At the beginning of Parshas Bamidbar, we are introduced to the degalim, the flags that represented each of the tribes during their journey in the desert as they marched from Har Sinai to Eretz Yisrael. What is the significance of each tribe being designated its own unique flag? Wouldn’t it have been more befitting to have one common flag for the entire nation? It seems like a color war between the tribes.
Indeed, there is a danger to designating separate flags for each tribe. Each flag was a different color and had a different symbol. Each shevet possessed different talents and had particular goals. It can be very dangerous to have twelve groups that are each striving for something different. They could end up becoming twelve different nations, each with its own religion, customs, and observances. How is it possible to ensure that each element excels in its area and achieves its goals without creating a rift?
R. Yaakov Kamenetzky suggests in Emes L’Yaakov that the key is in the timing. If flags are so important, why then were they not assigned immediately after the exodus from Egypt? Why wait a year?
The safety net against dissolution is to have some type of common denominator, a spiritual glue, that unifies all of the tribes. Immediately after leaving Egypt, there was no unifying element. That is why the flag positioning did not start then. Only after experiencing the Splitting of the Sea, receiving the Torah, and building the Mishkan did the generation that left Egypt become a unified people. Now, with the Aron HaBris in the center of the encampment, they could each have their own flag, with a unique color representing different aspirations, without risking schism, because they were all connected by the Torah.
Just like a person has various organs that cooperate since they share one common body and one neshama, so too, the twelve tribes each serve a different function and carry a different banner – while sharing a common belief in the Torah.
People can differ yet be united if they share a common focal point. The center of the nation in the desert was the Mishkan. As long as each group’s practices are in accordance with halakha, it is acceptable and perhaps even preferable to wave a distinct flag – to have a different hashkafa (ideology), while respecting differing halachic opinions. With the Torah at the center, we can maintain our unity while expressing divergent opinions.
thought, commenting on the Gemara at the end of Ta’anis (26b) which declares that in the future, HaKadosh Barukh Hu will make a circle for all the tzaddikim. They will dance around the circle, and they are all going to be pointing to the midpoint with HaKadosh Barukh Hu in the center. HaKadosh Barukh Hu is in the middle, everybody is pointing. But why dancing? Why not singing in a circle or standing in a circle?
The Hafetz Hayim suggests: When people dance in a circle, everyone rotates so that when one person moves, they step into another’s position, and the next person steps into their new position. The Hafetz Hayim says that that’s what's going to occur in the future. Every point on the circumference of the circle symbolizes a different way of worshiping Hashem. This Rebbe’s derekh and Rav's derekh are both points on the circle. We need all of them to complete the circle and to realize that we are all equidistant from the midpoint. While dancing, we will step into the other’s position, experience the other’s avodas Hashem, and realize that there are other legitimate ways of serving HaKadosh Barukh Hu.
That is the same idea of the flags in the desert. The Aron is in the middle surrounded by all of Klal Yisrael involved in their respective avoda. May we always be proud of our hashkafa and wave our flag while being respectful of other halakhic opinions so that we can maintain one unified nation.
