Life Is a Sacred Journey
If you have been paying close attention to the social media or to the advertisements on television, you have noticed that as summer began, more and more people returned to traveling. This is due, in large part of course, to the fact that overall people in the United States are getting vaccinated and seeing an overall decline in the deadly effects of the COVID-19 virus, the slight uptick in cases involving its latest strain. More and more people are feeling freer to follow the advice of Southwest Airlines and to travel about the country, though taking proper precautions as they do so.
A number of friends and family have been taking road trips instead of flying and have been sharing the pictures of the sights that they have visited. Some, such as one of my brothers, have shared maps of their journeys, highlighting the stops along the way as well as the route taken. It has been very enjoyable to travel with them, even if vicariously.
The last portion of the book of Bamidbar (Numbers) is part of this week’s double Parashah, Mattot-Mas`ei. Mas`ei means “the travels of” and is a travelogue of the forty-year journey that the Israelites took from Egypt to territory just outside of the Promised Land. It lists the places at which the people stopped and camped as well as the significant events that occurred along the way. Long before the postings to Facebook or the movie/slide/picture shows in living rooms, the Torah was able to relate the journeys of our ancestors through detailed descriptions.
Why is this sacred literature? Each part of the journey had already been chronicled in the preceding two books of the Torah. Why is it repeated here as a running account? It may be that this review of the nearly forty-years journey was a reminder to those born in the wilderness of the trials and tribulations, the triumphs and the failures, and everything that contributed to the maturation of the people Israel from the time that they exited the narrow place of Egypt, born as a nation out of slavery. It is important for members of one generation to tell of their journey through life in order to teach those who follow, in order to demonstrate that what is now taken for granted was hard won, in order to pass on the meaning and purpose that they found along the way.
It is also important for individuals. Recounting the journey, even as we continue to experience new legs of it, enables us to appreciate where we have been, what we have learned, how we have grown, and it informs us regarding future stops and starts along the way.
Most importantly, however, the Torah and we today recount the places and the events along the way of each part of our journey through life. It is true, even if cliché to say, that it is not so much the destination that is important, but the journey along the way. Life is a journey with many stops and starts along the way. Each day offers new experiences, new lessons, and new opportunities. We travel, we sojourn, we travel again. Even if we never physically leave the community in which we were born, nevertheless, our lives are a journey.
This week’s Torah portion, “These are the journeys of...,” is sacred because everyone’s journey is sacred. Each is unique; each is valuable; each is the tale of a life that is lived. Share your journey with your family, with your friends, with anyone who cares to hear it. Take pictures along the way; record your impressions, your feelings, your life lessons. Life is a journey, a sacred journey.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Josef Davidson
