A few years ago during July I had the pleasure of taking some pre-yeshiva boys away with my family for a Shabbaton. We stayed a few miles outside the northern Welsh town of ‘Flint’. Why, I’m not sure.
A week later I discovered a possible reason as to ‘why Flint?’ Allow me to explain through a most beautiful idea from the Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva, R Avrohom Gurwicz. This week’s Parshah opens with all the journeys that the Yidden went through during their forty years of wandering in the desert. These journeys are called both “their goings forth according to their journeys”, and “their journeys according to their goings forth”. What are these two different descriptions?
Reb Avrohom quoting his father explained that the word which we translated as “goings forth” is often translated as “their happenings”. Indeed many of the places listed are called so after the happenings – the events that took place there.
If we switch ‘goings forth’ for ‘events’ we now have two new phrases: “events to the journey” and “journey to the events”. That is to say that there are two ways to view a journey and the events. Do the events happen because I am on the journey? Or does the journey happen so that the events can happen! [I suggest you stop and think about his question before reading on!]
We are accustomed to thinking that because I went to such and such place, such and such happened. “Because I was on the flight I met an old friend” – the journey was the cause of the event – events on the journey.
However what Judaism teaches us is that really the journey happens because Hashem wants certain events to happen. “Because Hashem wants me to meet this old friend, therefore He put me on the journey”. Because I have a job to do Hashem gives me the opportunity to do it. The event was the cause of the journey – journeys to the events.
Let’s take a look at the ultimate journey – the journey of life. Are we a mere accident of birth resulting in a series of events that randomly come our way? Of course not! We are born to fulfil a specific job. We are put through the journey of life because of events that we are going to encounter. Each encounter is an opportunity to perfect our unique soul. The job demands the journey!
It’s a very basic idea but so very important!
I heard a great example of this idea. When Hagar is sent out from the house of Avraham we read, “And she went and strayed in the desert”. Says the Medrash, “she went back to the idols of her father’s household”. Where is such an understanding seen in the verse? Why is straying taken to mean leaving the Jewish life of our forefather Avraham and returning to idol worship?
The answer is that a real follower of Avraham would have never been described as being lost. A Jew is never lost! A Jew might end up in some place he thought he wasn’t destined. But now that he has ended up there, he is there for a purpose. No journey is without reason.
Hagar got lost, and getting lost is just not a Jewish thing. She was obviously on her way back to idol worship. You never end up somewhere by mistake; even through a bad decision. Once you’re there – there is a reason!
I know of someone who on his way to London turned on the ‘M6 North’ instead of ‘M6 South’, and got as far as Carlisle (1½hrs) before he realised his mistake!!! Why he had to make that journey? There could be multiple reasons. But we believe that he had to make that journey because of some event. Maybe it was so that he would miss the wedding and would control his feelings of anger. Maybe it was to fill up with petrol in Carlisle and make a good impression of how Jews behave to the cashier in the station.
As the Chafetz Chaim so beautifully puts it. When Moshe approaches the burning bush he is told to take off his shoes, “for the place upon which you stand is holy ground”. This is a message for every Jew! The place that you find yourself, no matter who you are and where you are – it’s holy ground, meaning there a specific mission for you to do while your there.
So why did I end up in Flint? A week after I came back from Flint I had a different bunch of guys round for a barbeque. I was talking to one of them about his summer plans. He told me that he is going to be a Madrich on BA Camp. “Where is camp based this year?” I haphazardly asked him. “Oh, some random place in north Wales – Flint!” Who knows? Maybe I had to go to flint to break the ice for BA Camp. The people I met there had never seen Jews before; they actually thought we were monks. By the end of the summer holidays I’m sure they’ll know very well what Jews are, after scores of BA campers descend upon their little village!
Enjoy your holiday trips, but please don’t get lost – that’s not a Jewish thing!
Good Shabbos, Yaakov