah. The fourth use of the word light, which relates to Sefer Bamidbar, is in the sentence “And G-d separated between the light and the darkness.”
Bamidbar is the story of the separation of one generation from the next, one level of spiritual connection to Hashem, and another. Rav Shorr explains that the light here is referring to the way that Hashem guided the generation of the desert under Moshe. Their path was lit with the clarity of the Written Torah and Moshe’s nevuah. In the desert Hashem’s guiding presence was clear and obvious: we ate bread from the heavens, drank water from a traveling well, and were constantly accompanied by a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire. The darkness of the pasuk refers to the generation that came into the Land of Israel. Compared to the generation of the desert, this generation saw Hashem in a more hidden way. In Israel, Hashem’s guidance was hidden behind the veil of nature, and the system of Written Torah became the system of Oral Torah.
It is immediately after the verses that describe the traveling Aron HaKodesh that we can begin to see this shift start to take form. The very first pasuk describes the people complaining. This lack of spiritual closeness quickly becomes reflected in reality. Moshe’s leadership is now shared with 70 elders. Eldad and Meidad prophecy that Moshe will not lead Bnei Yisrael into the land. And the people, as per their request, are given birds to eat, instead of bread from the heavens. It is not long after this that we sin with the spies, and are forced to wander in the desert for forty years.
What started us on this path? Tosafot tells us that we left Har Sinai like children when the bell rings at the end of a school day (Shabbat 116a). Somehow, we were okay with a certain level of separation from Hashem. And as we began to travel, we did not see completely past the physical discomfort to the spiritual good that lay within it. Hashem rushed our journey, in order to bring us into Eretz Yisrael faster. We could only see that this was hard. We could not see that it was good. The result was that our physical reality began to match our spiritual reality. Hashem began to guide us in a different way.
And so, yes, Bamidbar is a broken book, a book that starts out on one path, but is forced into another path altogether. But it is a book, Rebbe tells us, that is broken by a specific message. Just at the moment when our dreams are about to break, Hashem inserts into the Torah a short, but complete sefer. And this sefer is introduced by a flipped nun. Rav Shapiro (Reflections and Introspections on the Torah Volume 4, Bamidbar) explains that the “nun” is flipped in a very specific way. It is flipped in such a way that if we were sitting on one side of the text, and someone was sitting on the other, the “nun” would be facing them. Hashem uses the letters of the Torah to express eternal spiritual truth to us. In general, the letters of the Torah are therefore pointed toward us. But these two “nun”s are pointed toward Hashem. They are his letters.
These two psukim, this short sefer, is expressing something more that what we can see. It is the story not only of how the Aron began to journey, but also how it came to rest. It is an assurance to us, that despite what we may or may not be able to see in this world, there is a purposeful end for every beginning. Just at the point when our clear path is interrupted, at the point when we are forced into a darker and much longer path, there is the assurance that this too will ultimately lead to our destiny. We are on a different path, but we are still moving toward the same place.
Returning to the creation story, we see that while it is true that Hashem separated between the light and the dark, at the end of the day, “It was morning it was night, one day.” Both the darkness and the light are part of one whole. There are times when we look around our world and we see light. There are times when we see darkness, suffering, lies, and anti-Semitism. Every path, no matter how long, no matter how dark, is leading toward our destiny.