A Thought on Parshios Matos - Maasei

"...va'yichtov Moshe es motza'eihem l'ma'asei'hem al pi HaShem..." "...and Moshe wrote their travels according to HaShem's words..." (33:2) Why the travelogue? Verse after verse enumerates the destinations and departures of our nation during their forty years in the desert. It is history. Its done. Why is it important that the Torah records for us those place-names in an ancient wilderness? Why does HaShem tell Moshe to write this, as our verse notes? ibn Shu'aib suggests that the clause "al pi HaShem" - according to HaShem's instruction - does not refer to the travels themselves. We already know that wherever we went, and wherever we go, we do so only according to the word and will of HaShem. ibn Shu'aib reminds us that many parshios ago (9:18) the Torah told us that our travels are al pi HaShem. In the above verse, however, the nuance is that Moshe's writing down the travelogue is al pi HaShem. Namely, HaShem expressly wanted the place-names recorded here. So back to our original question: why? First, ibn Shu'aib cites Rashi's explanation. We are to derive from the enumeration of the places (enumeration comes from the word "numeral", which thus means the counting or the accounting of the places) that in forty years, there were only 42 "trips", which displays the merciful kindness of HaShem, Who did not drag us exhaustively the entire time. In context, we were not really always on the go, so that the sojourn in the desert included some long intervals of tranquility to enhance our spiritual life. A second explanation is more mystical. ibn Shu'aib observes that there are 42 places, and in the opening verses of Genesis, from the beginning through the reference to the world being chaotic and void, there are 42 letters. From that point on, the formal creation began, with the appearance of order, structure, form, substance and content. So too, alludes ibn Shu'aib, the process in the desert was a developmental one for this newly-formed young nation. Each journey, each destination and each point of departure, 42 in all, implanted into the internal collective Jewish world the elements with which we could thrive and cope with all that the external world does to us. The years in the desert served as the genesis of Jewry. ibn Shu'aib next references the view of the Rambam who says that the travels in the desert were real for those who witnessed them, but upon being recorded, they could fall the way of all attempts to chronicle history. Inevitably, people come along centuries later who scoff at a traditional account of facts and, like the National Geographic and some of those irritating tour guides at the Kosel, they defame our national history by bringing back the chaos and void of nonsensical alternative realities. Such spiritual desecration will arise, writes the Rambam, with people contending that the sojourn in the desert could not have happened, and instead, we merely trekked across the habitable portions of the region where there were farms, wells, and hospitable Arabs to provide sustenance and shelter for us. To counter that fabrication, the Torah lists the names of places which clearly do not match up with any border towns, agricultural districts or safe-haven highways used by the Arabs or others. The same Torah asserts that we survived there by the word of HaShem, who sustained us with miracles, signs and wonders. We can derive such reassurance from the list of place-names which are now lost ruins in the desolate wildness of a barren, inhospitable land where only HaShem could protect and shelter us (and still does.) ibn Shu'aib states that this explanation is a noble one. Finally, he cites the explanations given by other midrashim and commentaries who opine that the named places will one day serve as way-stations as we make our way back from exile. As we stop over at each recovered and revealed location, we will bless HaShem who did miracles for our forefathers there, and we will sing praise as we ourselves feel reassured that all of the events in the Torah actually happened! I give praise and song this week to HaShem who has brought Rabbi Avrahom Rosenberg shlit'a of Philadelphia and Lakewood into the life of my favorite only daughter, Penina Baila Vita, who is a kallah! Mazal tov and good Shabbos. D Fox