It’s travel season and everyone flying domestically will tell you that Americans are traveling extensively this summer. Planning for trips is fun, but it’s the unexpected things that happen on the way that make them most memorable and meaningful.
My kids still talk about the time we got stuck in Vicksburg, Mississippi overnight due to a broken axle and the ten hours we sat in stand still traffic in the middle of Texas during the massive snow storm earlier this year. These unexpected situations are caused either by external circumstances or clumsy errors, but in the end we often look back at them with appreciation. In the second parsha we learn this week - “Masei” - Moshe describes the 40 year journey the Jewish people just concluded, starting with the exodus from Egypt culminating with their imminent arrival to the Land of Israel at the Jordan River. He records the 42 places the people encamped along the way and the mention of some of these places brings back some haunting and traumatizing memories. The place where they complained about the heavenly food G-d sent them every morning and the site where the horrendous debacle of the spies that delayed their arrival in Israel by 39 years went down, just to mention two of them. Nevertheless, all of the encampments are called “journeys with which the Israelites left Egypt.” They were all part of a process of leaving Egypt and reaching the Promised Land. How can the bitter memories of the Golden Calf or the Korach rebellion be integral to their epic desert journey to Israel? Are these encampments considered points of progress in the process of freedom from Egpytian slavery to settling in the Holy Land? Here’s the catch. From the very beginning to the very end G-d was always with them. Even in the darkest moments of treason and heresy, the divine cloud representing G-d’s presence never left the Israelite camp. Because G-d’s covenant is eternal and even the gravest mistakes can be fixed, serving as the stepping stones for even greater and unanticipated spiritual growth and achievement. The Baal Shem Tov explains that the life each individual experiences here and now is a spiritual microcosm of the itinerary of the Israelites’ desert journey over 3,000 years ago. The soul descends from heaven into the spiritual wilderness of this physical reality and is faced with the challenge of choosing right over wrong and good over evil, day in and day out. Like our ancestors we stumble and falter, sometimes due to external factors and at times due to our own forced errors, but we must remember that G-d is always with us at every point of our journey, waiting patiently and lovingly for us to work through it all until we reach our ultimate goal. To prepare the world for the era of Moshiach when true peace and tranquility will reign for all, through increasing our Torah study and Mitzvah observance one step at a time.