What Does a Civilization Place at its Center?

In Ancient Rome, life revolved around the Coliseum. In New York City, the cultural capital of America, all roads lead to Times Square. And in London, Buckingham Palace stands as the heart of the city. These central monuments reveal the core values of each society—spectacle, commerce, and monarchy respectively.

So, what lies at the center of the Jewish Nation?

The Fulcrum of Jewish Life

In the opening of the book of Numbers, God instructs the Israelites to arrange themselves by tribe, giving each its assigned position, distinctive flag, and marching formation. But perhaps most significantly, these tribal designations all revolve around a single focal point: “The Israelites shall camp each man with his standard, under the banners of their ancestral house; they shall encamp, surrounding the Tent of Meeting.”¹

Rabbi Yitzchak Arama, a 15th-century philosophical Torah commentator known as the “Akeidas Yitzchak”, paints the full picture:

“When one sees the tribes in their divisions, surrounding the Mishkan, with the Levite camps between them and the Courtyard of the Mishkan, and the Courtyard surrounding the Mishkan, and the curtain within the Mishkan separating between the Outer Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, and within the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant, and within the Ark, the Torah of God, he will understand and know that the Torah is the essence of everything; the center point around which all this majesty revolves, and he will fix in his soul that the Torah is the purpose of all actions and principles…”

To permanently embed Torah’s centrality in our collective consciousness, God placed the Ark visibly, profoundly, and distinctly in the middle of the camp. Twelve tribes in four directional groups surrounded the Levites, who encircled the Tabernacle courtyard, which encompassed the Sanctuary, which enclosed the Holy of Holies, which housed the Ark, which contained – at the very center – the Torah itself. For 40 years in the desert, our ancestors lived this visceral lesson: just as the camp organized itself around Torah, so too must every aspect of Jewish life find its meaning and purpose in relation to this sacred center.²

Separate Flags, Shared Purpose

This Torah-centered design reveals another profound dimension: the balance between unity and diversity. With Torah positioned at the center of the nation, we might expect uniformity or homogeneity to result. After all, if everyone orients themselves around a single purpose, wouldn’t individual expression be quashed? Wouldn’t diverse talents and inclinations be suppressed in favor of a single approved path?

The Torah’s arrangement reveals precisely the opposite. God didn’t demand uniformity but celebrated tribal individuality by giving each tribe its own flag, unique position, and distinctive mission corresponding to its particular strengths. Instead of diminishing individuality, the tribal formations enhanced and channeled it toward meaningful purpose.

The eastern encampment of Yehuda, Issachar, and Zebulon perfectly illustrates this balance. Zebulon’s merchants excelled in commerce (their flag bore a ship), yet they channeled their prosperity to support Issachar’s Torah study.³ Issachar’s scholars didn’t pursue knowledge in isolation; rather, their wisdom guided Yehuda’s leaders who implemented Torah principles through governance. Each tribe fulfilled its distinctive calling while simultaneously contributing to their shared Divine mission.

This ancient arrangement challenges our modern tendency to compartmentalize life. When Torah occupies our center, the artificial boundaries between “religious life” and “everyday life” dissolve. Our careers transform into vehicles for ethical conduct and supporting sacred values. Our relationships become expressions of divine principles. Our talents and interests serve as pathways to fulfill our unique purpose within Torah’s encompassing framework. Nothing remains peripheral when everything connects to the center.

From Desert to Civilization

The impact of placing Torah at our center extended far beyond the desert. Throughout centuries of dispersion, exile, and persecution, our ancestors maintained their devotion to Torah as their central organizing principle. This unwavering commitment transformed not just the Jewish people but gradually revolutionized human civilization itself.

Today, we take for granted that we live in a society shaped by the Torah’s values, but 3500 years ago, these values—equal justice, the sanctity of human life, ethical treatment of strangers—entered a world where human sacrifice was commonplace, justice varied based on social status,⁴ and foreigners were routinely exploited or enslaved.

This extraordinary influence has been acknowledged by some of history’s most influential figures, across a remarkable spectrum of perspectives:

John Adams, America’s second president, declared: “I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation… I should believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing nations… to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, Almighty Sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.”⁵

President Abraham Lincoln affirmed this sentiment, calling the Torah “the best gift God has given to man… but for it we could not know right from wrong.”⁶

Even those who sought to destroy the Jewish people recognized our moral influence. Hitler himself chillingly admitted: “Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish like circumcision.”⁷

Today, even secular Jewish communities carry Torah values in their DNA. As Albert Einstein recognized: “The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence—these are features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my lucky stars that I belong to it.”⁸

Getting Re-Centered

This week’s Torah portion arrives just before the holiday of Shavuot, offering us a perfect time to reflect as we prepare to celebrate receiving the Torah at Sinai. At this time, we are called to ask ourselves, “How much of my life is centered around the Torah? How might my career, relationships, and personal interests better align with its path of justice and morality?” In re-centering our lives around the Torah, we take guidance from the tribal arrangement: Zebulon’s business acumen sustained Torah study, Issachar’s scholarship illuminated Torah wisdom, and Yehuda’s leadership implemented Torah governance. Your particular strengths—whatever they may be—similarly find their highest purpose when connected to our sacred center. As we have discovered, Torah isn’t just a component of Jewish identity—it defines us and the legacy we’ve bestowed upon the world.

May we be successful in directing all aspects of our lives towards fulfilling the Torah in all its magnificence and glory.

Shabbat Shalom!
Avraham

1. Bamidbar 2:2
2. Rabbi Mordechai Willig of Yeshiva University offers an additional explanation: A nation with 12 tribes and 600,000 unique personalities of Jews would almost definitely be fraught with conflict, intrigue, and rebellion. Only with the centralizing values of the Torah could such a nation function and prosper in harmony and unity.
3. And these values still represented the best of society! Even the Code of Hammurabi, dated to around 1754 BCE in ancient Babylon, one of the earliest and most complete written legal codes, while advanced for its time, often prescribed severe punishments without any mandate for witnesses or monetary alternatives and included social stratification where penalties varied depending on the social status of the perpetrator and victim.
4. Letter from John Adams to François Adriaan van der Kemp, February 18, 1809
5. Remarks to the American Bible Society, 1864
6. Hermann Rauschning, “Hitler Speaks,” 1939
7. Albert Einstein, from “The World As I See It,” 1934
8. Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 99:9): “Zebulun would engage in commerce, and Issachar would engage in Torah, and Zebulun would support him.”

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