Torah Big Idea #19 The Wilderness is Where We Change

B’midbar (Numbers)

You know me: I’m a pretty classic Type A personality. I thrive on plans, schedules, and knowing what comes next. I have lists and calendars and Google sheets for pretty much every aspect of my life. I’m writing this article for April in July. Yes, July 2025. The unknown and the last minute are not my friends.

The Book of Numbers with its specific travel itinerary should be my favorite. But, as I studied Rabbi Sacks’ z”l interpretation of this book, it is taking me to a new, uncomfortable place.

He teaches that B’midbar is about something called “liminal space”—the threshold between life phases, the place that is neither starting point nor destination but the transformative space between.

Ugh, I hate that LOL! But there is profound spiritual truth here.

We human beings, (non pre programmed automatons) live through multiple wildernesses: career transitions, relationship changes, health crises, grief. Our lives are neither fully linear nor logical.

Our secular culture sees these wildernesses as problems to solve quickly. But B’midbar suggests something radical: these wilderness periods aren’t obstacles to spiritual life—they are spiritual life.

Think of times when we were changing jobs or home towns? We’ve left behind our old identity but haven’t established our new path yet. Society says this is just a rough patch to endure. But B’midbar identifies this liminal space as sacred. Stripped of familiar definitions of success, we discover who we really are beyond our roles. What a blessing! An uncomfortable one perhaps but a blessing nonetheless.

Caring for an aging parent is wilderness—caught between their independence and need. Parenting children is a wilderness – who knows what comes next and what highs and lows await us. Even waiting for medical test results or meeting a new co-worker places us in a temporary wilderness.

B’midbar teaches us to see these moments differently. Instead of rushing through uncertainty toward resolution, we can inhabit the in-between space with awareness, recognizing it as where transformation happens.

We’re familiar with the secular saying “enjoy the journey” or ‘the journey is the destination”,

But the Jewish wilderness concept is far more challenging.

While “enjoy the journey” suggests we can control our experience through mindset, the spiritual wilderness demands we lose control entirely.

The Israelites in Torah weren’t having a “mindful travel experience”—they were being transformed from slaves to a people capable of freedom and responsibility. Their complaints and failures weren’t obstacles to overcome with positive thinking, but necessary parts of a transformation they couldn’t control or fully understand.

We often think spiritual life is about reaching some final state of peace or certainty. But B’midbar suggests spirituality is about learning to surrender in the ongoing wilderness of being human—allowing our uncertainty and transition to remake us rather than simply enduring it with a better attitude.

We don’t need to wait for our lives to become settled to encounter the sacred.

The sacred is always here, not despite our wilderness experiences but within them.