Numbers, Chapter 1, Verse 53, reads: “The Levites will camp around the Tent of the Congregation…and the Levites are to keep the charge of the Dwelling of Testimony.”
Everyone in each of the tribes had a special role to play in this week’s Torah reading as the Israelites created a camp to protect themselves on their journey through the Wilderness for which the Book of Numbers is named in Hebrew, B’Midbar.
The Levites were to protect the center of the camp, the holy places in the middle.
We call ourselves a “nation of priests” now, all of us have the responsibility to protect the holy center.
Everyone has our own holy center, and the Jewish people have a special relationship with God and with important values. We are the guardians of sacred principles and relationships.
In these strangest of times let us continue to “gather” around our holy centers for mutual protection and preservation of the principles and relationships that bind us as a people.
Wishing everyone health and safety and blessings as we continue to travel through the Wilderness together,