פרשת מסעי
This week’s Parsha does a very strange thing. The Parsha lists the 42 different travels of the Jewish people in the dessert in a very thorough and repetitive manner. We must ask ourselves what the purpose is for this cumbersome reiteration. The Ramban dwells on this point. The Ramban asserts that our specific knowledge of each of the places that the Jews camped in will instill in us a deep faith in God which is integral to the success of the Jewish people during the long and bitter exile. We know that God sustained the Jews miraculously in the wilderness by providing them with food and water in an otherwise barren wasteland. Yet this “miraculous” existence may have been difficult for later generations to not be skeptical of. The Torah therefore listed the exact geographical locations of the encampments of the Jewish people so that anyone from any future generation could retrace the steps of the Jews and see for themselves that indeed, the area was completely void of any sustenance and the only way to survive would be by the direct intervention of God. We in modern times must apply this lesson to our lives by realizing every time we make a Beracha on anything we consume, even though it seems like our sustenance comes from natural sources, all of our provisions come solely from God.
Rashi has a slightly different explanation for this difficulty. Rashi quotes the Midrash which gives a parable to explain the Torah’s verboseness in this Parsha. “This can be compared to father whose son was sick along the way while they were traveling. On their way back, the father points out to the son all the different places they had passed and what occurred in those places. For example where he had to carry him because he couldn’t walk on his own, and where he had to fend off wild animals to protect his precious son, etc”. Similarly, Hashem listed all the places the Jews had traveled in the Torah to remind them of their journey and of all the places they stumbled.
This Rashi seems very strange indeed. If you love someone, you don’t go listing all of their failures. Moreover, the Gemorah in Bava Metzia (58) says that this is forbidden. “If one has repented, it is forbidden to remind them of their previous actions because this will just make them feel bad”. Would God do something that the Gemorah expressly forbids?
Perhaps we could explain this Rashi by using the premise of the Ramban. Although nobody likes to be reminded of their failures, in a way, this reminder is reassuring and can build a person’s belief in God. If one sees clearly and undeniably that every time they deviated from the straight path, they were punished severely, this realization will instill in them an unwavering faith in the abilities of their Creator.
R’ Hanoch Lebowitz, the famous Rosh Yeshiva of Chofetz Chaim, explains this Midrash slightly differently. He explains that it is very difficult for a Jew to develop an accurate understanding of where he is holding spiritually and he needs constant external reminders to help him and encourage him. Similarly, God’s reminders of our various successes and failures ultimately served as a very strong encouragement for the Jewish people. Because even though it is true that we had some failures in the dessert, each time we picked ourselves back up again and dusted ourselves off, and on the whole, ended up quite successful as is evidenced by our eventual entrance into the Promised Land. This, concludes R’ Hanoch, was Hashem’s goal in reiterating all of the Jews’ travels and successes and follies – to encourage us and to tell us that just as we have succeeded so far, so should we continue to succeed.
R’ Chaim Veloshiner in his commentary on Avos (2:1) explains that every person goes through good happy times and difficult times. During the “happy days”, everything seems to be going your way and everything works out just the way you want it to and time flies. During the “sad days”, everything seems black and dingy and it is difficult just to make it through the day. During these times, it is hard to even remember that there were better days. R’ Chaim advises that although one might consider himself a total failure during these times, he shouldn’t become despondent and give up, rather he should continue trying anyway, despite his feelings, and if he does, he will merit seeing tremendous Heavenly aid in all that he does. How can a person motivate himself during these trying times? He must constantly remind himself that although it seems to him at that moment that he is a complete disappointment to all those around him, in truth, if he makes an honest analysis about how far he has come until this day, he will see that on the whole, he has been largely successful and if he only tries to conquer this obstacle, how much further he will continue to grow. It is only the Yetzer Hara that wants him to give up and convince him of his worthlessness. If he indeed quits at that point, he will fall very far and will have to start over from scratch whereas if he chooses to press on, he will enjoy the special boost in his growth that we mentioned.
I would like to conclude by saying we all must strengthen ourselves in this arena of serving God out of happiness and not just a person who is feeling despondent. The Rambam writes that the Mitzvah of Simcha is a very important one and is integral to one’s service of God. The Ari z”l writes that everything he achieved was due to his Simcha that he had for performance of Mizvos. How does one acquire this Simcha? One way is as we mentioned – to recognize how much Hashem has helped achieve to date and how Hashem will continue to help him if he keeps striving. Another way is to remember the Mishna in Avos which says that one moment in this world is worth more then all of the next world because he still has time to grow. This recognition of his potential in this world will also generate great happiness in a person’s heart and help him to reach immense levels.
May Hashem help us to serve Him out of great joy always!