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On July 4, 1776, as the Continental Congress finalized the Declaration of Independence, something quietly remarkable happened just a few blocks away in Philadelphia: a small group of Jews gathered at the home of Jonas Phillips, a German-born Jew and staunch patriot, to study Torah. Despite living in uncertain and dangerous times, they chose to find grounding in what they knew to be true: that the study of Torah is grounding. The passage they studied? According to later recollections, it was from the Book of Numbers.

Whether by coincidence or design, it’s striking that they turned to Bamidbar, the wilderness book that teaches us how to live with uncertainty, how to build community in the midst of upheaval, and how to hold fast to sacred practices even when everything around us seems in flux.

This Shabbat we read Parashat Chukat, which introduces one of the Torah’s greatest mysteries: the ritual of the red heifer, a law with no logical explanation. And yet the Israelites are instructed to follow it anyway, with later commentators articulating that it was an act of trust, that meaning would follow action over the subsequent generations.

As we prepare to mark the Fourth of July, we stand in a similar space. The American experiment was, and still is, full of contradictions, unfinished promises, and moral ambiguities. Like our ancestors in the wilderness, like Jonas Phillips and his study circle in 1776, we are called to act with purpose even when the outcomes aren’t clear. We hold fast to our values even when the path is winding. And we honor both our sacred texts and our civic responsibilities with humility and hope.

This Shabbat, may we celebrate both what we know to be true and all that we are still learning to understand.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Brad Levenberg