Numbers: A Parsha Companion

by David Fohrman

Numbers can feel disheartening to read — what begins as a hopeful march toward the Promised Land quickly devolves into a story of complaints, wandering, and struggle.

Yet, in this volume, Rabbi Fohrman shows that Numbers is much more than a tale of disappointment. It is a book of transformation, charting the Israelites’ journey through the desert — both physical and spiritual. With fresh insight, Rabbi Fohrman explores the transitions at the heart of between generations, from dependence to self-reliance, and from Moses’ leadership to the emergence of a nation ready to stand on its own.

321 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2025

About the author

Rabbi David Fohrman lectures internationally on Biblical themes. He heads the Curriculum Initiative of the Areivim Philanthropic Group, and directs the Hoffberger Institute for Text Study. He currently resides in Woodmere, NY with his wife and children, where he also serves as resident scholar at the Young Israel of Woodmere. Rabbi Fohrman's first book, The Beast that Crouches at the Door, was a finalist for the 2007 National Jewish Book Award. In earlier years, Rabbi Fohrman served as a senior editor and writer for ArtScroll's Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud, and taught Biblical themes at the Johns Hopkins University. His recorded lectures are available at rabbifohrman.com.

Reviews

[Benjamin Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource and pieces to think about. Would not recommend to someone unfamiliar with the book of numbers. It is a great resource to a book that has been read multiple times.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhhhhhhh, numnumnumnumnum (get it?)

I gobbled this up so fast when I saw the book in my sister's arms, that she barely knew what had transpired, and I really didn't realize just how much I had anticipated the book's arrival. I seriously devoured the whole thing before she had a chance to run the next page.

What R. Fohrman accomplishes with this book is deeply personal for me: I've had agitating questions unaddressed since I was a child, and this genius comes along and gives supremely plausible - and calming! - explanations for all of it, especially around what I had always viewed as Moses' faceplant at the 1-yard line, as it were.

R. Fohrman doesn't just explicate, he soothes agita, he reveals, he scratches the surface and opens a world. I can't get enough.

And now, as with the last book, I wait and wait and wait for the final book, and then I pray that he keeps explicating into the Prophets and Writings, and that he lives forever. He's got lots of work to do, and it can't be handed off to a Joshua. Moses needs to hold the reins sometimes.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The word bamidbar, which means wilderness, is the Hebrew name for the biblical book of Numbers. For some, that title feels accurate since its chapters contain lists of the Israelites’ wanderings in the wilderness, coupled with their complaints about the lack of appropriate food and water, and the wish they could return to Egypt. However, Rabbi David Fohrman believes the book also features a central theme beyond that of portraying the physical movements of the Israelites. In his “Numbers: A Parsha Companion” (Aleph Beta Press/Maggid Books), his latest work on the first books of the Bible*, he notes that something else is occurring, something spiritual. He sees the underlying theme of Numbers as parenthood: “how parents let go of children, and children let go of parents.” For him, the book contains many bittersweet partings, including the loss of the Israelite generation that dies in the desert.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...