"The Journey Of Life"
We arrive at the last Perasha of Sefer Bamidbar.
After the Meraglim, Koraj, Balak and Pinjas we find these two Perashiot Matot-Masei that are apparently not as relevant as the ones that preceded it.
In these Perashiot there are no revolts, no sorcerers or heroes, but seemingly inconsequential events. I would imagine that the Torah had closed this exciting book, with some event just as exciting, but at first glance it is not.
The Yehudim are located on the edge of the territory of Moab, on the other side of the Yarden, about to cross into the land of Israel.
Perashat Masei begins with the following Pesukim:
The Rambam in More Nevujim tells us:
An important principle: Everything that is consigned in the Torah is necessary... Also when we find in the Torah passages where there are commandments, which seem devoid of interest or excessively long, it is because we do not look at the details that lead to certain ideas. The same is true for the nomenclature of the stages: the literal meaning of this passage seems devoid of interest.
Anything that is not understood why this is mentioned has a profound cause. It is written in the verse: "Since there is nothing that is empty for us" (Deut. 32:47) this should be understood as follows: "If there is something that seems void it is for you that is void" (Talmud Yerushlami, Peah 1,1).
This means that the text always contains an idea, a teaching. If the reader does not notice them, it is due to his lack of intelligence.
Let us try to decipher that deep message that according to the Rambam is trying to transmit the Perasha of Masei when it detailed the stops of the yehudim in the desert.
There is a Pasuk in Perashat Behaloteja that says the following:
The Pasuk tells us how Bnei Israel, cared for Hashem's commandments and did not dare to travel if the cloud did not move first.
El Ramban, Najmaides comments on this pasuk:
וטעם ובהאריך הענן לומר כי אם יאריך הענן על המשכן ימים רבים והמקום ההוא איננו טוב בעיניהם והיו חפצים ומתאוים מאד לנסוע מן המקום אעפ"כ לא יעברו על רצון השם וזה טעם ושמרו בני ישראל את משמרת ה' ולא יסעו כי מיראת השם ומשמרם משמרת מצותו לא יסעו וכן אם יהיה הענן ימים מספר כשנים או שלשה ימים והיו העם יגעים מאד וענה בדרך כחם יעשו רצון השם ללכת אחרי הענן וסיפר עוד (פסוק כא) כי יש שלא יעמדו רק לילה אחד ויסעו בבקר אע"פ שהוא טורח גדול להם ולפעמים יעמוד הענן יומם ולילה כי הלכו כל הלילה ובאו במקום ההוא בבקר וינוח הענן שם כל היום ההוא וכל הלילה ונעלה בבקר השני ונסעו והוא טורח גדול מן הראשון כי היו העם סבורים שיעמדו שם ופרקו העגלות והניחו משאם כמנהג הבאים מן הדרך ובהעלות הענן יחזרו לטעון ולא יוכלו לעשות להם תקון לדרך או יומים (פסוק כב) ויסעו בלילה ויתכן שאירע להם במסעות שעשו כמסופר בכאן ולא בענין אחר כי עמד הענן מערב ועד בקר ויומם ולילה ויומים וחדש ושנה ולכך הזכיר הכתוב אלו השעורין בפרטן ועמד שנים רבות כאשר הזכיר תחילה כגון בקדש שאמר (דברים א מו) ותשבו בקדש ימים רבים כימים אשר ישבתם:
When the Cloud tarried. The verse teaches us that even if the Cloud tarried on the Mishkon many days and yet the place of the encampment did not find favor in their eyes, so they wanted very much to leave, nevertheless, they would not transgress on the word of Hashem. And this is the explanation of the continuation: Bnei Yisroel would keep the watch of Hashem and they would not travel — due to their fear of Hashem, and because they wanted to keep His commands, they would not travel. Similarly, if the Cloud rested only a few days, and the nation was still very tired from the efforts of traveling, nevertheless, they would do the will of Hashem and travel after the Cloud. The Torah continues to relate (v. 21) that sometimes they camped only one night and traveled in the morning, although this was a great burden on them. And sometimes the Cloud rested a day and a night, which means they walked the entire night and came to the place of their encampment in the morning, where the Cloud rested for the entire day and the following night, and the next morning it lifted and they traveled. This was an even greater burden than the previous case, because they thought they were going to stay there and they unloaded the wagons and unpacked all their possessions, as people are wont to do when they return from their travels. When the Cloud lifted in the morning they had to repack everything, and had no time to make preparations for the trip. And sometimes the Cloud rested for two days (v. 22) and they had to travel from there at night. It could be that only the occurrences recorded here happened during their travels, and no other occurrence. That is, it happened that the Cloud rested overnight, or one day and one night, or two days, or a month or year. Therefore, the verse specifies these times. However, it did happen that the Cloud rested for many years, as mentioned here (v. 22): “The Cloud prolonged its stay above the Mishkon” — many years. This happened in Kodeish, as it says (Devarim 1:46): “You lived in Kodeish many years”.
ואלה מסעיהם למוצאיהם ולפעמים קרה הפך זה. וכתב גם כן ענין המסע שהיה לצאת ממקום אל מקום בלי הקדמת ידיעה שהיה זה קשה מאד ובכל זה לא נמנעו ובכן נכתב בכל אחד מהם ויסעו ממקום פלוני ויחנו במקום פלוני כי המסע והחניה היה כל אחד מהם קשה:
Tzelofjad's daughters:
What do we know about Tzelofjad's daughters?
They are women in a world of men, as the Midrash says: "The mercies of human beings are greater for men than for women. Not so the mercies of Hashem who spoke and gave life to the world."
His father died horribly in the desert, he was stoned by all of Am Israel, for according to Rabi Akiva Tzelofjad was the Mekoshesh Etzim Beshabat.
The dreamy land of Israel is being divided through a raffle among all the tribes of Am Israel. But since it is a father-to-son inheritance, and they have no brother to herde, they have apparently been left without a part in the land of Israel as well.
These are five single sisters who couldn't find a husband. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says, "the youngest of the sisters was 40 years old".
They arrived at an age where if they could find a husband it would be difficult to have children, because Rab Hisda writes in Baba Batra that if a woman marries when she is older than 40, she will not be able to have children.
It seems that Tzelofjad's daughters were in a dark moment in their lives, and seemed to have no end to their suffering.
You could say that Tzelofjad's daughters aren't having a great time, but we still don't see their love for Hashem and Torah diminish.
We see that at the end of this Perasha is written:
Not only that, but they also had the zejut to close the book of Bamidbar, being remembered for their great love for the land of Israel and their righteousness.
Tzelofjad's daughters who had been in a difficult place in their lives for years, kept their faith in Hashem and he honored them. In a moment of grace God put them from being unmarried women without part in Israel, to becoming an example to follow for future generations, they became women honored by Hashem with great spousals and with the zejut of inheriting a piece in the sacred land of Israel.
We can understand with this story, that there will be times when we are going to find ourselves lost, where it may seem impossible for things to improve, as it was with Tzelofjad's daughters. However, if we continue reading their story we can understand that Hashem never forgot about them, but that the situations they went through were the ones that forged them and made them the women we found today at the end of this Perasha. They never lost the emuna in Hahsem and behaved righteously and patiently waited for the right time to change their lives and the lives of women in the future.
Our life is being designed by someone who is eternal and perfect, who knows us better than we know ourselves. There are situations where we are going to be at ease but there are also situations of difficulty. Nevertheless, all of them aim to transform us after all.
The Sforno says:
You want to know why Hashem took the trouble to write down every stop the yehudim made in the desert?
אלה מסעי, G’d wanted all the journeys to be recorded in order to compliment the Jewish people who had followed him blindly through the desert where nothing grew, so that as a reward for their faith they would deserve to enter and inherit the land of Israel.
FINAL ACTIVITY:
I want you to close your eyes, focus on watching where you are today, did you form a family?, Did you find your partner in life, did you finish a career? Did you make new friends? Do I have a healthy relationship with Hashem?, etc. Think about what surrounds you and what accomplishments you have had.
Think of Am Israel in the desert. They are anxious, about to cross into the land of Israel, but before entering it is important to look back, a journey that began 40 years ago, the day they were born as a people and remember the experiences they had in the wilderness, sometimes good sometimes bad, those experiences that shaped them to form the people that are before Moshe and Hashem today.
Today, you are like that people, each has had a long journey with many stops since the day you were born. What matters is not where you start, but the decisions that are made to where you want to go. So I want you to think: What decisions have I made that have led me to be where I am today?, How many times did I feel lost, to such an extent that my emuna faltered?, How many times Hashem saved me, and my emuna was restored? Think of the times you felt Hashem was guiding you, and things were easily accommodating.
For a candle to shine, there needs to be darkness. When there is much darkness even a small light illuminates a lot, and even a very large light is not noticeable if it is illuminated. So think of those times you sat down in a dark moment when in fact that was the right time to show off your light.
There is nothing more pleasurable than turning back and understanding how Hashem has not only guided us through our lives, but taken us by the hand, and that is how we find ourselves where we are today, one step closer to discovering our mission in life.
May Hashem Want that for the zejut of Am Israel to follow him in the wilderness in an arid land, they gained to herd the land of Israel, so Hashem has mercy on us and for the zejut of trusting him in difficult situations, the Mashiaj comes bimhera beyameinu Amen.
Shabbat Shablom,
Natalie Calderon