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Our Torah reading this week (i.e., Masei) reviews the journey of the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt to various places along the way to the Promised Land. The portion begins: "These are the journeys (מַסְעֵי) of the people of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt by their companies under the leadership of Moses and Aaron" (Num. 33:1). The portion then continues with a somewhat puzzling statement: "And Moses wrote down their starting places of their journeys (מוֹצָאֵיהֶם לְמַסְעֵיהֶם), as directed by the LORD," and then adds "and these are their journeys to their starting places (מְַסְעֵיהֶם לְמוֹצָאֵיהֶם)." The sages note here that the "starting places" are first mentioned followed by the "journeys to them" to indicate a sort of circularity about where we begin and end on our way to our inheritance. En route to the promise, we will wander and we will settle, and both our wandering and our settling are related to each other. The places we leave and the places we come evoke questions about our overall journey, such as "Where are we finally going? Will we ever arrive? How long before we can move forward?" and so on.
We are all on a journey, and each step of the way represents a starting point that leads to another journey along the way. We walk "as directed by God," literally," according to the Word of the LORD" (עַל־פִּי יְהוָה). "At the command of the LORD we encamp, and at the command of the LORD we journey" (Num. 9:23). Both our going and our coming are supervised by God. The ongoing reassembling of the Mishkan ("Tabernacle"), the arrangement of the settlements, the setting up of tents, and so on, all taught the people to constantly renew their lives before God during the days of their sojourning...
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 78:14 Hebrew reading (click):
"I may live for thirty years, or perhaps forty, or maybe just one day: therefore I have resolved to use this day, or whatever I have to say in these thirty years or whatever I have to say this one day I may have to live — I have resolved to use it in such a way that if not one day in my whole past life has been used well, this one by the help of God will be." - Kierkegaard (Journals)
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