“In the End Is the Beginning,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

July 10, 2026 | 25 Tamuz 5786

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. You can also listen to it as a podcast.

The Book of Numbers comes to a close this week with the double portion of Matot and Mas’ei. In one way, the Torah ends here even though next week we begin Deuteronomy. The latter is a summary of the wilderness experience, the ancient version of Cliff Notes. (Before the internet, there were pamphlets that summarized books to assist in greater understanding.) Deuteronomy will help to bring together the experience of the Israelites and Moses’ final words.

This week, the Torah text wraps up with the explanation:

“These are the commandments and regulations that the Eternal enjoined upon the Israelites through Moses, in the steppes of Moab, at the Jordan near Jericho.” (Numbers 36: 13)

In one sentence, we receive a concise summary of what happened throughout Numbers. The commentator, Nehama Leibowitz, drew out more detail with truth telling to end with a more comforting denouement that will set the course for the Jewish people not only in Deuteronomy but throughout history.

She wrote:

“Throughout the Book of Numbers, we have been shown an Israel composed of rebels and grumblers, having degenerated since the moment of their lofty spiritual experience at Mt Sinai…[The book concludes] with an image of an Israelite nation loyally following its God through the wilderness, anticipating a Jewish people that would remain loyal to God through all the generations of the Exile.” [Quoted from Studies in Numbers page 393-4 and summarized in Etz Hayim page 966]

Though her words are aspirational, they offer inspiration. The people walk forward into their destiny with a belief that there is a presence in the world greater than they are and that through faith and fate they could grow stronger. The commandments and regulations would bring them together to provide meaningful ways to live with justice and compassion even though they would face tremendous challenges.

The Book of Numbers ends, as does all the books of the Torah: חזק חזק ונתחזק hazak hazak v’nithazek!

Be strong, be strong, we find that inner strength together.

The ancients and the moderns join together with this directive. Our strength comes from a communal recognition that we are part of a greater whole in the universe and are guided by Judaism’s foundational sacred obligations to take care of one another as we each and all of us walk into the future with hope for a better world.

Shabbat Shalom! שבת שלום

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Rabbi Elaine Zecher