The Ever-Repeated Story
Family Edition

The Summary

● This summary is adapted from the essay written by Rabbi Sacks in 2012, available here

After Bnai Yisrael escaped Egypt and arrived at Sinai, they received the Torah, sinned by building the Golden Calf, were forgiven by God, and built the Mishkan. It was completed a year after the Exodus. One month later, they are ready to begin the next part of the journey - to the Promised Land.

We are now in the book of Bamidbar, where the people’s journey will continue. But before they move, the Torah gives us ten full chapters of preparation. First comes a census, then details about how the tribes are set up around the Mishkan. Then we learn the laws of the Levites special rules like the nazir (someone who takes special vows). Only after all this do the people finally start moving. Why the delay?

The Torah is not just a sequence of events or a history book. The Torah is about truths that emerge through time. It tells us about human nature. That we are what we choose to be. Nature has no freewill. Planets don’t choose to orbit. Animals can’t choose to be brave or kind. But humans do. We are defined by our freedom. And that freedom can lead to greatness - or chaos.

We can find a pattern emerging throughout our story told in the Torah. In each instance God creates order but humans bring chaos. There are consequences. Then God begins again.     

Act 1: God creates the universe and humans. But Adam and Chava disobey. Kayin kills Hevel. Violence spreads. God sends the Flood, but then humans build the Tower of Bavel. God chooses Avraham and Sarah as parents of a new nation.

Act 2: Avraham’s family grows, but there are problems: sibling rivalry, jealousy, and finally Yosef’s brothers selling him into slavery. Because of this, the family ends up in Egypt, where their descendants become slaves. Now, God’s plan must include an entire nation, not just a family.

Act 3: God frees the Israelites from Egypt. At Sinai, He gives them laws for a just society. But they soon make a Golden Calf. Again, chaos. Again, God wants to start over - this time with Moshe’s line only. But Moshe pleads with God, and He forgives them. A new order is created.    

Act 4: (Vayikra and the start of Bamidbar) God dwells in the Mishkan. This demands a holy and pure life. That’s why so many laws appear here: to prepare the Israelites for God’s presence and their mission ahead.

The opening of Bamidbar sets up this order. Each person and tribe is counted and placed. The Leviim are given special roles. And laws are given to protect the community from things that destroy trust - like theft, adultery, and alcohol. It’s as if God is saying, “This is what a just society looks like. Everyone matters.”

Sadly, the people soon fall back into old patterns. They complain. Miriam and Aharon speak against Moshe. Then comes the story of the spies. Once again, chaos. God again threatens to destroy the people and begin with Moshe. Once again, Moshe pleads, and God gives them another chance. But only the new generation will enter the land - with a new leader, Yehoshua.

This pattern continues to repeat throughout Jewish history. The kingdom splits. The Second Temple period is full of rival groups. And in modern times, Jews continue to fracture into religious and secular, orthodox and reform groups. Our divisions have not healed. We keep repeating the same cycle. But freedom can exist with order, if we choose to follow God’s ways. The alternative is a world where the strong do what they want, and the weak suffer. That’s not freedom, and it’s not justice. Each year as we prepare for Shavuot by reading Bamidbar, we hear God’s call: here in the Torah - and in its mitzvot - is the way to create a freedom that honours order, and a social order that honours human freedom. There is no other way.

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The Torah reveals a recurring pattern: God creates order in the universe, and in the world, humans introduce chaos, by sinning, rebelling, and misbehaving in extreme ways. Catastrophe follows as a consequence, and then renewal begins. This cycle began at the time of Creation and has continued through the journey to Israel and beyond.

The central challenge remains whether freedom can coexist with order. In Bamidbar, God establishes a detailed organisation before the Israelites’ journey forward, emphasising that each person has a place and purpose. The alternative to this Godly order is where the more powerful take charge, and it inevitably leads to corruption. In this case, Rabbi Sacks quotes Thucydides, who said “the strong do as they will and the weak suffer as they must.” Another famous way to explain how leaders will act in this situation is, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The Torah, and the mitzvot within, offer the only path that honours order, love, and justice, and creates a social structure that respects human freedom.

• Why do you think the cycle keeps repeating?
• Where are we in the cycle today?

In the small town of Yated, near Gaza, lives a teacher who is also a very special artist. His name is Yaron Bob. Twice, rockets fell very close to his home. Thankfully, he was not hurt. But it is not easy to live in a place that feels under attack. For Yaron, for his family, for his students, or for his country.  

So Yaron put his mind to it. The question he mulled over was, “How can I change something scary into something beautiful?”      

And so Yaron began to collect pieces of fallen rockets. He is still doing it to this day. Most of the pieces are given to him by the police (after they have been checked by the bomb squad and deemed safe). He uses simple tools like a hammer, an anvil, and a furnace to transform the metal fragments into beautiful flowers, menorahs, and jewellery.

As he writes on his website, his goal is “to somehow let the world know people in Israel are not hungry for war and what they really want is a bright and beautiful future.” He believes that “talking is better than firing rockets and starting a war.”

One rose takes about three to four hours of turning and twisting the steel. Then he hand-sculpts intricate petals and leaves on the rose. The sculpture’s base is a map of Israel with the rose growing out of the border with Gaza. With careful hands, he bends and shapes each petal and leaf, turning weapons into wonderful art. He donates a lot of the proceeds to building more shelters.

Each piece tells a story of hope - that someday, things meant for harm can become things of beauty instead. Yaron’s “Rockets into Roses” remind us that even in difficult times, we can find ways to create something good.

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Hosea 2:1-22

This week’s Haftara uses the metaphor of a troubled marriage to depict the relationship between God and Israel. 

Despite Israel’s unfaithfulness - chasing after other gods like an adulterous spouse - God promises not to completely reject His people. He warns of consequences for their idolatry but also declares His enduring love and intention to bring them back. God says He will allure Israel into the wilderness and speak to them with words of tenderness, restoring their covenant relationship.

Rabbi Sacks wrote “In the silence of the desert Israel became the people for whom the primary religious experience was not seeing but listening and hearing: Shema Yisrael.”

The imagery then shifts from punishment to renewal: vineyards will flourish, names will be changed from judgment to mercy, and Israel will once again call God her husband. The passage ends with a vision of cosmic harmony and covenant renewal, where God pledges betrothal to Israel forever in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. This symbolises God’s faithful love and His promise of reconciliation, despite Israel’s past sins.

This week’s Parsha is the first in the book of Bamidbar, and deals the number of Israelites. These numbers were calculated by way of a census of the people. Our Haftara also speaks about the number of Jews. However, the Haftara is talking about the number of Jews in the future. Unlike the Parsha, the Haftara predicts that the number of Jews will be innumerable.

Rabbi Sacks noted the risk of seeing people as a mass, and wrote, “A Jewish leader has to respect individuals. They must ‘lift their heads.’ If you seek to lead, however small or large the group you lead, you must always communicate the value you place on everyone, including those others exclude: the widow, the orphan and the stranger. You must never attempt to sway a crowd by appealing to the primitive emotions of fear or hate. You must never ride roughshod over the opinions of others.”

The name of the fourth book in the Torah is ‘Numbers’ in English, ‘Bamidbar’ (meaning, in the desert) in Hebrew. These names refer to numbering but also to the wilderness years. The Haftara mentions the wilderness twice: “I will make her as a wilderness” (Hos. 2:5) and “I will bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her” (Hos. 2:16).

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The Book of Hosea, part of the Twelve Minor Prophets, uses the prophet Hosea’s troubled marriage as a symbolic reflection of the relationship between God and Israel. God commands Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman prone to unfaithfulness, to represent Israel’s spiritual infidelity through idolatry and alliances with foreign nations.

Despite her betrayal, Hosea continues to pursue and redeem her, echoing God’s enduring love and commitment to Israel. The book blends harsh judgment with deep compassion. Israel’s sins - especially worship of Baal and social injustice - bring warnings of destruction and exile.

Yet interwoven are powerful promises of renewal: God will not abandon His people forever. In the future, Israel will return in humility and faithfulness. The closing chapters express hope, restoration, and divine healing. Hosea emphasises God’s justice, but even more so His mercy, portraying a covenant relationship rooted in love, repentance, and the potential for redemption.

“Rabbi Sacks writes that Hosea knew that Israel’s destiny depended on its sense of mission.” He adds that “How we relate to God affects how we relate to other people. That is Hosea’s message – and vice versa: how we relate to other people affects the way we think of God.”

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