This week we read the last two parashot of the book of Numbers: Mattot and Massei. The portion is called Mattot, meaning “tribes,” as it begins with God telling Moses to speak to the heads of the tribes about the laws of vows.[1]
Moses’ speaking to the heads of the tribes at the end of the book of Numbers serves as another indication that the torch is being passed on to a new generation. Joshua has just been appointed Moses’ successor[2] and God had again informed Moses that he will not be entering the Promised Land.[3] Moses consequently empowers and honors the heads of the tribes by addressing them. This is especially important because the Jewish people had just spent forty years in the desert because previous heads of the tribes who were among the spies sent to see the Promised Land had undermined their faith in God’s promise and in their ability to conquer the Land of Israel with disastrous results. Moses is indicating that the new leadership is ready to assume responsibility and lead the new generation into the Land of Israel.
Forty-two Journeys
This theme of the people of Israel being prepared to enter the Land of Israel is continued in parashat Massei which marks the end of Israel’s forty-year sojourn in the desert. The entire book of Deuteronomy takes place during a brief thirty-seven-day period when Moses before his death delivers his last preparatory words to encourage the people to enter the land. Therefore, in Massei, the Torah summarizes the forty-two journeys that occurred during Israel’s wanderings in the desert, from the time the nation left Egypt to their current encampment in the plains of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho.
These journeys are introduced by a verse that creates a mirror image: “And Moses wrote their going forth according to their journeys at the command of God, and these were their journeys according to their going forth.”[4] The words “going forth” (מוצאיהם) and “journeys” (מסעיהם) found in the first half of the verse occur in the opposite order in the second half of the verse.
One senses a dynamic pulsating energy in the mirror image syntax of the description of these journeys, which is also dramatically captured by the unique way the words are chanted during the public Torah reading. The only other time this unique melody is used is when the Song of the Sea is read in public.[5] There too, the energy is palpable as the Jews have just escaped from Egypt and seen their pursuers drowned in the Red Sea.
According to the Ba’al Shem Tov, these forty-two journeys are an archetypal paradigm for every individual’s life journey.[6] Each person, though, experiences these journeys in a fashion uniquely adapted to his or her soul purpose.
Dynamics of the Journey
There is a beautiful correspondence between these forty-two journeys and the 42 times the three-letter Hebrew root אהב, the root of “love” (ahavah), appears in the Pentateuch.[7] Each of the journeys in the desert, as well as each person’s journey through life, corresponds to one appearance of “love,” indicating that all of life’s journeys take place within the overall context of God’s love, despite being filled at times with obstacles, failures, frustrations, and uncertainty. Knowing that God’s love for every individual forms the basic existential parameters in which we live has the power to turn obstacles into challenges, trials into opportunities, and adversity into triumph.
Furthermore, according to Kabbalah and Chasidut, these forty-two journeys correspond with the forty-two letter name of God associated with creation and encoded in the forty-two words of the mystical prayer “Anna Beko’ach,” attributed to the great mystic Rabbi Nechunia ben Hakanah.[8] The association of these various sets of forty-two teaches us that God’s love is ever present from the inception of creation and within each individual’s life journey.
As each place along the journey is mentioned in the Torah the same formula is repeated: “They journeyed from … and they camped in …” This pattern alludes to how all process and progress work in a dynamic ebb and flow of starts and stops, activity and rest, taking the initiative and passively receiving. This same dynamic forms the basic structure of Jewish time as six days of work are followed by Shabbat and six years of agricultural work are followed by a Sabbatical year.
In Kabbalah this energetic ebb and flow is referred to as “run and return,” a phrase borrowed from the vibrant movement of the angels in Ezekiel’s vision.[9] The dualistic pulsation of run and return manifests in countless ways throughout creation: from the contraction and expansion at the very origins of the universe to the beating of our hearts and the pulse of the blood running through our arteries and veins; from the exhalation and inhalation of breath to the highs and lows of human emotions; from the cycles of the seasons to the ebb and flow of the tides; from the give and take of relationships to the cycle of life and death. Spiritually, it manifests as the soul’s run and return associated in Chasidic teachings with the joint realizations that “God is all” and “All is God.”
A beautiful numerical allusion to the pulse of life encoded in these journeys is found in the numerical value of the word massei (מסעי), 180, or 10 times 18, where 18 is the numerical value of the Hebrew word for life (chai), חי, while 10 times a number symbolizes the activation of that word or concept’s inherent potential. Thus, these forty-two journeys represent the manner in which the Jewish people’s latent potential became activated and realized when Israel became a nation. This activation of potential also holds true for each person as he or she makes their way through life’s journeys.
Changing Borders
The idea that processes are dynamic in nature, as reflected by the journeys and encampments in parashat Massei, is also apparent in the Biblical borders of the Land of Israel delineated, for the first and (almost) only time in the Torah. Although there are scholarly disagreements over where exactly these borders are on the map, the Torah’s description is quite detailed. We see that over the course of Jewish history there were five different sets of general borders:[10]
1) The borders described in our portion of Massei.
2) The borders established by conquest by those who entered the Holy Land with Joshua.
3) The borders of those who returned from the Babylonian exile.
4) The borders promised to Abraham in the book of Genesis (from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates), which far exceed the above three.[11]
5) The borders promised in the Messianic era of which it is stated: “In the future the land of Israel will spread [and encompass] all the lands [of the earth].”[12]
When contemplating the deeper meaning of these changing borders, we realize that just as the journeys and the encampments in the desert were part of an ongoing process of change and growth, so too are the borders of Israel. They are not static; rather, they are pulsating and ever-changing. The truth of this statement is borne out by the last seventy-eight years when the borders of modern Israel changed many times.
The second passage of the Shema, which is recited twice daily, contains both the literal explanation as well as the deeper meaning of how the borders are set in each generation.[13] If we follow God’s word and observe His commandments, we will receive the rain in its time and we will thrive and live in peace in our land. But if we do not obey God’s word then the heavens will be shut up, no rain will fall, and we will be exiled from the Land. The message is clear: The Jewish people’s right to live in the Holy Land is a privilege directly dependent on our actions. The same holds true for the physical borders of the Land: the greater our people’s merit and degree of holiness, the more the borders expand and the more the holiness of the Land will increase. Ultimately, in the Messianic era, this holiness will radiate and the Land’s unique place before God will expand to encompass the entire world. The people and the Land in fact form a unified, symbiotic unit.
Creation and the Land of Israel
A beautiful allusion to the central role played by the Land and people of Israel in creation and history is found in the description of the borders in Massei. The Torah uses the same word “its boundaries” (תוצאתיו) to describe the border in each of the four directions.[14] The numerical value of this word is 913, the same as the Torah’s first word, “In the beginning” (בראשית). This numerical link between the Land of Israel’s borders and the first word in the Torah reminds us of Rashi’s very first comment on the Torah quoted almost verbatim from the Midrash: Since the Torah’s essence is God’s commandments, why does it begin with the account of creation and not with the first commandment given to the Jewish people? Rashi answers this by stating that in the future the nations of the world will accuse the Jewish people of stealing the Land of Israel. To preempt such a challenge, the Torah begins with the account of creation to establish that the same God who created heavens and earth is the One who gave the Jewish people the Land of Israel. This insight is quite relevant today, when much of the world does in fact accuse us of stealing the Holy Land. In this sense, Rashi’s commentary is truly prophetic.
On a deeper level, we must realize that the Land of Israel is intrinsically connected to the very purpose of Creation: establishing a dwelling place for God in this the most physical of worlds.[15] In the future, the Creator’s infinite energy will be revealed within the finite parameters of the physical world. In a sense, the finite’s ability to contain the infinite is the ultimate unity, the resolution of the paradox of how an infinite Creator can create and maintain a finite world. This future redemptive reality is represented by the Land of Israel’s holiness expanding to encompass the entire world, as the limited borders of this present physical reality will expand to encompass the infinite Presence of God.[16] Until then, we need to use our thoughts, speech, and action to create vessels that will prepare the world for that era. May it come to pass speedily and in our days.
[1]. Numbers 30:2.
[2]. Ibid. 27:15-23.
[3]. Ibid. vv. 12-14.
[4]. Ibid 33:2.
[5]. Exodus 16:1-19
[6]. Degel Machaneh Efrayim, Massei.
[7]. Sha’arei Ahavah VeRatzon, pp. 125-127.
[8]. Ibid.
[9]. Ezekiel 1:14.
[10]. From a class given on the 14th of Cheshvan, 2010, in Yitzhar.
[11]. Genesis 15:18-21.
[12]. Pesikta Rabbati.
[13]. Deuteronomy 11:13-21.
[14]. Numbers 33:4,5,9,12.
[15]. See also Wonders Issue 202, “Fundamentals of Chasidut: God Desires a Dwelling Place Below.”
[16]. The Hebrew Letters, Beit: Purpose-God’s Dwelling Place Below, pp.38-39.
