~ Thoughts on The Parsha ~
Parshas Mattos-Masei
Look Back and See
By: Daniel Listhaus
אֵלֶּה מַסְעֵי
בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יָצְאוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לְצִבְאֹתָם בְּיַד משֶׁה
וְאַהֲרֹן: וַיִּכְתֹּב משֶׁה אֶת
מוֹצָאֵיהֶם לְמַסְעֵיהֶם עַל פִּי ה' וְאֵלֶּה מַסְעֵיהֶם לְמוֹצָאֵיהֶם:
“These are the
journeys of the B'nei Yisroel, who went forth from the land of Egypt
according to their legions, under the hand of Moshe and Aharon. Moshe wrote
their goings forth according to their journeys at the bidding of Hashem, and these
were the journeys according to their goings forth:...”
-Masei 33:1-2
Parshas
Masei opens listing the forty-two stops that B'nei Yisroel made
while traveling through the midbar (desert). If we stop and think about
this for a moment, it is a little unusual for the Torah to do such a thing.
After all, we know that as a general rule the Torah is very particular when it
comes to what is contained in the written Torah and there is no letter that is
extra. If so, how could we understand why the Torah repeats every place that B'nei
Yisroel travelled to and camped during their forty year journey through the
midbar (desert)? Anyone paying attention to the previous parshiyos could
extract all the places to create a list.[1]
Why is it necessary for the Torah to do so? Rashi[2] is bothered by this and offers two
explanations.
Rashi's first answer is from Rebbe Moshe HaDarshan,
who explains as follow. After reading through all the parshiyos describing
the B'nei Yisroel in the midbar, it is easy to walk away with the
impression that indeed life was pretty miserable. Even with the fact that
Hashem provided us with food, drink, and shelter along with a myriad of miracles
we cannot begin to imagine, there is still the fact to consider that we, as a
nation, were constantly on the move traveling. In the end of the day it is
still quite a pain to have to constantly pack and unpack and repack every other
day. The tents had to be carried, the mishkan dismantled, quite an
arduous process had to be undertaken every time. This is the sort of picture
one can easily have after reading about the constant traveling of the B'nei
Yisroel though the midbar. Therefore, as Rashi explains, in
order to counter such thoughts, the Torah stops here to list all forty-two
places that that camped to stress the fact that over the forty years of being
in the midbar, they only moved forty-two times. Fourteen of the
forty-two places they camped in during their first year in the midbar after
leaving Mitzrayim, and the last eight places listed were the stops they
made during their last year starting from after Aharon died. It comes out that
during the middle thirty-eight of the forty years in the desert, they really
only had to move twenty times – not too bad at all. After camping almost two
years in the same place they were probably itching to check out the next
stretch of sand anyway. This is why the Torah here reviews the list of places B'nei
Yisroel travelled; in order to teach us the great kindness of Hashem that
over the span of the middle thirty-eight years in the midbar, B’nei
Yisroel only had to pack their bags and move twenty times.
The
obvious difficulty with this first part of Rashi is the following. It
may be true that that relative to having to travel and switch camps through a
desert daily, moving only once about every two years is not too bad, but certainly
not having to move at all would be a much more desired approach. Imagine a
person walks over to his friend and starts beating him up, hitting him 100
times. Then, he turns to him and says, “Notice how merciful and kind I am
because I could have hit you 200 times but I decided to stop after 100.” Is
such behavior really mercy and kindness? Mercy and kindness would be not
hitting in the first place. So how could we understand this Rashi that
the Torah goes out of its way to list the 42 places that B'nei Yisroel travelled
to in order to demonstrate Hashem's kindness that he did not make us travel as
often as one may walk away thinking. What difference does it make? How does
that in any way lighten the fact that He is the one who made us travel through
the desert in the first place?
Rashi
continues and offers another approach to his original question based on the
Medrash Tanchuma. The Medrash offers a moshol (parable) as
to why the Torah recounts the names of all the places B'nei Yisroel journeyed.
He writes that it is similar to a king who had a son who was deathly ill and
had to travel with him to a distant land for a cure. They arrived and his son
was cured. On their way back to their kingdom the father counted all the
journeys and pointed out to his son, “Here we slept, here we felt cold and here
you had a headache”.
Now,
it is true that the moshol does seem to parallel what the Torah is
doing. In both scenarios, a “king” is reflecting on a previous journey. However,
the medrash does not explain the reason behind the details of the mishol
or even the purpose of the king doing so. Why is the moshol with a
son who is ill and why is it important that the king point out what occurred at
each place? Even if we can understand the moshol, what relevance does it
have to B’nei Yisroel and their travels in the midbar?
We
have mentioned before the Derech Hashem[3]
who writes about the intricate world of hashgaca p'ratis that was
designed by Hashem. Every person has a unique role in this world and it is
therefore necessary that each individual is given precisely the correct life
settings, environments, talents, and interactions with others. As well as we
think we may know ourselves, Hashem not only knows us exponentially better but
even knows why we are what we are and how we are challenged to channel our
various facets in their proper directions.
The
generation that left Mitzrayim and journeyed through the desert were put
through nisyonos (tests) and challenges of emunah that we cannot
even begin to imagine. These challenges were not put into place to make their
lives miserable and set them up for failure. Rather, just the opposite. These
tests and difficult environments were set in place in order for the B'nei
Yisroel to maximize their potential and succeed. Hashem knows the breaking
point and tolerance level of each individual and would never give a challenge
too great for a person to overcome. This is the incredible love and magnitude
of hasgacha p'ratis that Hashem has for B'nei Yisroel and
perhaps this is the message that Rashi is relating in his first answer. B'nei
Yisroel had to go through the midbar because that is what was
necessary for them to achieve the level of emunah necessary to enter Eretz
Yisroel. However, the nisayon was not delivered arbitrarily or without
attention to detail. The route, number of places they camped at, and the amount
of time they had before having to travel again were all closely monitored and
controlled by Hashem to be able to perfectly deliver challenges tailored to the
B'nei Yisroel at the proper place and time. There was a “method to the
madness” so to speak. It is true that we had to travel for 40 years in the midbar.
However it is also true that there was an itinerary and intelligent design
behind it which not only perfectly matched the necessary baseline nisyonos which
B’nei Yisroel were required to go through win order to enter Eretz
Yisroel, but was even able to adapt itself to match the consequences that
the B’nei Yisroel deserved for the unfortunate events that occurred in the
midbar. It is no coincidence that B’nei Yisroel journeyed 42
times – corresponding to the 42 letter name of Hashem.[4]
The perfect
system of hashgacha p’ratis that the Torah is reminding us of is indeed
the ultimate example of the boundless mercy and kindness Hashem shows each of
us individually. Hashem understands perfectly more than just each person's
breaking point and tolerance level but what they were created to accomplish and
customizes the world and how we will interact with it special for us to the
extent that there is really not one world but rather seven billion perceptions
of it. As the mishna in Sanhedrin[5]
states, “Every person is obligated to declare, ‘The world was created for
me’.
As
important as it is for one to internalize this to appreciate Hashm’s love for him
and for one to realize that the hashgacha p’ratis is testimony by
Hashem Himself that each person in this world still has the ability to realize
his or her potential, that is still not enough. We have to also be able to look
back at the times when we were “sick” and learn from our mistakes so that we
could improve for the future. If we go through a struggle that we fail because
we were not yet on the level of conquering, that is okay and expected. However
it is also expected that we are able to dust ourselves off and take inventory
of ourselves to figure out what went wrong so that it can be corrected for the
future. If this is not done, then we may not be properly preparing ourselves
for the next level of hashgacha which Hashem has in store for us and we
could chas v’shalom end up failing in an area which we are meant to
pass.
Perhaps this
is the lesson from the moshol in the second part of Rashi. The
king’s son was sick and needed help journeying to a distant place where he
could get a cure. However, an essential part of the cure is understanding how
you got it. The prince has to understand that the king was the one who helped
him when he was sick, and B’nei Yisroel have to understand that entering
Eretz Yisroel is not an end in and of itself but a means to another end.
Without stopping to look back and reflect on what went wrong and what went
right in the midbar, they will not be prepared for the next stage after
reaching Eretz Yisroel.
May Hashem
help us learn this dual lesson from these two explanations Rashi brings
of “eileh ma’aseh B’nei Yisroel”. First that we appreciate Hashem’s
intricate role in every single person’s day to day life in a manner so perfect
that it is far beyond human or even super computer comprehension. And second,
that we don’t just take for granted the “checkpoints” we reach but rather constantly
look back at our experiences in order to feel good from our achievements and
learn from our mistakes.
[1] Granted not every one of the places listed
in our parsha were previously dwelled on or even necessarily mentioned,
but the Torah could have stuck those in at their appropriate places instead of
repeating the entire list.
[2] Bamidbar 33:1
[3]
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lazatto, Derech Hashem, 2:3:1-12
[4]
Malbim
[5]
Sanhedrin 4:5
Photo Credit: https://findthelesson.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/lesson-49-look-back-to-see-how-far-youve-come/
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