Friday, July 13, 2007

Where did'ya come from & Where will you go ?

Prefacing Moshe Rabbeinu's recounting to the people of the camps in the desert is an interesting passuk.
It states : "And Moshe wrote their points of origin to their travels by the word of Hashem, and these are their travels to their points of origin." [Bamidbar 33:2]
Noting the reversal of the phrases 'travels' and 'points of origin', the Kli Yakar views this passuk as saying two different things. The phrase in it's proper order ( points of origin to the travels ) is accompanied by the word of Hashem - referring to the travels that were directed by Hashem for good purpose - simultaneously teaching us that when we follow the word of Hashem we are properly moving forward in life. While the latter part of the passuk reverses the order ( travels to their points of origin ) implying that the Israelites journeyed backwards ! ( which they did on, at least, two occasions when they fled from a calamity in panic. ) This type of journeying was not directed by the word of G-d.
An alternative lesson that the Kli Yakar learns from this is that the 'erev rav', the insincere Egyptian converts that joined the Jews on their way out of Egypt, are being referred to by the latter half of the passuk and the entire journey their eyes were 'backwards' - meaning they regretted coming and wished they could slip back into their immoral, Egyptian ways.
Our lesson in all this is to see how far our intentions count. No matter how 'frum' we pretend to be ( The erev rav were practicing members of the Nation ) it's what we really feel underneath that has an indelible impact on our actions. So the question to ask ourselves is thus - which way do we wanna go - forwards by the word of Hashem or ....

Hatzlacha !

No comments: