Journeys

Journeys, oh with all my moves with all my travels I certainly relate to life as a journey. I laugh at myself, at my situation, a “wandering Jew”.

Then I begin to reflect and I realize, “Oh yeah, in this place I grew and in that place I met so and so. This led me to this and that led me to that.” Each stop on life’s journey that brings me closer to where I need to go….which is to grow, to learn, to be a better person, to get closer to Hashem.

These are the journeys of the children of Israel who left the land of Egypt in their legions, under the charge of Moses and

Aaron (Bamidbar 33:1).

These are the journeys: It is analogous to a king whose son became sick, so he took him to a far away place to have him healed. On the way back, the father began citing all the stages of their journey, saying to him, “This is where we sat, here we were cold, here you had a headache etc.” - [Mid. Tanchuma Massei 3, Num. Rabbah 23:3]

The journeys, yes the journeys that seem so numerous and so many.

I think at times how exhausting it is, all those moves, all those journeys. Going, going, going, going. But what about the hundreds of days, the millions of hours when I stayed put? When I’m at times stuck, or is it stable? Times when I’m not going anywhere. Times like when I’m home with my children and I’m doing “boring” things. Right? That’s what boring Mommys do, no? Nothing exciting, just cooking or cleaning or sitting in the park. Times when I’m grocery shopping.

Times when it’s not the holidays and there’s nothing inspiring. No trips planned. No events. No drama-just hard work.

Wait a minute. Alas, I realize that this too is part of the journey.

These are the journeys of the children of Israel who left the land of Egypt in their legions, under the charge of Moses and Aaron (Bamidbar 33:1).

These are the journeys: Why were these journeys recorded? To inform us of the kind deeds of the Omnipresent, for although He issued a decree to move them around [from place to place] and make them wander in the desert, you should not say that they were moving about and wandering from station to station for all forty years, and they had no rest, because there are only forty-two stages. Deduct fourteen of them, for they all took place in the first year, before the decree, from when they journeyed from Rameses until they arrived in Rithmah, from where the spies were sent, as it says, “Then the people journeyed from Hazeroth [and camped in the desert of Paran].” (12:16); “Send out for yourself men…” (13:2), and here it says, “They journeyed from Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah,” teaching us that it [Rithmah] was in the desert of Paran. Subtract a further eight stages which took place after Aaron’s death-from Mount Hor to the plains of Moab-during the fortieth year, and you will find that throughout the thirty-eight years they made only twenty journeys. I found this in the commentary of R. Moshe (Hadarshan) [the preacher] (Mid. Aggadah).

Yes, there are times of moving and times of staying put. Do you realize that they are both part of the journey? The journey to bring us where we need to go. What’s the key? To realize that it’s all part of the journey. To be in the moment and be present in it. To do the moving and your resting with a purpose, a reason, al pi Hashem.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov,

With blessings and b’sorot tovot,

Elana