Translated and adapted by Moshe-Yaakov Wisnefsky, for
"The Chumash of the Lubavitcher Rebbe"
"These
are the journeys…." (Num. 33:1)
The
Baal Shem Tov taught that these forty-two journeys are also the forty-two
spiritual journeys we make throughout our life. We begin from birth,
and the nation's exodus from Egypt is both its own birth as a nation
and an allegory for every individual birth, the liberation of the fetus
from the confines of the womb into the freedom of the outside world,
where it can develop and become independent. The final journey is to
the spiritual Promised Land, the afterlife that awaits us after death.
Although
some of the intervening journeys in the Israelite's trek through the
desert were accompanied by setbacks, in their spiritual origin and in
the way they are meant to be reflected in our lives they are all holy
and positive. If we choose properly between good and evil, we will live
out these phases of life in the way G-d intended; if, like the generation
of the desert, we make some wrong choices, they will have to be expressed
as setbacks.
Even
though we can always transform the setbacks we have suffered in our
lives into positive growth experiences, it is still better not to have
to fall back on this. With regard to our future journeys, let us try
to always choose to live them out in positive, holy ways.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright
2001 chabad of california / www.lachumash.org
Rabbi
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky is a scholar, writer, editor and anthologist.
Originally from Los Angeles, he moved to Israel in 1977, and currently
lives in Jerusalem. While living in Tsfat, he was one of the three founders
of ASCENT in 1983.
