Parashat BaMidbar Shabbat Morning
SERMON Parashat BaMidbar Young Families Shabbat
May 17, 2026 1 Sivan 5786
Rabbi David Edleson Temple Sinai South Burlington, VT
Finding Heschel’s Amazement in Pidyon haBen
In a moment, we will be reading from the Torah, these scrolls handwritten by scribes, scrolls we have passed down from one generation to the next through the centuries. The Torah consists of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, and today we are starting the fourth book, the book of Numbers. In every synagogue in the world, this morning we are reading from the same part. The section we are reading from is not the most inspiring or enlightening of portions. It is mostly a list of people and numbers, because in it, God tells Moses to take a census of the people, not once but twice.
But nestled in this portion is the part we are going to read today. It tells us that because God took the first-born of the Egyptians as part of freeing the people, the first-born son of every mother is given to God for service. At Passover Seder, we take a drop of wine from the cup to remember the loss of the Egyptians, and that always struck me as a bit too easy, but devoting our first borns to God is a much more profound way of atoning for the cost of our freedom.
By the time the Torah is written down, families were already not tolerating the idea of giving up their first born, and so a work around was developed where the child could be redeemed from service by a donation to the priest, the Cohen, at the temple.
Yesterday, Kayla and Trenton gave five silver coins to our resident Cohen, Judy, in the ancient ceremony called Pidyon haBen, or redeeming the first-born son. In something that strikes me as very Jewish, long after the Temple has been gone, we continue this ritual to help us remember where we came from.
This week’s portion goes one step further; it assigns to one tribe, the Levites the role of service so that the rest of the people can have that sort of redemption.
As modern people, that sort of idea is really troublesome; it feels oppressive, feels like a caste. But the Torah makes this amazing-for-its-time anti-hierarchy move. It calls us a “a nation of priests” spreading those special obligations to everyone, not just one group, caste, or tribe. All of us are called to serve.
This reminds us that we can’t just take what we want and do what is good for us. Me must not just consume. No, we must enjoy our lives while also serving the greater good. We do not need to be martyrs for holiness; we should celebrate and enjoy our lives and opportunities. We are also called, all of us, on a fundamental level, to serve the larger good, to give back to the community in order to redeem the gift of these miraculous lives.
Too often we take the miracle of being alive for granted. We get busy. There is so much we need to do. But having a child, like Lyle, reminds us of what a wondrous thing it is that we live in this little bubble of the vast universe we a million things come together to make us and our lives possible. It is so unlikely, but here we are. We are miracles, and as Abraham Joshua Heschel taught, the awareness, the amazement at simply being here comes with an accompanying consciousness that something is asked of us." For him being faithful is shaping one's life in response to that call. Heschel teaches that, “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed. Watching young ones like him grow and learn is to be amazed.
So almost hidden in a portion about counting and census there is a hint, a glimpse of something much deeper. These lives are a gift and to show our gratitude for the miracle of being alive and conscious, we must give back to the greater good; we must serve what is holy in the world.
Ken Y’hi Ratzon.
