There are many lists in the Torah. Lists of names of tribes and children, lists of sacrifices, lists of kosher animals. When we chant these lists as we read Torah, there is often a sense of monotony felt as the list goes on in repetitive trope. But this week, as we conclude the book of B’midbar (Numbers), the list is different. This week we read the list of 42 places that the Israelites camped on their journey through the wilderness, and it is chanted in a particular sing-song melody, as if to signal to us that this list is different.
I’ve wondered why the Torah lists all 42 places. If we read about them earlier in the Torah, as they were happening in real time, why do we have to recount each and every place now, at the end of that journey? Is there power in the recognition of all of these places at once? Telling our story and acknowledging all the stops along the way is important. We get to know ourselves better when we take stock of where we’ve been. Naming the places on the journey helps us do that.
One 13th century commentator called the Ba’al haTurim taught that the names listed in the Torah aren’t mostly geographic locations on a map, but they tell about a historical or spiritual event that happened at that place. For example, when the Israelites travelled to place the Torah calls Sukkot, meaning shelter, before crossing the Sea of Reeds, they received shelter from the Divine presence. And another place - called Al Pi HaChirot - connects to the freedom they’ve recently found from their bondage in Mitzrayim. There are names that connect to the manna they received to eat, battles they were in, or internal struggles amongst the people.
I’m reminded by the Ba’al haTurim that recalling our journey isn’t simply about marking the places on a map. It’s also about marking our own internal development, as a people and as individuals. What spiritual challenges did we go through? How did we change when we experienced that moment? What did we feel when we were there?
I’ve been thinking recently, especially as things become more ‘normal,’ about how we recount the journey of the last year and a half. What were our stops along the journey? What were the ways that our anxieties and reliefs ebbed and flowed? When did we feel most vulnerable, and when did we feel safe? When did we worry, and when did we feel calm? We are not out of the wilderness, just like the Israelites have another book of the Torah, Devarim, to go through before the Promised Land. Yet before we get there, we take stock, we name the stops along the way. We recall where we have been, what we have been through, and how we have changed. That is the only way to move forward on the journey.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
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