One of the most enduring caricatures of “the Jew” is the image of a bearded hunchback, holding a sack over his shoulder and leaning on a wanderer’s stick. The exiled wandering Jew.
For many, the fact that our immediate ancestors hailed from faraway lands and made fascinating journeys to the shores of this country or another is a badge of honor and the stuff that great stories and family legends are made of.
Some suggest we are wanderers by nature since our ancestors wandered for forty years in the wilderness before reaching the Promised Land.
Absolutely false.
This week’s parsha provides a vivid description of how the Israelites travelled through the desert as a community of several million strong.
The epicenter of the Israelite camp was the Mishkan (Tabernacle) with all twelve tribes camped around it, three tribes in each direction. A divine cloud hovered over the Mishkan at all times, and as long as it was there, the Israelites stayed put.
When the cloud lifted, the message was clear that it was time to move on to the next destination. Without knowing where they were headed everyone picked up and followed the cloud until it came to a standstill, indicating that they had reached their destination.
No mortal knew how long they would remain in any specific place nor where the next journey would take them. “They travelled according to G-d’s instruction (the moving cloud) and the camped according to G-d’s instruction (the halted cloud).”
Our ancestors never wandered; they travelled according to a divine plan.
The infancy of Judaism was characterized by the experience of travelling based on a transparently divine plan to teach us that we are forever following a divine GPS.
While you may think you moved to this city for a job opportunity, or chose that vacation spot for its breathtaking beauty or decided to attend a specific university because you won a full scholarship there - you’re wrong. You are in this very spot at this very moment because G-d has a specific mission that only you can accomplish right here and now.
You think your ancestors immigrated from Eastern Europe because they were persecuted and sought a better life across the Atlantic? That may be what they were thinking, but this week’s parsha enlightens us to the fact that they were brought to this blessed country for a divine purpose.
Although where we are is never up to us, what we actually accomplish there is entirely up to us. By utilizing every opportunity to learn more Torah, do more Mitzvot and inspire others to do the same, we live up to the expectations of the divine "master planner" and prepare all of humanity for the ultimate destination, the era of redemption when peace and tranquility will reign for all.