It's a good thing we read Torah on Mondays and Thursdays. This week we won't be at home for Shabbat dinner, but while reading through the parsha last Shabbat afternoon during the mincha Torah reading I jokingly came up with a meal for the parsha that my son really liked and was excited to have. Rather than skipping it because of our schedules, I made it on Monday! I wouldn't want to do that every week, but here was a good opportunity to keep the parsha top of mind and keep our kids engaged in this fun food project.
What did we find in the parsha during our mincha reading? There's about 30 verses devoted to the arrangement of the tribes when they stop to make camp. The tribes are arranged with the Tent of Meeting in the center and each of the four directions (east, south, west and north) have 3 tribes assigned to it. Each tribe camps under "his banner of according to the insignia of their fathers' household." (Bamidbar 2:1) Picture a square with 3 banners or flags on each side. Chizkuni explains that each one of the banners had a letter on it that "in combination, spelled the names of the Patriarchs, to invoke their merit." (Stone Chumash p.733) Further explanation describes that each side had one letter from each patriarch. So, for example, the east side would have the "aleph" for Avraham, the "yud" for Yitzhak," and the "yud" for Ya'akov. The south side would have the "vet" for Avraham, the "tzadi" for Yitzhak," and the "ayin" for Ya'akov, and so on. The lesson here is that to get the merit, the people had to be united and combined what they each had to make the greater whole.
The idea of working together to make something greater than its parts speaks to me. There are so many places where this applies. Sometimes in our individualized society we think we need to go it alone, but there's a reason to have community. It makes us stronger.
The idea that came to me at mincha was something that followed this model of being a collection of items that come together to be greater than its parts - it was Poke Night!
We had a bunch of ingredients, each person got to choose what works best their taste, and we all enjoyed the way the flavors came together.
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