Netvort Parshas Masei 5771:  Something to Keep in Mind
By Rabbi Joshua (mindfully known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Thisweek's Parsha begins with an enumeration of the forty two journeys that the Jewish nation went through in the wilderness. Many commentators have pointed out that the forty-two journeys represent, in total, the forty-two letter name of God (see the lengthy discussion in Mima'amakim by Rabbi Moshe Shapiro), and that this is the deeper meaning behind the Torah's mention that the journeys were done, “al pi Hashem,” according to God's word,indicating that the journeys were a process of coming closer to God.  This, of course, would notseem to accord with the Ramban's explanation of these words, which is that Moshe recorded the journeys in the Torah based on God's word. However, I believe that the idea of the journeys leading the nation closer to God works especially well following the Ramban's explanation of a verse that follows immediately after the Torah's account of the journeys, as we shall see.

After the enumeration of the journeys, we are told that as Moshe wasstanding on the plains of Moav, God tells him to tell the Jewish nation, "When you cross the Yardien (Jordan) to the land of Canaan, you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land…and you shall rid the land and you shall settle it." (Bamidbar 33:50-53).   According to the Ramban, both in his Torah commentary and, at greater length, in his addendum no. 4 to the Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvos, verse 54 is a positive command of the Torah to conquer Eretz Yisroel and to settle it. There is a difference of opinion regarding what the Rambam's opinion on this matteris, but my teacher, Rav AharonSoloveichik, zt'l, maintained that the Rambam would agree that one fulfills a Biblical mitzvah by settling in the land, although he is not obligated to do so. In any case, for the Rambancertainly it would seem that all of the journeys that were enumerated by the Torah before this verse were meant to lead up to culminating event of settling in Eretz Yisroel which, as the Ramban elaborates in in his Torah commentary elsewhere, especially in Parshas Acharei Mos, God has a special relationship with his people, and His presence is especially intense in Eretz Yisroel. All of the journeys, then, for the Ramban, led to the ultimate fulfillment of this mitzvah and therealization of this special relationship.

The Ba'al Shem Tov reportedly said that each person, in his lifetime, undergoes forty-two journeys, just as the Jewish people did in the wilderness, and the end goal of each person's lifetime should be to come closer to God through his multifarious experiences. Following what we have said according to the Ramban, then, it should follow that each person, as he makes his way through life, should always have in consideration the idea that, ultimately, his real place is in Eretz Yisroel, and that this is where his thoughts should be centered.While everyone, of course, has his own peculiar circumstances to reckon with when determining where he should be located during his life's journeys, since closeness to God is such a central factor in life, and the best place to achieve this closeness is in Eretz Yisroel,our connection to that land should be somethingthat is always on our minds.

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