Preview

Sinai Wilderness

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
620 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sinai Wilderness
At the end of January, our Torah readings emigrate from the setting in Egypt to the crossing of the Red Sea and into the Sinai Wilderness. There, isolated from the rest of the world culture and society, the Descendants of Israel have a chance to become a principled tribal nation, away from the distracting influence of those “corrupted” by amorality, materialism, selfishness, greed, status, etc. By sharing in a wilderness survival experience and its attendant challenge, individuals got to bond, share, learn to be a self-reliant community, understand themselves and their values, rely on each other for defense, and rely on their God for support and guidance.

Even before Sinai, our ancestors travelled through wilderness to find spouses, to find
…show more content…
Sure, you plan the trip carefully to ensure you have food, clothing, shelter, hiking poles, shovel, etc. … but once you get past that and onto the trail, your mind clears and you have the time to ignore all the amenities that we have created and appreciate camaraderie, your own thoughts, and your place in the natural world. Bernstein captures this well, extending the experience to one that is “spiritual.” The view from the top looking down and “360-degrees” all around is far different from the view from below looking up. The sky is unaffected by city lights. The sunrises and sunsets are unencumbered. Time can be an imprecise estimation observed more from the sun than your wrist or iPhone. The temperature, precipitation, and wind are unadulterated. The air, sounds, and the smells are …show more content…
She notes the contrasts between the planning we do today and the absence of planning of our ancestors. Still, for both eras, the wilderness takes anxiety to a basic level, altering (at least for a time) our values and perceptions. It brings us back to the ethic in Pirkei Avot, that “He is happy who is satisfied with his lot in life.” Or as Bernstein puts it: “We find out who we are and where we belong, and we learn to live in community with other people.” Our ancestors had “pilgrimage festivals” three times a year, when they might walk 100 miles or more to offer sacrifices to God. Bernstein’s point is that the pilgrimage might have been as important as the holiday itself, and we are missing out on that experience

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Author John N. Oswalt begins The Bible Among the Myths: Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature? with a concise and well-written introduction that whets the reader’s appetite, compelling one to continue reading. He begins by informing the reader that his novel has been in the works dating all of the way back to the 1960s, when he attended the Asbury Theological Seminary. Oswalt quickly points out that one of the main points that the book will focus on is determining if “the religion of the Old Testament [is] essentially similar to, or essentially different from, the religions of its neighbors.”1 Oswalt is swift to acknowledge a major difference between the Old Testament and the religions of the Israelites Near Eastern neighbors. The divine medium of the Israelites’ neighbors was nature. On the other hand, the Israelites relied upon a unique human-historical experience.…

    • 2913 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Skrzynecki introduces his frustration as “it was to have been a pilgrim’s journey. You prayed for strong winds and fair weather, a current to bear you within the sight of landfall”. The religious metaphor of a pilgrimage journey, implies that sleep is a holy experience; one that can uplift and rejuvenate oneself. The climax is reached as “Christ awaited you at Emmaus, in the shade of Limestone caves and willows’ again as a personal level “you”; the symbol journey of sleeping. Juxtaposing the religious with “Dead parents could not have broken through with…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poem, “Desert Pilgrimage” by Pat Mora, it dramatizes the conflict between losing the connection with nature and heritage and the desire to keep the connection alive. The speaker walks through a metaphorical desert, which signifies the journey her ancestors took to move from Mexico to the United States, and in this journey, she reconnects with the earth. She spends her day picking flowers, harvesting herbs, and at night she sits on a boulder, looking at the stars. From this admiration of the natural earth, she tries to reconnect with her roots. In specific, she remembers a woman who was a large part of the speaker but now ceases to be in her life. The speaker takes this journey with this woman by looking at aspects of nature that remind her of the woman.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Examine each section of the writer’s argument. On the trip to the lake, he begins to wonder how time had marred the landscape that he felt was a holy spot with its cove, streams and hills, and the sun set and paths behind the camps.…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Atwood’s ‘Wilderness Tips’ is just one of the short stories that is written as a part of a larger volume, ‘Wilderness Tips’ . From my reading of the passage provided, I have concluded that its main theme focuses on human survival, therefore, providing the reader with ‘tips’ on how to survive, not a physical or geographical wilderness in terms of nature and landscape, but on the urban settings of Canada and the harsh metaphorical jungle that was society at the time.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    (1) A tradition going back to Coleridge asserts that The Pilgrim’s Progress is not a true allegory but rather a proto-novel expressive of early modern individualism. The work is radically individualistic, but it is also truly an allegory. Recent research has emphasized how…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    American History Quiz

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages

    25 questions will be chosen from the list of the following 61 topics. 3 points are required for each topic. Read the question alone very carefully; be aware of what exactly he is asking for.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Camp Tavor Reflection

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Every summer for the past 8 years, I travel to rural Michigan and enter the microcosm of Habonim Dror Camp Tavor. Camp Tavor describes itself as a Jewish overnight camp that creates an inclusive community that emphasises the learning and discussion of Jewish values and social justice. I describe Habonim Dror Camp Tavor as the community that provided me with my most important, lifelong friends and taught me valuable skills of critical thinking, social awareness and interpersonal community building skills that allowed me to transform into the feminist, socialist, hyper progressive radical jewess I am today.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A hill of aspens, glowing golden, shines on the right side of the trail while the left side is a pine-covered hill. Between the two is the trail, a magical escape from reality. This is my sanctuary of Buffalo Peaks wilderness. The trying experience of hiking through the mountains with 40 pounds on your back, the straps of your pack rubbing the skin off your hips and shoulders. The tension building in your muscles as you struggle under the weight. The pain that can only be diluted by a yoga session and a trip to the hot springs. Sun salutations in a lush, meadow valley. Warrior one and reverse warrior in the heat of the sun, relaxing from the miles we traveled just the day before.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Into the Wild

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, the beauty of nature is reiterated multiple times. When recounting his personal experience in climbing the Devils Thumb, Krakauer described a picture he had seen of the mountain as having, “held an almost pornographic fascination for me(135).” Christopher McCandless was one of the many who was so drawn to the wild that whenever the chance arose he whisked himself away from his family and embraced the wilderness. The year upon his graduation of high school, McCandless went on an extended camping trip by himself, and did not return until just a day or two before school started for the next year. This however was just one of Chris’s trips. Since he was a young boy he had always been drawn to nature. His family worked nearly nonstop, but when the chance arose the family would take to the road and camp out of the back of the truck. Christopher’s father Walt recounted, “Chris loved those trips, the longer the better (108).” These lengthy trips must have given McCandless a taste of the glamour nature held, because he carried on with the adventures all through high school and college.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    WILDERNESS STATION

    • 733 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In "A Wilderness Station" the character of Annie Herron is presented through a series of letters and memoirs. These documents tell us some of the events surrounding the death of her husband, Simon. These letters and memoirs are written by different people in Annie's life, such as George Herron (Simon's brother), Reverend McBain, James Mullen, Christena Mullen and by Annie herself. In a memoir published in the Carstairs Argus newspaper Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, George Herron wrote his version of the circumstances of his arrival to Carstairs and he also gives his version surrounding the accidental death of his brother. Annie, on the other hand, gives conflicting stories of the day her husband died. She tells two different versions of what occurred on the day her husband died. She tells Mr. Mullen that she killed her husband when she first arrives at the Gaol and then tells her friend Sadie Johnstone in a letter that her brother-in-law killed Simon. Given these conflicting stories we are unable to determine what really happened to Simon Herron.…

    • 733 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Isabella Bird

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Isabella Bird is not a modern-day author; she lived in the 1800s, and traveled the world as a single, brave woman who wrote about her adventures in letters back to her sister in England. In A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, Bird collected her travel letters from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. She bought a horse, traveled alone, and found places to board at the local houses and farms along the way. Bird stayed at Estes Park, Denver, Colorado Springs, and crossed over many mountain passes. In time she became famous for her ability to endure bad trails and bad weather. Perhaps most important is the way Bird described the environment, competing forces of nature, and human behavior patterns in unpredictable Colorado. The travelogue is as much about her as the places she visited, and it stands as an important historical record of the people and geography of Colorado. It is fascinating to read about her attitudes and reactions to people she met, as much as the places she visited. Bird discussed weather and climate, geography and landforms, and plants and animals in such a way that makes the audience feel as if they are traveling right along with her. And, as she did with nature, Bird found the people and cultures of Colorado just as confusing as they were intriguing. She discussed her thoughts on men, women, families, ethnic groups, communities, and violence.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this essay I will discuss how medieval pilgrimages were considered to be a cultural phenomenon. Overall there were many motivations for pilgrims to participate in the act of a pilgrimage. Elaborate excessive artwork led to competitions at pilgrimage sites. Medieval pilgrimages changed Christians along with other religious people, spiritually and emotionally.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Swami Vivekananda's

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages

    tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    reflection on Exodus

    • 1018 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Pharaoh orders the midwives to kill all the baby boys at birth and allowed the girls to live (Exodus 1:15)…

    • 1018 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays