This Fall, we focus on the Book of Numbers after completing our journey through Leviticus. In our study, we will learn a great deal about our ancestors “B’Midbar Sinai” – In the Sinai Wilderness.

This is a wilderness of an Israelite slave-nation’s soul, and yet an extraordinary test bed for a future Jewish free-people’s identity under Covenant with its God.

Still encamped at Mount Sinai, Israel receives instructions from God about “numbering” the populace of the tribes, and how to structure the camp and the duties of all in beginning the march to – and military campaign for – the future Land of Israel.

How does the Bible imagine millions of people trekking through the wilderness, especially before the founding of R.E.I. and the invention of GPS?

Who are the Levites, and how did they get their special jobs?

Many people question the historicity of the wilderness period of the Israelites. We will unabashedly explore the central text – Numbers/B’Midbar Sinai – that expounds on this formative and defining period in the Jewish saga.

This is not a weekly “torah-study” class, but an in-depth exploration of each chapter and verse, uncovering the religious and cultural messages of the author, and the historical context of the book’s composition and its first audiences.

Our class' methods are eclectic, including text-critical and literary approaches. These are enriched by archaeological information and contemporary scholarship, and are spiced and profoundly enriched with classic midrash and later Jewish interpretations of Biblical messages.

We will read and study in English with occasional references to the original Hebrew (fully explained for non-Hebrew speakers). Class members will be expected to read a chapter or so each week in preparation for class discussions.

Bring a Jewish Bible (Tanakh) to class. The more translations, the merrier!

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This class is dedicated to the memory of the scholar, Rabbi and Professor Jacob Milgrom.

As Rabbi, he provided the Bay Area with a caring and learned stewardship, and brought many people closer to Torah in their lives.

As Professor, he taught some of the earliest Lehrhaus Judaica classes and educated a generation of scholars at UC-Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union.

As Scholar, he revolutionized the world’s understanding of the Priestly Work in the Torah.

His legacy, for Back to the Torah students (and its teacher), will be a love and admiration for the clarity and insights he brought to our sacred texts.

Our thoughts go out to his remarkable wife Jo and his family.

His memory will certainly be for a blessing.

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