T he visitor to Radin hadn’t expected the gadol hador’s home to be luxuriously appointed yet she was startled at its sparse bare furnishings. Rav Yisrael Meir HaKohein’s penetrating response to her wonderment has become a classic among storytellers and maggidim:

“Where is your furniture?” he asked the guest.

“I have none with me. I don’t live here; this is not my home. I’m only passing through.”

“Ah” said the Chofetz Chaim. “This is not my home either. I too am a traveler merely passing through this world.”

Our neshamos are not at home here on earth. The soul’s journey in This World is temporal. Its duration is unknown its itinerary obscure. There are twists and turns during this voyage choices to be made and challenges to be met — and all the while an unseen ever-present Hand is at the wheel.

Traveling is a recurring theme in the Torah; Hashem’s first words to the first Jew are “Lech lecha.” As Avraham travels at Hashem’s bidding his progress is not merely geographical. Lech lecha is variously translated as “go for yourself” or “go to yourself.” Man journeys not only onward but inward. His encounters and experiences as well as his responses and achievements will teach him about himself and bring him to discover his destiny.

The 40-Year Journey

A large part of the narratives in the Chumash take place during a crucial series of travels: the 40-year journey of Klal Yisrael through the Midbar wilderness on their way to Eretz Yisrael. The journey begins in Sefer Shemos with the exodus from Mitzrayim and continues until the end of the written Torah.

Sefer Bamidbar as its name indicates especially focuses on the struggles of the newly formed nation as it confronts deserts and dangers and contends with doubts and decisions. The trip is long and protracted; they travel and stop camp and resume following the signal of the Cloud of Glory that hovers over them with no foreknowledge of Hashem’s scheduling.

Why are these 40 years given such extensive disproportionate coverage in the Written Torah?

“Mi zos olah min hamidbar? Who is emerging from the Midbar?” questions Shir Hashirim (3:6). The Midrash suggests a nuanced meaning: “Who is becoming elevated from the Midbar?” And it continues: “Torah came from the Midbar Mishkan from the Midbar Sanhedrin from the Midbar priesthood from the Midbar Levites from the Midbar royalty from the Midbar…v’chol matanos tovos and all the wonderful gifts that Hashem gave Klal Yisrael originated in the Midbar.”

The Torah indicates (Shemos 13) that Hashem deliberately chose to lead His people through the Midbar to Eretz Yisrael although there was an easier route through settled land. Civilization explains the Maharal is advanced and sophisticated but it’s also materialistic and confining. Klal Yisrael was placed in the desert where the lack of resources and contacts would force them to rely entirely on Hashem to fulfill their needs in miraculous fashion. Thus the Midbar became a place of elevation and closeness to their Creator. Indeed a source of the many matanos tovos the wonderful gifts that define Klal Yisrael.

It’s striking that the Torah repeats this entire itinerary at the close of Sefer Bamidbar in parshas Masei for the Chumash does not normally feature reviews at the end of each chapter. Moreover each segment of the route — 42 in all — is listed separately complete with its departure point and place of arrival in repetitive cadence. “And they traveled from Ramses and camped at Succos. And they traveled from Succos and camped at Eisam” (Bamidbar 33).

Clearly this listing focuses not on the destination but on the traveling itself. Rav Mordechai Miller connects this to the instructions that Avraham Avinu received: “Go to the Land that I will show you.” Avraham is told to travel but isn’t apprised immediately of the intended destination. Why is the initial emphasis on the movement rather than the goal?

If a journey is significant then each stage is a notable accomplishment on its own for the end of a process is the cumulative result of many progressive efforts. Each arrival becomes the new point of departure for the next level similar to the motion of ascending a ladder step by step. This is how we climb grow become and achieve. In fact one of the reasons that we don’t interrupt the lengthy passage of the journeys when reading the Torah on Shabbos Parshas Masei is that the 42 stages are interrelated and sequenced.

A New Definition of Success

This emphasis on the process rather than the end result is echoed by the Gemara (Megillah 6b): “Yagata u’matzasa ta’amin — if you toiled you can be certain you’ll find success.” We might question if this is always the case. Can we guarantee that every effort yields results? Do not the best intentions and the most determined exertions sometimes fail?

Perhaps we need to alter our definition of success. In the spiritual realm explains Rav Miller we value the effort itself. The effort is the achievement; toil is equivalent to success — for this is the purpose of our creation: to work to serve our Creator. However we can only travel our assigned route and respond to its challenges. What will we accomplish along the way? Where will we land? When will we disembark? The outcomes are HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s domain.

In a similar vein although the destination of the Midbar travels was Eretz Yisrael the stops along the way were crucial and significant goals. It’s misleading to say that Klal Yisrael wandered through the desert for that denotes random pointless movement. Instead the precise route was directed by their Creator to build character eradicate any lingering Egyptian influence and prepare them for a life of purity in Eretz Yisrael.

Kabbalistic literature offers an esoteric insight into these masa’os journeys. In each place Yisrael would “redeem” the sparks of kedushah that had fallen among the impurities of the Midbar following the sin of Adam Harishon.

Foreshadowing of Exile

The Sfas Emes points out that parshas Masei is always read in the summertime during the period of bein hameitzarim when we mourn the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. It begins with the words “Eleh masei Bnei Yisrael — these are the travels of Bnei Yisrael.” The commentary Megaleh Amukos notes that the initial letters of this phrase correspond to the four exiles our nation has endured — Edom Madai Bavel Yavan.

Torah sources indicate that the 42 masa’os are a foreshadowing and preparation for the collective history of Klal Yisrael as they traveled throughout the Diaspora and reclaimed the sparks that had been scattered among the nations of the world. The parallels between the two journeys are remarkable. The world map of the travels the Jewish People have taken throughout the midbar ha’amim the wilderness of the nations (see Yechezkel 20) closely resembles the circuitous meandering route of our fathers through Midbar Sinai Midbar Paran and Midbar Tzin.

As the nation traveled from place to place in the Midbar there were times that they found themselves in a hostile encampment with few resources yet there was no Heavenly indication to move on. Other times they stayed in a comfortable oasis and would have wished to rest longer yet Hashem signaled movement. They didn’t always understand His reasons for the timing duration or the conditions of each stage of the journey.

We’ve traveled similarly throughout our history from galus to galus from continent to continent. We too are on our way to Eretz Yisrael to mankind’s return to Gan Eden. We too have tarried in many places. We’ve stayed among hostile nations and have been desperate for respite; we’ve enjoyed pleasant accommodations that ended far too soon. The history of our exodus is punctuated by immigrations emigrations evacuations and expulsions.

Personal Roadmap

The Slonimer Rebbe writes that each person undergoes 42 stages of journeying in his lifetime. Hashem leads him to the places and situations where he can accomplish his personal tikkun and extract the sparks that relate to his neshamah.

Thus the 42 masa’os serve also as a paradigm for each individual’s pathway through life. Our birth is our Yetzias Mitzrayim; our destination Gan Eden after 120 years. Our personal roadmap is unknown to us yet clearly designed by Hashem. Each of us has found ourselves in situations we wished to escape but couldn’t in places we hoped to remain but didn’t. As we navigate step by step and meet the challenges of our individual midbar we are creating building and shaping: our lives our characters and our own Olam Haba.

It takes tremendous reserves of emunah and bitachon to traverse these journeys. In the words of Rav Hirsch: “The journey through the wilderness taught us to always be ready to put all our trust in Hashem and to follow Him to unknown destinations along mysterious paths; to wait and long for Him patiently or to follow Him boldly — all according to the direction of His guidance.”

The number 42 is significant in Jewish thought because one of the Names of Hashem is the Sheim Mem-Beis the 42-Letter Name. This Name is derived from a 42-letter sequence in the beginning of the Torah that describes Creation. Each of the 42 encampments in the Midbar corresponds to another letter of the Sheim Mem-Beis (another reason we cannot interrupt their reading) and each of these stages elevated us so that we could connect to the Name.

Forty-two is also the product of six times seven the two numbers that represent creation. The physical world was created in six days and the seventh day is their spiritual culmination.

How is creation related to journeying? When one travels he finds himself in a new and different place every moment. As we travel through life and adjust and respond to each situation we create and recreate ourselves revealing and actualizing our potential. “Every moment in This World man is coming into a new state of existence. Life is a continuous state of becoming — every additional second minute hour day month or year provides an additional opportunity for spiritual growth progress and development” (Osher Chaim Levene and Rabbi Yehoshua Hartman Jewish Wisdom in the Numbers based on the writings of the Maharal).

A well-known poem speaks of the person who took the “road less traveled ” which “has made all the difference.” Moment by moment each of us is taking the “road less traveled ” for as the Arizal tells us no two moments in life are precisely the same. Our Mapmaker has issued a customized itinerary for each of us and if we navigate it well this indeed will make all the difference.

Mrs. Shani Mendlowitz is a teacher at Bais Yaakov Seminary in Montreal and is a popular lecturer for adults. This article originally featured in Family First Issue 543.