The book of Bamidbar (Numbers), beginning May 16, 2026, starts this Shabbat. As always it is read leading up to Shavuot, bridging the liberation of Passover with the receiving of the Torah, emphasizing the shift from being a community of escapees to a mission-driven society.
In the diaspora, the mission is simple: to promote Jewish life in its religious and cultural dimensions.

The new book teaches that modern, chaotic "wilderness" journeys require structure, unity, and finding personal meaning, rather than just raw numbers. It highlights transforming from individuals into a purposeful, organized society that turns challenging, barren environments into places of growth.

The city of Porto has reason to be proud of its Jewish community. It seems indestructible. Beaten by corrupt power in different eras, Jewish life stubbornly remains alive in Porto, and this happens like nowhere else in the country. In religion, the minyan continues uninterrupted and is approaching its eleventh year, with two synagogues operating simultaneously. In the promotion of culture, the community is the world leader by a wide margin. In Holocaust education, there is no parallel in Europe, with the aggravating factor that the Portuguese State tries to teach one thing to the students and the museum teaches another, the true. Even the attraction of national schools reveals the absolute educational success of the community.

How to stop this advance? Medíocre Portuguese elites, always excited by minor things, cannot find an explanation for so much resourcefulness and quality within the Jewish community of Porto. It is not easy to deal with such a successful and independent organization. Apparently, there is nothing to do to stop such progress, except to get used to living with the thriving reality that one dislikes or to face a fight that everyone has already realized they cannot win.

The Hebrew name Bamidbar ("In the desert") implies that to receive wisdom and grow, we must empty ourselves of preconceived notions—making ourselves like a desert—allowing for personal spiritual growth. In an era obsessed with statistics, the census highlights that every person is precious, named, and necessary, encouraging us to recognize our unique role in the greater collective.

The camp was united through shared space and purpose, teaching that overcoming the modern equivalent of the desert requires looking for unity rather than strife. Just as tribes and tribes were given specific roles and positions in the desert, modern life requires the organization of time and space to combat chaos. The 40-year journey reminds us that true change—personal and communal—takes time and cannot be achieved by politics or quick fixes alone.

Portugal

The persecution, forced conversion, and expulsion of the Jews, combined with the subsequent establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition (1536), was a major factor in the decline of Portugal's economic, intellectual, and imperial strength. The loss of this community—which constituted a vital segment of the merchant, intellectual, and financial class—significantly weakened the country's capacity to maintain its global empire.

The country today is a shadow of what it once was. The rulers never even managed a grocery store before governing millions of people, state employees serve the whims of their political masters, journalists wearing jeans act like policemen to do favors for their bosses, and obviously the country's fate will be to sink... if the Jews don't help it to unite, create, build, produce and save.

Bamidbar

The Hebrew word Bamidbar, while literally translating to "in the wilderness" or "in the desert," holds deep symbolic and spiritual interpretations within Jewish tradition. As the Hebrew title for the Book of Numbers, it represents much more than just a geographic location. According to Kabbalah, Bamidbar represents a state of consciousness, a form of spiritual preparation, and a key to accessing wisdom.

To lead a safe, productive, and useful life, one must master several foundational arts that combine ancient wisdom with modern functionality. The arts focus on managing oneself, managing resources, and navigating external challenges: the Art of Work, the Art of War, the Art of Living, the Art of Self-Awareness, the Art of Communication, the Art of Adaptation, the Art of Innovation, the Art of Time Management, the Art of Creativity, and the Art of attracting favorable constellations. Jewish success is rooted in three interconnected realities: strength of belief, intelligent work, and favorable constellations.