Having just returned from the Torah in Motion African Safari, I would like to share some impressions of the Jewish community in South Africa. While it is lacking in scientific rigour, and although I am a typical victim of  "visitor's bias", where one is oblivious to much of the internal workings of a community, I hope you will find some value to these impressions.

“And these are the journeys of the people of Israel” (33:1). The Torah lists over 40 stops along the long and winding route the Jewish people took on their journey to the land of Israel. Many of these names have never appeared before in the Bible and will never appear again. Their mention highlights the lack of purpose of so much of the stay of the Jewish people in the desert, going from meaningless place to meaningless place and accomplishing nothing—save for passing time so that a new generation could arise.