Parashat Masei - First Aliyah

Sometimes, in order to understand the road, you have to stop and write. Not only the destination, but the journey. Step after step, station after station. That is exactly what the Torah does at the opening of Parashat Masei, a portion that begins with a long list, seemingly dry, of place names.

“eleh mas’ei vnei Yisra’el” (These are the journeys of the children of Israel, Numbers 33:1). This is a kind of travel journal, but not one written by the hand of a traveler; rather “al pi Adonai” (at the word of Adonai, Numbers 33:2). Every station, every stop, every detour was recorded from the mouth of the Almighty.

The Torah recalls again the Exodus from Egypt, the plague of the firstborn, the fact that they went out “beyad ramah le’einei kol Mitzrayim” (with a high hand before the eyes of all Egypt, Numbers 33:3). Only then does the list begin: from Rameses to Succoth, from there to Etham, to Pi Hahiroth, Baal Zephon, Migdol, the sea, Marah, Elim, the Sea of Reeds.

Every verse is a reminder. Every place carries a story. Yet the Torah does not elaborate. It only mentions, as if to say: you were there. Remember on your own.

Rashi on the first verse brings a midrash that gives a deep perspective on the meaning of this list:

“And Rabbi Tanchuma expounded another interpretation of it: a parable of a king whose son was ill, and he took him to a distant place to heal him. When they were returning, his father began counting out all the journeys. He said to him: here we slept, here we were cold, here you suffered a headache, and so on” (Rashi on Numbers 33:1).

So too the Holy One, says the midrash, counts out for Israel their journeys. Every station, every stop, every failure, is part of the journey, part of the healing. What is written here is not a story of heroism or achievement, but a story of an embrace. A father who forgets not a single detail of his son’s road.

For us too there is strength in this. Not only the victories are meaningful; so are the difficulties, the delays, the falls. All of these are written at the word of God, and they have their place. The message is sharp: no station along the road is superfluous, and in not one of them were we alone.