DVAR TORAH: 10th Anniversary of Bar Mitzvah Spectacular!!! (Bamidbar/Machar Chodesh)

10 years ago, on the 29th of Iyar I became a man in the eyes of the Jewish people. We had just celebrated Jerusalem 3000 the day before, Which was the 29th anniversary of the liberation and reunification of Jerusalem and the 3,000th year of David's conquest of the city. My friday night service, in a rare occurrence, was in the Main Sanctuary (usually it is either in a smaller chapel or in most cases the smallest chapel) because they were also having something commemorating the milestone of Jerusalem, after a year of people wearing Jerusalem 3000 shirts (which I didn't understand the purpose of until my Bar Mitzvah).

Uh oh, Shabbos approacheth. What I mean is, hooray, Shabbos approacheth. However, this means my time is short for this. This will be quick.

I gave my Dvar Torah at my Bar Mitzvah regarding the census and how it was taken, and the fact that people weren't literally counted as one would count cattle. I am not going to focus on this, but rather the Haftarah I had then and will also be read this Shabbat. This would be a "duh" statement had it not been for the fact that this is a rare haftarah

For like 7 or 8 of the past 10 years, somehow Shabbat Parashat Bamidbar has fallen on the 29th of Iyar, meaning that the normal Haftarah from the book of Hosea (the story of Hosea marrying a prostitute and she cheats on him and then he says the Tfillin verses...) is preempted by the Erev Rosh Chodesh Haftarah, famously known as "Machar Chodesh" from the 20th Chapter of 1 Samuel. It is the story of the greatest friendship of all time, that of David and Jonathan. The relationship between the Crown Prince and the shepard that would actally inherit the kingdom is fascinating considering that David was annointed by Samuel (at the command of God) to take away Jonathan's job. There may be something more important underlying this relationship. This relationship might have been something more than just best friends. Jonathan loved David as his own soul (1 Samuel 18:3). As for david, during his song of eulogy upon hearing of the death of the king and the crown prince as well as his own coronation, in 2 Samuel 1:26 says "your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than the love of women". I'm gonna shower, but chew on that one over Shabbos and maybe I'll be back to give you more of what you love. Of course, for most of the people that would be reading this, it is already Shabbos...

Matt