Comings & Goings

As the 40 year trek of B’nei Yisrael through the Wilderness moves towards its denouement, we have an accounting of all its stops. Since the idea that anything in the Torah could be boring or, worse, useless is anathema to us, we find meaning and ideas even in these tedious lists (and Bamidbar has quite a few of those). So, perhaps, the 42 stops represent the 42 letter Name of God through which the world was created, and formed the basis for the Friday night Kabbalistic poem ANA B’KOACH, not to mention Douglas Adams’ Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.

To many observers, the 42 stops in the Wilderness represent 42 stages in a process towards the redemption or development of the Jewish nation in its movement towards national identity in its Promised Home. That’s cool, but, perhaps, a bit problematic. You see, there’s an anomaly in the text: Moses recorded the starting points of their various marches as directed by God. Their marches, by starting points, were as follows (Bamidbar 33:2). 

If the Jews were on a 42 step program, how come the itinerary sometimes had a ‘starting point’ followed by a ‘march’, but other times there was a ‘march’ followed by a ‘starting point’. If this was a designed program for developing ‘something’, I would have assumed that if it were a planned curriculum, it would be an uninterrupted straight line.

There are actually a large number of suggestions for that textual anomaly. The Kli Yakar suggests 3: 1. Some journeys went forward (towards Eretz Yisrael) others went backwards (I think that’s the most ‘straight forward’ approach), 2. Specifically, ‘starting points’ means towards Israel and ‘their journeys’ means in the direction of Egypt, 3. The terminology describes the arduous nature of the trip, because without the many backslidings the entire trip, we would have been ‘on eagles’ wings’ to the Land, immediately’.

The most straightforward attempt to understand that textual ‘flip’ is given in the literalist interpretation of Mosad Rav Kook’s Da’at Mikra. There it explains: The two terms both describe their movements and are really synonyms. This style is well known in Biblical poetry. One could say that it is also a chiasmatic structure and so a word play which hints at events during these travels. In other words, Moshe recorded everything which happened during those years according to God’s instructions.

Okay, and in that same spirit Rav Hirsch explains that the long list is a reminder of the remarkable nature of the sojourn in the least hospitable place then known to them. But the flip in the word order is based on another issue: 

According to God, they were “their goings forth according to their journeys”; to the people, they were “their journeys according to their goings forth”. Journey and rest were under God’s command. When God had them break camp, the motive lay in the goal to be achieved, for which God had chosen the new resting place. Every journey was a progress…To the people it was the reverse. They were dissatisfied in every place. When it came time to break camp, it was immaterial to them where it was going, they moved on just to get away from the previous resting place; to them, it was “their journeys according to their goings forth.”

But what’s the point? What’s the ‘take away’ from this detailed list, which, frankly, doesn’t really help me picture the route our ancestors took. I mean, there are scholars who attempt to recreate the map based on present place names, but no one has figured out anything definitive. Although, Atlas Karta tries hard.

So, we must find meaning in the realm of ideas rather than the details of history or geography. But that’s cool. 

The Shem M’Shmuel ( R’ Shmuel Bornsztain, Sochatchover Rebbe) sees this travelogue as a war against evil (Samael, the ‘angel of evil’). Our ancestors’ march through the Midbar was an attempt to stay ahead of evil forces in the world (which really is a Wilderness). We should always be moving away from the evil forces and towards D’VEYKUT (connection to God and good). Our lives should be like a road map avoiding the pitfalls and seeking the places of positivity.

And then there’s the S’fat Emet, whose idea is very much in character, as he avers that the entire issue is Shabbat. The Gerer Rebbe often claimed that whatever issue was being discussed in the Parsha, the true topic was Shabbat. Afterall, these talks were given on Shabbat, and Shabbat was the only time when these Chasidim truly felt at peace.

So, the Rebbe claims that every Jew, at all times, is on the move. We are all ‘walkers’ or travellers through life going from one level to another all the time. Life is a trip. This is all based on the famous verses at the end of Chapter 10: When the Ark traveled… let Your enemies be scattered. This verse, describing the marches in the Wilderness, is really a description of life during the weekdays. It’s a war out there, and the enemy is the SITRA ACHRA (the other side, perhaps, the ‘Dark Side’).

But the next verse, describing the encampment process, ‘And when it rested, say: Return, O Lord, to the tens of thousands of Israel’. That ‘resting’ is really describing Shabbat. On Shabbat comes MENUCHA, rest from those weekday wars. 

And, of course, the Rebbe concludes: Thus ‘their starting points according to their journeys’ refers to the weekday battles, and ‘their journeys according to their starting points’ refers to Shabbat. 

Personally, I’m not overly enthusiastic about the centrality of Shabbat to the whole scheme of things in our Torah reading, but I really like the Rebbe’s insistence that during our stay on earth we are ‘walkers’ (in my case just a Walk) on the road of life. 

All of this review of the travels through the MIDBAR, Wilderness, is just a reminder that life is a trip. Bon Voyage!!