40 | JUNE 2 • 2022 

T

his week’s parshah starts 
Bamidbar, the fourth 
of the five books of the 
Torah. As its name indicates 
— Bamidbar means “in the des-
ert” — this book describes the 
lives of the Jewish 
people during 
their 40 years in 
the desert. The 
Jews at this point 
had received the 
Torah but had yet 
to reach the Land 
of Israel, and they 
already had strict instructions 
for how they were meant to 
behave. This week’s portion sets 

out the rules for how the Jews 
were meant to encamp around 
the Tabernacle.
We are told the camp had 
three major zones. The holiest 
was the Machaneh haShechi-
na, the camp of the Divine 
Presence, on the site of the 
Tabernacle. Then there was 
the machaneh leviya, the camp 
of the priestly Levites, where 
families from the tribe of Levi 
encamped. Finally, there was 
the machaneh Yisrael, the gen-
eral camp, where the remaining 
families were arranged accord-
ing to their tribal affiliation. 
Each of the 12 tribes had its 

own unique flag and designated 
area, and no one could move 
beyond their own tribe’s zone. 
This was how Hashem want-
ed it. But why was such order 
necessary? Why could the Jews 
not simply live wherever they 
wanted?

VALUE OF STRUCTURE
The Hebrew name for our 
prayer book is siddur, from 
the root seder — order. On the 
face of it, this seems odd. Isn’t 
praying to God an emotional 
and spiritual experience? Isn’t it 
about feeling a sense of inspira-
tion? What does this have to do 

with order and structure? 
Judaism teaches us that we 
can only achieve inspiration 
when we feel rooted in our 
lives. If our praying was depen-
dent solely on our feelings in 
the moment, some mornings 
we would wake up inspired, 
feeling close to God, and moved 
to pray; other mornings we 
would wake up feeling cynical, 
tired, sick and not in the mood 
to pray. 
What the siddur gives us, 
what seder gives us, is a stable 
and orderly framework for 
our emotions, for our spiritual 
connection. Our feelings of 

How Structure
Can Change
Your Life

SPIRIT

A WORD OF TORAH

Pearls represent the many 
values of Judaism; the knot 
at the end of the string 
represents structure and 
order — what holds it 
together.

Chief Rabbi 
Warren 
Goldstein

