Torah Time PARASHA Parasha Bamidbar Numbers 1:1-4:20 Hosea 1:10-2:22 Romans 9:22-33 TORAH TIME In the Sinai Desert, YHWH says to count all the people in the twelve tribes of Israel. Moses counts 603,550 men from 20 to 60 years old. Wow! The tribe of Levi is counted separately. The Levites are to serve in the Sanctuary, replacing the firstborn, because of the sin of the Golden Calf. When the people broke camp, the three Levite clans dismantled and carried the Sanctuary, and reassembled it at the center of the next encampment. They then erected their own tents around it: the Kehatites, who carried the Sanctuary's vessels (the ark, menorah, etc.) in their specially designed coverings on their shoulders, camped to its south; the Gershonites, in charge of its tapestries and roof coverings, to its west; and the families of Merrari, who transported its wall panels and pillars, to its north. Before the Sanctuary's front were the tents of Moses, Aaron and Aaron's sons. Beyond the Levite circle, the twelve tribes camped in four groups of three tribes each. To the east were Judah, Issachar and Zebulun;
to the south, Reuben, Simeon and Gad; to the west, Ephraim, Menasseh and Benjamin; and to the north, Dan, Asher and Naphtali. This formation was kept also while traveling. Each tribe had its own nassi (prince or leader), and its own flag with its tribal color and emblem. (This is an easy explanation of the Torah portion taken from the book The Open Bible - available at ) MEMORY VERSE "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart," Jeremiah 1:5. LEARNING ACTIVITY The fourth book of the Bible is called Numbers for good reason. It starts with a census or a numbering of the people of Israel. In Hebrew the book is called Bamidbar, which literally means in the wilderness. Bamidbar is a book about the nation of Israel in the wilderness as they are on their way to the Promised Land. It opens with a counting of the Israelites and a setting of their camps. Each of the twelve tribes are given insignia banners and told where to pitch their tents. And this reading has a lot of hard to pronounce Hebrew names. From our modern day perspective such information seems unnecessary. We must understand that the Bible was not written from man s perspective. The Bible was written from heaven s perspective. And from heaven s perspective every single sentence, every single word, every single letter is important. The tribes matter. Their camping position matters. Even the sum totals of each tribe matters! Perhaps a main theme that we can understand from this Torah portion reading is that you count. Just like the ancient Israelites, you matter! Each and every individual was numbered in the wilderness. One less or one more person would have changed the holy writ! From the huge multitude that came through the Red Sea, each and every person counted. You count too! The Newer Testament says "how great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of YHWH. And that is what we are," 1 John 3:1. You are special and YHWH loves you very much. In fact, YHWH said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart," Jeremiah 1:5. Use this activity to remember how special you are to YHWH write the letters of your name down the left side of a piece of paper. Use a different colored marker or crayon for each letter. Then, write one word on each letter of your name to describe yourself.
WALK THE TALK Deserts are hot arid places that are full of sand and sun. Most plants can t live in the desert and it is even hard for people to survive in the desert. Do you think it is odd that YHWH gave Israel the Torah in the desert? YHWH could have given the people His Words in Egypt or in the Promised Land. But no. YHWH spoke the Torah to Israel in the wilderness of the desert. "Bamidbar" or "in the desert" is the name of the current Torah portion. It is also the Hebrew name of the current scroll of reading. The desert is a place of desolation. Throughout the Bible the dangers of the midbar are mentioned. Hunger, thirst, wild animals and enemies lead to the midbar being described as wilderness, as "land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt," Jeremiah 2:6. YHWH took Yisra'el through some horrible dangers to teach them some lessons. Often we go through hard times in our lives so that we can learn to trust YHWH. It wasn t easy for the people of Israel to trust YHWH in the desert and it is not always easy for us to trust YHWH today. The hard times should cause us to believe in YHWH more and more. The next time you face a bully or a bad day, remember that Israel went through the dry and dusty desert for 40 years. Ask YHWH to help you. Know that if YHWH can give His great Torah in the desert then He can certainly help you. You matter to YHWH and He loves you very much. The desert times in life will soon lead to a wonderful future. Memorize this week s verse that tells us of YHWH s love - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart," Jeremiah 1:5. TORAH TALK What does the name of this portion mean? What is the main subject of this portion? What commandments are in this portion? How did YHWH show His love to man in this portion? Why is this portion special? How can you live this portion?
Did you read about the Messiah in this portion? Where? What did you learn from the Torah? HEBREW LESSON Alef Alef (also spelled Aleph) is the first letter of the Alefbet. For this letter, imagine a headless man. Ok, a little gruesome, but imagine it anyways. Here's what he'd look like: So, what does sound like? Nothing. Hence the headless guy. Like a man without a head, doesn't make a sound by itself. It doesn't sound like anything, in fact, unless it has a vowel sign under it. adapted from cartoonhebrew.com ACTIVITY IDEAS Camp out! Use blankets and furniture to make tents like those the Hebrews lived in during their journey to the Promised Land. Read the Torah portion from inside a tent! Talk about what types of things the tribes would have had in their tents. Do you think they had a lot of stuff or a little? Remember they had to pack it all up everytime they broke camp to move. Do some research about how governments conduct census counts of their people. Can you take a census of your neighborhood? Use a shoebox to create a desert shadowbox. Add sand, rocks, plastic animals or draw pictures of animals to add to the box. Use dried plants or cactus.
Draw a picture of the way the twelve tribes were positioned in the camp, or make a model using legos, blocks, or some craft items. Make or create a family tree of the twelve tribes or of your family. Can you add up all the numbers of the twelve tribes? Play the game called I am going on a camping trip and I am going to bring with me something that starts with the letter A. See if you can come up with words using the whole alphabet! Make mini tents using pretzel sticks, tortilla wraps, or graham crackers, pretzels, and peanut butter or almond butter for the glue.