The ever-repeated story.

But Midbar takes up the story as we left it towards the end of Schmut.

The people who journeyed from Egypt to Mount Sinai, there they received the Torah.

There they made the golden calf, there they were forgiven after Moses' passionate plea,

and there they made the Mishkan, the tabernacle, inaugurated on the

first of Nissan, almost a year after the Exodus. Now, one month later, on the first day of the

second month, they're ready to move on to the second part of the journey from Sinai to the

promised land. Yet, there is a curious delay in the narrative.

Ten chapters passed until the Israelites actually begin to travel. First, there's a census. Then there's

an account of the arrangement of the tribes around the Ohamoy, the tent of meeting. There's a long

account of the Levites, their families and respective roles. Then there are laws about the purity of the camp, restitution, the Sotard, the woman is suspected

of adultery, and the Nazarite.

A lengthy series of passages describe the final preparations for the journey.

Only then do they set out.

Why this long series of seeming digressions?

Well, it's easy to think of the Torah as simply telling events as they occurred, interspersed with various commandments.

On this view, the Torah is history plus law.

This is what happened.

These are the rules we must obey.

And there's a connection between them

sometimes clear, as in the case of laws accompanied by the reminder you were slaves in Egypt,

sometimes less so. But actually, the Torah is not mere history. As a simple sequence of events,

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