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In Parashat D’varim, there’s an interesting turn of phrase that I think might be helpful to bear in mind as we contemplate sticking around places that strain our patience. In the parashah, Moses, telling the story of how the people made their way through the wilderness to the Promised Land, says: va-nisa meichorev, “We set out from Horev” – that is, Mount Sinai – va-neilech et kol ha-midbar ha-gadol v’ha-norah ha-hu, “and we traveled the great and norah, ‘terrible,’ wilderness.” What, we should ask, made the wilderness so terrible, in Moses’ opinion?
Think about it: The Israelites actually had the vast majority of their needs met in the wilderness. We might think that it was terrible because they didn’t have water…but Moses got them water from a rock – twice. We might think it was because they didn’t have food…but they had all the quail they could eat and magical manna to boot.
No, what really made the wilderness terrible was the Israelites themselves – specifically, that they struggled constantly with division, disagreements, and distraction regarding just about everything. They may have agreed, roughly, on the literal direction they wanted to go, but in just about every other respect, the Israelites lacked consensus when it came to direction.
And I think the truth is this: The Israelites only make it through the wilderness because they cohere no matter their divisions. After all, when God Godself proposes to kill all the Israelites and start over, it is Moses who rebukes God, saying that doing so will only convey to the world that God, and we, lacked the ability to overcome our challenges. And if just writing off the rabble-rousers wasn’t acceptable to God or Moses, how much the more so should it be insufficient in this time, in our eyes.
Reaching the Promised Land
The wilderness, I suppose, is about the best metaphor for the average American Zionist’s experience these days. Even though the “main” goal of the Zionist movement was achieved over 75 years ago with the creation of the State of Israel, it’s easy for a contemporary American Zionist to think we’re further from Theodor Herzl’s dream than ever before.
To that, I say: Perhaps. And if so, if we’re still in the metaphoric wilderness, then we are in good company – firstly, alongside the ancient Israelites, whose journey from slavery to freedom was anything but direct. Instead, they took two steps forward, one step back…a few steps sideways, and just generally traveled about in every which way. And, eventually, they still got to the Promised Land. I am convinced: Someday, we will too.
But, more than that, we are in good company in this moral morass bamidbar, in the wilderness, in that we have a beautiful community in which to struggle together. I firmly believe that like the Israelites eventually reaching the Promised Land, someday, my, and your, and all of our Zionist identities will no longer be potential sources of psychological struggle or moral injury – they will be straightforward sources of pride in our people’s place in the world, our ancestral homeland, our self-determination, and our co-existence in a region that continuously seems to make that a challenge. These values represent the dream I have always dreamed for Israel and Zionism. Someday, no matter how much we struggle now, they will come true – and not despite our struggle, but because of it.
So, let’s accept that we still have a long way to go – that 1948 wasn’t the end of the struggle for Israel any more than crossing the Red Sea was the moment the Israelites arrived in Promised Land; instead, let’s accept that 1948 represented the beginning of a new phase of struggles in which we, today, continue to find ourselves. Not only is that more honest, but I believe that we can live and work with it. It’s realistic. And it sets us up to continue making progress, even as we accept that we have a lot of struggle still to go.
These days are tough – but we don’t have to suffer through them alone. We can, and should – and will – be able to best navigate them, side by side, together.
This is the final entry of a 3-part series that expands on a sermon delivered at Temple Sholom on 8/1/2025
