Parshat Masei: Where we've been and where we're going

Dvar Torah:  Masei

Where we've been, and where we’re going.

How many stopping points are there along the way in the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land?

42

In just a slightly less authoritative book than the Bible, Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the number 42 is, The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything – a number calculated by a supercomputer over the course of 7.5 million years.  Unfortunately, in that story, no one remembered the ultimate question, and that is the reason for the creation of Earth – the system designed to produce the ultimate question.

There is symmetry here between these two stories of creation, of journeys, of exploration, and of seeking knowledge.  The space between Egypt and the Promised Land is not empty, physically or spiritually.  Along the way the Israelites contend with enemies, with their own flaws, their own desires and weaknesses, and they get to know God, and God gets to know them, to know us. 

Here, at the end of the journey, and looking back, we realize it is only one more stop along the way.  Joshua will lead the people forward and begin the new journey on the western side of the Jordan.

And now, 3 weeks into the war in Israel and Gaza, the journey on the western side of the Jordan continues. 

More than 30 Israeli soldiers have sacrificed their lives in this conflict.  Several civilian casualties on our side.  Many casualties on the other side as well.

And we wonder, where are we in this journey now? 

I attended the rally at Bergen PAC last night, a rally that drew over 2000 community members from the North Jersey Jewish Federation region to Englewood.  It was extraordinary to see the sheer numbers of people there, cheering for Israel.  No signs or slogans demeaning or defaming the Palestinians, but certainly strong words calling for Israel’s security. 

We love and support Israel, but we are American Jews.  Israelis are our family, our friends, and the soldiers are fighting for us as much as for their homeland. 

Since we do not live there – since we do not serve in the army, or police the borders, or patrol Israeli waters or skies, we may be struggling with what we can offer other than our verbal support, our financial support – whether through donations to programs like Stop the Sirens or purchasing goods made in Israel.

I think that proudly and confidently living our Jewish lives here sends a message.  Gathering here at shul, Shabbat activities at home with family and friends, community service work we do, any and all of the 613 mitzvot are designed to link us more closely with God, the Source of Life and Vitality in the Universe, the Source of Strength for us and for Israel.

American Jews have been great at building synagogues and community centers, placing community and faith at the center.  In Israel, we are beginning to see now a trend toward finding the spiritual and faith roots in Judaism that can inform the culturally Jewish and Hebrew speaking society that has grown there over the past 100 years and more.  A good example is Shavuot evening study in Israel, a project that has taken inspiration from current Member of Knesset and Talmud scholar Ruth Calderon.

“Tikkun Leil Shavuot has been gaining popularity in Israel among secular Israelis over the last two decades.  In Tel Aviv, it gained power with the establishment of an alternative Tikkun Shavuot by the Tel-Aviv Alma College, the college for Hebrew culture (founded by Member of Knesset, Dr. Ruth Calderon) in 1996.  Other Tikkun Shavuot events that offer new meaning, relevance, and an opportunity for non-Orthodox Israelis to expand their knowledge on Jewish and Israeli culture, are Kehilat Ha’lev (a musical and spiritual community associated with the Reform movement), and BINA (Center for Jewish Identity and Hebrew Culture, which operates Israel’s first secular Yeshiva).”

This news, this trend, suggests that they, and we too, recognize that we want to create a world that reflects the Jewish values that are most important to us – the Golden Rule, seeking justice, integrity, honesty, a drive for greater knowledge and sensitivity, and more. 

While the pen may not be able to defend the country like the sword, the pen, the mind really, of the Rabbis and of all of us today as Jews and contributors to the Jewish people, is what continues to create the ideas that build on the core values.

This Shabbat we say Chazak chazak venitchazek, God give us strength to continue to read and study the Torah together, as we finish the fourth book of the Torah tomorrow on Shabbat morning. 

May our brothers and sisters in Israel have the strength to fight for the country both on the field of battle and in all the places where ancient wisdom offers modern inspiration, where words in a scroll move us to write words on laptops and tablets, where prayer books are as valuable sources of guidance as Facebook and Twitter – and let us take up this example as well.

And in our search for this meaning – we remember 42 stops along the way to the Promised Land, and the ongoing search for the question, the questions, that animate us all in this crazy, blessed, chaotic and elegantly structured world where by a stroke of God’s creative will, we have a chance to consider these questions in the first place.

Shabbat Shalom.