Well, we just got back from the Promised Land! Actually, not the biblical Promised Land.
Well, we just got back from the Promised Land! Actually, not the biblical Promised Land. We spent several days in and around Canaan Valley, West Virginia. It was the perfect place to go if you’re into the Parshiot this week. Matot-Masey, a double Parsha, brings us to the mountains overlooking the Promised Land. The Israelites are about to enter and in Masey we recall the forty-two stops along the way.
Is there anything significant about the number 42? According to the Kabbalah, 42 is the number with which G!d creates the Universe. In Hassidism, the Baal Shem Tov reveals that there are 42 spiritual journeys that we take throughout our lives. Commentators have noticed how each of the names of the stops along the way have psycho spiritual or allegorical meaning. We see how they moved from Hor, a high place of revelation, to Tzalmonah, a stop to absorb the image of the Divine, to Punon, a word of warning. Can you recall stops on your life’s journey?
I certainly found myself doing that last week. One of those transformative stops took place in 1968 on my first trip to West Virginia, to camp out on Spruce Knob Mountain, the highest peak there. On the radio, the trip was interrupted by the announcement that Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated. We had to pull over. Something in me changed. Upon returning to Rutgers in August, and, along with two friends, we organized the Jewish Fellowship for Action, allying ourselves with the anti-war and the emerging feminist movements.
Below is a recent photo I took from atop Seneca Rocks not far from Canaan Valley. Another stop on the journey.
Join us if you can for Shabbes,
Reb David
PS Feel free to send in a photo of a recent trip you took this summer!