Gathering for What?
Walk into almost any room and you’ll hear people talking about the importance of community. Politicians promise to build one, businesses try to create one, and social media platforms are built around them because human beings crave a sense of belonging. But the Torah asks a question few people stop to consider, is every community a good thing? This week’s Parsha suggests the answer is no. A group of people can come together to build, inspire, and elevate but the same group can also come together to complain, divide, and destroy. The difference lies not in the gathering but in its purpose.
If you look closely at the text of this week’s Parsha, a single Hebrew word appears frequently—nine times, to be exact. That word is asifah, which translates as “gathering” or “assembling.” Rav Joseph B. Soloveichik (1903-1993) explained the significance of the repetition: people have a deep need to gather together; we are social creatures who seek connection, community, and a sense of belonging. But the Torah reminds us that not every gathering is the same—it all depends on why people are coming together.
A gathering can inspire people to become better versions of themselves. An example of this is when Moses gathers seventy respected leaders to help guide and uplift the nation. People come together around a shared mission, shared values, and a shared commitment to something greater than themselves. But shortly thereafter, the nascent Jewish nation gathers for a very different reason. Instead of coming together to build, they come together to complain and gather around a grievance. The crowd is just as united but now unity becomes destructive rather than constructive.
The lesson is strikingly relevant today. Social media, political movements, organizations, communities, and even friendships are all forms of gathering. The question is not whether people will come together—they always will because that’s part of being human. The real question is what are they gathering around? Are we gathering with a purpose or are we just another group of disgruntled people whose only agenda is letting people know we’re upset; basically, a gathering of grievance.
Later in the Parsha the people gather again, this time to blame Moses. They gather against Moses rather than with him. This dark side of gathering sets the stage for the tragedy of the spies, where a community-wide assembly fragments and panics, ultimately destroying their chance to enter the Promised Land.
A community isn’t defined just because people are standing in the same room, it’s defined by what they are looking at. The same social instinct that builds a beautiful community can, when misdirected, turn into a mob that destroys it. The same crowd that can build a hospital, start a charity, strengthen a community can be the ones who spread negativity, division, and anxiety. The litmus test for determining whether the gathering is noble or depraved is to ask, where are we going together?
Another aspect embedded in the idea of gathering is the question of who we allow to join our group. As the Jewish people traveled through the desert, they were accompanied by the Erev Rav—a “mixed multitude” of various nationalities who left Egypt with them but hadn’t fully internalized the Jewish mission. When the gathering expands indiscriminately to include voices that aren’t truly committed to the core covenant, the unique flavor and sensitivity of the Torah gets diluted. This mixed multitude caused many problems, most notably the Golden Calf. Even when a gathering is noble, broadening the circle of participants might allow for the group’s mission to get distorted.
The takeaway for us is the realization that we are constantly participating in different asifot—gatherings, committees, social circles, and communities and when doing so we need to ask ourselves two questions: (1) Are we gathering for something or against something? Is our community built on shared inspiration or just shared grievances? (2) Who is influencing the circle? Are we anchoring ourselves to our core timeless Jewish values and way of life or are we letting outside noise dilute who we are?
The word asifah (gathering) appears again and again throughout the Parsha because gathering is one of the most powerful forces in human life. A gathering can inspire greatness or fuel destruction. It can unite people around hope or around resentment. Every time we join a community, a committee, a cause, or even a conversation, we must ask ourselves: Is this an asifah that builds or an asifah that tears down? True community isn’t just about strength in numbers, it’s about clarity of purpose.
Good Shabbos