BOUNDARIES AND BORDERS -- Numbers 21:13

​The Numbers:13 Project
 
From there they set out and encamped beyond the Arnon, that is, in the wilderness that extends from the territory of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.    Numbers 21:13
 
What is the difference between a boundary and a border?  I have an intuitive sense of the distinction, but in the end, I decided to Ask Doctor Google.
 
They are, for all intents and purposes, synonyms.  But in common usage, a boundary limits, while a border merely marks a distinction.
 
As is often the case, sports are a common way to illustrate the difference.  The outline of a soccer or football field is a boundary.  Whatever is within the outline is in-play.  Whatever crosses the line is out of play.  That’s why the player who crosses the line is said to be “out of bounds.”  A boundary is a terminal marker, beyond which it is not permitted to go.
 
But a border simply demarks where one area ends and the next begins. The border between Kansas and Nebraska is an artificial and imaginary line (except, maybe, for Jayhawks and Cornhuskers – back to the sports).  Were you to stand in the field traversed by the border between the states, you would not notice a difference on either side.  Certainly, nations go to a lot of trouble to delineate and control traffic at their borders, but absent a natural topographical feature, the Kansas-Nebraska thing applies.
 
I have the privilege of being a graduate of the rabbinic training program called Rabbis Without Borders.  The notion of the program is that rabbis tend to stay within the borders of their own denominational affiliations.  We become very adept at determining what is and is not within the artificial and imaginary lines of Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, Renewal, Reconstructing and None-of-the-above Judaism, to the detriment of the Jews who move, more often than not, freely across the borders.
 
From the very first day that my cohort met, the leaders emphasized that we were not Rabbis Without Boundaries.  Collectively, we all recognized certain boundaries – things that were in bounds and things that were out of bounds – for all of the Jewish people.  Individually, each of us set personal boundaries of what was acceptable and tolerable.  For some, it was food restrictions, behaviors on shabbat or what constituted a prayer quorum.  For some, it was a social ethic, the kinds of marriages to validate or the fluidity of liturgy.  For one extremely dear member of my cohort, it was purity of language and eschewing of the casual coarseness which has infected even the clergy among us.
 
But we were encouraged to distinguish between those matters that were really boundaries, and therefore to be respected, and those that were borders, and therefore to be understood as artificial and imaginary.  What might we learn if we were to consider a perspective from across a border we had merely chosen not to cross?  And, more importantly to our common mission, who might we find searching for some benefit from Jewish life in “Kansas” if we were willing to step out of “Nebraska?”
 
Unlike in basketball and the United Nations, one rabbi’s border is another’s boundary, and vice versa.  It can be most difficult when a colleague will welcome you across your border which is considered a boundary in the other direction.  Likewise, there is an uneasiness when one rabbi’s boundary is considered artificial and imaginary by friends and colleagues.
 
All I know about the Amorites and the Moabites is what I read in the Bible.  (Okay, maybe a little more than that, but not much).  They shared a border and a boundary.  The Arnon, likely what today’s Kingdom of Jordan calls Wadi al-Mujib, is the rift in the mountain through which the run-off waters descend to the Dead Sea.  Perhaps some DNA-testing service could determine if there are any actual descendants of Emor or Moab running around who could be expected to respect the boundary between the two ancient tribal lands.
 
Not far from where that wadi reaches the sea is a border that separates Jordan and Israel.  It is an artificial and imaginary line that crosses the middle of the sea.  It is a near-impossible task to cross that border.  The sea is not hospitable to travelers and, if you really want to visit the other country, there are much easy ways to go.  But commercial, industrial and environmental projects with similar goals are continuing on opposite shores.  The Dead Sea does not know that border.

---