Torah Portion - July 31
Parashat Masei – Numbers 31:1-36:13
Summer vacation is great for family trips. They used to be by car, piling the kids, dog in, making snacks, planning the roads to be taken, with all the luggage. And after the thrill of VACATION, the pictures, memories, and laughs about what your family did. But at $4.00+ per gallon, we might choose to fly instead.
Back when I was young, my family of 6 used to do camper trips. Stopping at different campsites in new cities – exploring, seeing, learning, and having fun. Days of not knowing the destination – dad did – or our path. Either happily or not so happily sharing limited space in the station wagon with parents, brothers, a big German Shepard and an older cousin!
When the pictures were developed, family would gather around to look at the album and recall what we did at each stop. We hiked there straight up a mountain there. We ate a memorable meal there. We almost fell off of the side of the mountain on a series of hairpin turns there. And we saw some unbelievable sites – and we would recall each one of them. Happy smiling faces, satisfied having just relived the trip once again (and we would again and again) and enjoyed it almost as much!
Such is the trip described in our Torah portion. God recounts the journey here. Forty-two stops, each one mentioned. It’s almost as if the Israelites are looking over God’s shoulder recalling this event and that. However this itinerary is connected to experiencing the Divine. It is, as my friend and colleague Rabbi Kerry Olitzky reminds us, “a recounting of miracles that
Would that we were conscious of God or God’s presence along our way. Perhaps summer vacation can help us with a sense of the Divine in all our travels.
Shabbat Shalom!
MARK