How Structure Can Change Your Life

A WORD OF TORAH

This week’s parshah starts Bamidbar, the fourth of the five books of the Torah. As its name indicates — Bamidbar means “in the desert” — this book describes the lives of the Jewish people during their 40 years in the desert. The Jews at this point had received the Torah but had yet to reach the Land of Israel, and they already had strict instructions for how they were meant to behave. This week’s portion sets out the rules for how the Jews were meant to encamp around the Tabernacle.

We are told the camp had three major zones. The holiest was the Machaneh haShechina, the camp of the Divine Presence, on the site of the Tabernacle. Then there was the machaneh leviya, the camp of the priestly Levites, where families from the tribe of Levi encamped. Finally, there was the machaneh Yisrael, the general camp, where the remaining families were arranged according to their tribal affiliation. Each of the 12 tribes had its own unique flag and designated area, and no one could move beyond their own tribe’s zone. This was how Hashem wanted it. But why was such order necessary? Why could the Jews not simply live wherever they wanted?

The Hebrew name for our prayer book is siddur, from the root seder — order. On the face of it, this seems odd. Isn’t praying to God an emotional and spiritual experience? Isn’t it about feeling a sense of inspiration? What does this have to do with order and structure?

Judaism teaches us that we can only achieve inspiration when we feel rooted in our lives. If our praying was dependent solely on our feelings in the moment, some mornings we would wake up inspired, feeling close to God, and moved to pray; other mornings we would wake up feeling cynical, tired, sick and not in the mood to pray.

What the siddur gives us, what seder gives us, is a stable and orderly framework for our emotions, for our spiritual connection. Our feelings of