Stops Along the Way

The first half of this week’s Parsha is devoted to the recounting of Bnei Yisroel’s travels through the Midbar. The Torah enumerates each stop and encampment that they made, and points out some of the various events that occurred during the 40 years.

Many point out that the Torah does not waste words—entire Halachos are sometimes learned from the presence of one single letter—and certainly would not go to such great lengths just for the sake of a “recap.”

Rashi himself seems to be bothered by exactly this point, and brings two Peshatim to explain them. I would like to focus on the second Pshat, which he brings from the Medrash Tanchuma.

The Medrash cites a Mashal of a king whose child was sick and required to travel to a faraway land to be healed. Upon their return, the King would point out to his son the various milestones along the way: “Kan Yashaninu, Kan Hukarnu, Kan Chashta es Roshecha: Here we slept, here we were cold, and here your head hurt.” So to, as Klal Yisroel was set to enter Eretz Yisroel, Hashem told Moshe to point out the various places along the way.

On its face, the Medrash doesn’t seem to answer the question though. In the Mashal, the king is only pointing out the spots where something of note occurred. In our Parsha, however, the Torah recounts each stop, each set of travels, even though some of these spots don’t appear anywhere else in the Torah, and it stands to reason that nothing of note happened in any of these places. Why did the Torah recount all the various stops and not just the ones that were “of note” like the King does in the Mashal?

Also, the Torah chose to record these travels for all posterity, not just for the Dor Hamidbar. Why do we, who did not experience these travels, have to “hear” the review, as the king’s son did in the Mashal?

The Ramban brings the words of the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim who says that the recounting of the Massaos is necessary specifically for the future Doros. Those who lived through the travels in the Midbar witnessed the Nissim with their own eyes, and therefore were guaranteed to remember them and recognize the Chessed Hashem. If the stories were only passed down orally, however, much could be lost in the transmission and future generations would be left without an honest recounting of these Nissim and the complete story of Beni Yisroel’s travels.

This explanation from the Rambam seems to partially explain why Hashem told Moshe to write these travels as part of the Torah for all future Doros. It also follows that we are required to take something form these travels, though; the Torah is not a story book and if it was so important to write the details of the Massaos down, than obviously we are supposed to take something from it as well.

With this in mind, what can we take from the Massaos and how can we apply the lessons of the Parsha to our own lives?

As the Torah relates on the various travels and stopping points the details of what happened at each one are rather sparse. In fact, really the only actual stories that are relayed are the negative ones: there was no water in Rifidim, for example. In addition, there are quite a few places where the events that happened there are hinted to by the name: Kivros HaTaavah, for example, or Ramasa, which refers to the Chet HaMeraglim. But again, only the really negative aspects are addressed.

Why did the Torah only point out the bad things that happened? Referring back to the Medrash brought by Rashi, wouldn’t the king mention to his son the places where good things happened? Why only point out the difficult stops along the way? In truth, the words of the Medrash do seem to reflect this point: the king points out where they were cold and where the son’s head hurt him, but not where the healing aspects took place.

The Sefer Devar Tzion points out that the Torah skips over Mattan Torah itself! “Vayisu M’Rifidim Vayachanu B’Midbar Sinai, V’yisu M’Midbar Sinai…” the entire Mamad Har Sinai, the birth of the Jewish nation, is glossed over in totality! The Dvar Tzion answers that this is because the Torah only needed to recount that which happened in the past—things that we may otherwise forget as the Rambam says—but that Mattan Torah happens anew each day. Every day we have the opportunity to accept the Torah again, to recommit ourselves to being the Mikbalei HaTorah, so there was no reason to review Ma’mad Har Sinai.

Maybe we can take this thought one step farther and understand some of the points we raised above.

The Torah only pointed out the negative aspects of the journey because it’s easy to take the positives aspects “with us.” Mattan Torah affects us to this day, as does the HaKamas HaMishkan in its own way—the things that we grow from do not bear repeating because we still have them, they are still part of our lives.

The king doesn’t have to remind his son that he was healed from a terrible sickness—he lives that truth each day that he is alive—he has to remind him that each step of the way was necessary. Without question there were times where the son thought to himself: “Why do I need this? Why is my father schlepping me to this faraway land?” The king has to remind him that the journey itself was necessary.

So to Hashem is showing Bnei Yisroel as they enter Eretz Yisroel: Of course you are taking the product of Mattan Torah with you, but you have to take the lessons of Riffidim, Marah, and Ramasa with you as well. Don’t leave those behind, because the journey itself has valuable lessons.

Our lives can sometimes seem like an endless list of stops, much like the forty-two Massos of Bnei Yisroel. We go from place to place— spiritually, physically and mentally —often spurred by nothing other than Hashgacha—the Pi Hahsem.

Once in a while we get the end of one set of journeys and reflect on how we got there. There are events or episodes that stick out as the high points—the “reason” for our successes perhaps. We look back and we say: “If that hadn’t happened, I never would have gotten to where I am today.”

The message of the Massaos is that the each stop was part of the journey and each move was part of the Ratzon Hashem. While we may understand this on an intellectual level, it is important to remind ourselves of this each time.

We have to focus on the good to give Hashem thanks for those, and focus on some of the less notable or even low points on the journey so that we may grow from those as well. Each stop, each point in our lives, is chosen for us by Hashem himself and we have a responsibility to use it for growth. The Arugas HaBosem points out that the first letters of the first four words of this Parsha are Aleph (Eleh) Mem (Massei) Beis (Bnei) and Yud (Yisroel.) These four letters also correspond to the first letters of the four Gallus that Bnei Yisroel have endured: Edom, Mitzyrai, Bavel and Yavan. The lessons of the Massaos apply to each Galus as well.

One day soon we will reach the end of our long Galus and we too will be able to look back and give Shevach for the Midbar Sinai aspects as well as the Ramasah aspects. We will recognize with clarity that the entire journey was for our benefit and part of the Ratzon Hashem.

As we approach Chodesh Av—a time when we reflect on the periods in our Glus that are less obviously good—let us learn from those Massaos so that we may to stand on the shores of Eretz Yisroel, prepared to enter with all of Klal Yisroel.