Shmuel Schwarz Presents… Journeys

In this week’s Torah portion we are told at length the travel itinerary of the Jewish nation as they travelled through the desert. The Torah lists all 42 places they travelled to. It seems strange that the Torah should attach such importance by listing each and every place. Why the emphasis on every leg of the long 40 year trek?

Indeed the important stories that took place along the way are independently written about at length in their relevant Parshiot, why is it therefore so important to recapture it all again and to mention the seemingly ‘boring’ and uneventful parts of their journey?

The commentators explain, that here lies a very fundamental message, because just as the Jewish nation endured 42 journeys until they reached their destiny, with each and every one playing its role in that process, so too our lives and mission in this world are made up of many ‘journeys’ – experiences, challenges, the good times and the bad, and all these together are what brings us to our ‘perfection’ and our personal destinies.

However the comparison runs even deeper, the Jewish people in the desert were never forewarned as to when it was time to move on to the next place. Sometimes they encamped in one place for many years, whilst in other places they were there for a very short time. As soon as the cloud began to move they had to pack up and go. Life is very much the same, we have no idea as to how long a ‘situation’ whatever it may be is going to last, a period of stability or the opposite, will it stay for a while or will it move on very quick, we are entirely in the hands of the Almighty!

And as in the desert they learnt to live with trust and belief that He knows what is the best and they accepted each and every ‘change’ as it came, we too must take that message, to realise that as every new challenge comes our way, it is G-d himself shifting the cloud indicating to us that it is time to ‘Move’, and it’s our mission to adapt and accept that change. To travel yet another leg in our life journeys to reach our destinies.

And just as every step is mentioned because as insignificant it maybe, it played an intrinsic role in the Jewish people achieving perfection and being able to enter the land of Israel, every aspect of our lives even the seemingly insignificant parts are integral in helping us reach our destinies.

Good Shabbos,

Shmuel