As we begin Torah anew with the Book of Genesis, this week’s daily kavanot will each focus on one of the five books. This is an invitation to stop, to reflect, and to get a taste of our most sacred text.

Chapter 20 of the Book of Numbers begins with the words: In the first month. Wondering about the significance of this marker of time—what month? What year? Why does it matter—the medieval commentator Ibn Ezra makes the claim that the Torah includes no incident or prophecy that was not either in the first year or the fortieth year. In other words, nothing was written about the time IN the wilderness, only the beginning of it and the end of it.

I’ve been thinking about this claim throughout these pandemic days, as we continue to muddle through what author Professor Brene Brown calls “the messy middle.” You heard me speak on this idea during the High Holy Days —but as we re-enter the Torah cycle, I will ask this: What if we are a people who are not best at arriving, but at being in the middle? And, if Torah doesn’t record those moments—does it put the pen in our hand?

— Rabbi Sari Laufer