“And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai desert” (Numbers 1:1). Rabbi Ron Jawary comments:’ King David teaches us that a “good person will blossom like a palm tree”. One of the reasons a good person is compared specifically to a palm tree is that it is the only tree that will produce fruit in a desert. Its roots are so deep that it can draw water from deep under the ground. So too, a truly good person is able to do what is right, not because it’s the norm in the society in which he happens to live, but because it is what’s right. In every circumstance and situation, he will draw from his deep roots; he will blossom and produce fruits — even in a desert. This is really what the Jewish people are all about: our roots are so deep, reaching all the way back to Abraham and Sarah, that wherever we have gone, we have managed to draw from those roots and bring blessings into the world. Just look at Israel before 1948 and afterwards! That is why Jews bring flowers into their homes on Shavuot. It is the day we stood in the desert to receive the Torah, and the flowers are to remind us that wherever we allow God and His Torah to enter, life blossoms — even in the midst of a desert.’
“From the age of twenty and upward, all who are fit to serve in the army of Israel, you shall count them (1:1)” Moses’ census of the Jewish people, defined as a count of “all who are fit to serve in the army of Israel,” included only those who were “from the age of twenty and upwards.” What is the significance of this requirement? The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains: ‘The fifth chapter of Ethics of the Fathers includes an outline of the phases of a person’s education and life: “At five years of age, the study of Scripture; at ten, the study of Mishnah; at thirteen, the obligation to observe the mitzvot; at fifteen, the study of Talmud; at eighteen, marriage; at twenty begins the pursuit [of a livelihood]; at thirty, one attains strength; at forty, understanding; at fifty, one can give counsel . . .” In other words, the first twenty years of a person’s life represent those periods and areas of his life in which he focuses almost exclusively on his individual growth: the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom, and his moral and spiritual development. “Twenty” represents the point at which he ventures out to the world and begins to concern himself with the material involvements of life. Therein lies the deeper significance of G‑d’s instruction to Moses that only “from the age of twenty and upwards” shall a person be counted as one “fit to serve in the army of Israel.” A period of intense self-development and spiritual self-enrichment is a necessary preparation to life, but it must not be seen as an end in itself. The purpose of the “pre-twenty” times and aspects of a person’s life is for the sake of the “pursuit” which must follow: that he or she go out into the world and apply his personal attainments to the development and sanctification of the material reality. One who does not graduate to the “post-twenty” phase of life cannot count himself as a member of the “army of Israel.”
Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim
