אֵלֶּה מַסְעֵי בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יָצְאוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לְצִבְאֹתָם בְּיַד־מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן׃
These were the journeys of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron.
וַיִּכְתֹּב מֹשֶׁה אֶת־מוֹצָאֵיהֶם לְמַסְעֵיהֶם עַל־פִּי יְהוָה וְאֵלֶּה מַסְעֵיהֶם לְמוֹצָאֵיהֶם׃
Moses recorded the starting points of their various journeys as directed by Yah. Their marches, by starting points, were as follows….
- Numbers 33:1-2
“Whoever pauses will be petrified, whoever stops, pinned like an insect, his heart pierced by a wooden needle, his hands and feet drilled through and pinned into the threshold and the ceiling … This is why tyrants of all stripes, infernal servants, have such deep-seated hatred for the nomads – this is why they persecute the [Roma] and the Jews, and why they force all free people to settle, assigning the addresses that serve as our sentences.”
- “Flights” p267-8, Olga Tokarczuk
This week’s Torah portion Matot-Masei includes a recap of 42 locations where the Israelites journeyed during their 40 years of wandering in the desert. I reimposed the names of those locations onto my own landscape images from my own travels. Looking back on these images, and remembering the stories that accompany each one in my memory, I am reminded that travelling, wandering and staying in movement is part of growing. In these days of pandemic and lockdown, may we also be able to keep wandering internally and looking forward to journeys in the external world soon too.
As we finish reading from the Book of Numbers, we say, “Hazak, hazak v’nithazak. Let our strength continue to grow.”
Shabbat shalom!
These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who had left Egypt by their hosts, under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. (Numbers 33:1) There were forty-two journeys in all. My grandfather (the Baal Shem Tov) explained that they exist in every the life of human being, from the moment of birth until the day of death. This can be understood as follows. When a person is born and leaves the womb, that corresponds to the exodus from Egypt. Afterward, they journeys from one place to another, until they reaches the Supernal Land of Life. Thus it is written: “At the word of G‑d they encamped and at the word of G‑d the traveled” (Numbers 9:23), which correspond to constricted consciousness and expanded consciousness. - Degel Machane Ephraim
