Looking Back Moving Forward (Bamidbar 5774)

This is a season filled with looking back -- at all we have experienced or accomplished or learned during the school year -- and moving forward -- toward summer and the year ahead.  There is an unusual passage in this week's Torah portion, Bamidbar, that echoes this dynamic as it describes the wilderness journey:  

"The community will make camp with each individual encamped by his troop and each by his own flag." (Numbers 1:52).  At first blush this camping posture seems impossible.  How can one camp in two places at one time - by her troop and by her individual flag?  It seems impossible.

But if we consider our posture at this season -- with one foot, so to speak, set on the path we have taken to arrive at this moment and the other foot on the path of the journey ahead - then we well can imagine standing in two spots at the same time.  

That is looking back and moving forward.

We are almost always standing in at least two places at the same time.  From Torah's perspective to stand with one's troop means to stand with your family, to honor the lessons they have taught, to ground yourself in their traditions. Then to stand by one's own flag means to discover one's own path, to navigate toward one's own unique destination.

Indeed our deepest learning happens when we can hold that space of standing in two places at once -- the past and the future.  We do this when we learn about our family's traditions and create new ones of our own.  Or when we learn literature or Torah by understanding the historical setting and context for the text on the one hand and imagining its meaning for our lives moving forward on the other. 

One example is how students at JCHS (Jewish Community High School of the Bay) are empowered by and flourish through high school.  Each student 'stands' with her family:  standing up for values learned from grandparents, parents, and siblings.  And each student 'stands' at the crossroads of their future:  asking her own questions, taking her own risks, dreaming of her own future, marking her own unique steps.  

What an exciting season for collaboration between a school and its students . Each helping the other find meaningful and creative ways forward informed by inspiration from the past.  It is our way of looking back and moving forward.