Bamidbar: Find Your Place

Hi, this is Devin Olawsky with the Parsha in 5. Where in 5 minutes we try to give you some insight into the Parsha to hopefully enhance your Shabbos. And we're up to the fourth book, the book of Bamidbar. So, in Bamidbar I spoke about the Machaneh that was set up and what the purpose of the Machaneh was and the flags, the the Golem, how everything went. And I said the following, if you can go back and watch it if you want, I said, [clears throat] "The directions of the Machaneh is something maybe I'll speak about next time." >> [clears throat] >> So, the last thing I want to do is, you know, uh catch myself being uh being insincere. So, I will talk about that. Uh it tells us how to set up the Machaneh. It's very interesting. First, we do a census and we count the people in every single Shavet and we give that population. And then we have another whole perek where we list the population again and we set it up by where the Shvatim go. And we're told in the east goes Yehudah along with Yissachar and Zevulun. In the south goes Reuven together with Shimon and Gad. In the north goes Dan with Naftali and Asher. And to the west goes basically the Bnei Rachel, Ephraim, Menashe, and Benjamin. So, why are they set up this way? So, there's a Ramban that explains the purpose of the directions. And uh it gives us an interesting insight because remember, there are 12 Shvatim. I've said this many times that unfortunately a kid doesn't fit in to uh to the mold. And uh we assume there's something wrong with this kid. And I said, "No, you have a board with only square pegs." And uh what happens is we have a round peg and we keep trying to bang it into a square hole and it doesn't go. And the end we say there's something wrong with the peg. No, there's something wrong with the board. There should be more shapes on the board to accommodate different pieces. And in the Machaneh there were 12 Shvatim and each one went in a different place, in a different location, with a different idea. And uh yeah, the the long Or HaChaim in next week's Parsha, in Parshas Nasso, where it says every Nasi brought the same korban, but each one with different kavanas for their particular Shavet. It's a very interesting approach that everyone had a different kavana. So, too, over here. So, in the east where the sun rises, that represents leadership. Yehudah went there cuz Yehudah barosh, Yehudah represents leadership. And with leadership you need Torah. And so you have Yissachar who learns Torah and Zevulun who supports Torah and both of those are what supports the leadership. On the other side are the Bnei Rachel, and that's Benjamin, Ephraim, and Menashe. And the Ramban says they are there to protect Klal Yisrael because all of the wild weather comes from the west. Yeah, the snow and the cold and the ice. And they are there to protect Klal Yisrael because that was always the role of Yosef and the role of Rachel. Rachel steals the trafim from her father to stop him from avodah zarah. Um Yosef saves the the the land from starvation. There's There's from Benjamin comes um Mordechai and Esther who saved Klal Yisrael in the Purim story. They are there to protect. And in the north goes Dan because the north is considered the darkest exposure. And since Dan represents the desire for avodah zarah, they go in the dark north to remind themselves, "Don't fall into the darkness. The darkness surrounds you, but you don't have to be a part of it." And who goes with them? Naftali who represents zerizus, the speed of a deer. Why? In order to tell us that zerizus, that excitement and enthusiasm will help to defeat the darkness. And Asher who represents olive oil, laha'ir es hachoshech, to light up the darkness. That's who goes in the north. And in the south, which is considered the best exposure, where the rain and the good They have the most light, goes Reuven because Reuven represents middas ha teshuvah and all the good things in the world comes from teshuvah. Reuven after the ma'aseh Bil'am, when he did teshuvah, became middas ha teshuvah. And Shimon goes with him cuz he represents koach. And Gad represents gevurah because you need that strength on both sides to be able to change your life. And so everybody has a place in the Machaneh, everybody has a direction, and everyone should try to find where they belong in the Machaneh to be able to fulfill their purpose im yirtzeh Hashem. Everyone should have a beautiful Shabbos.