You are where you need to be - Beha'alotcha 5785

I took a group of our staff to Yosemite the other day.  It’s one of the perks I offer for dedicated young people who come here from other places, in this case Israel, and devote themselves to our children and community for a year or for a few months.  Halfway there, one of the teachers asked me if I have an itinerary or would just drop them off and let them find their own way once we got to the park.  (They obviously had no idea what to expect in Yosemite.)  I told them not to worry, they will see some amazing sights, including “some waterfalls” they  had heard about.  They trusted me and got what they had hoped for and more.

This got me thinking about what we read in the Parsha this week about the Jews wandering in the desert for 40 years, on their way from Egypt to Israel.  Well, they didn’t actually wander for 40 years.  They camped in 42 places along the way.  In some places they stayed for a day or two, sometimes for a month or two, and in one place they camped for 18 years.  What was the itinerary?  

If you draw a line from Egypt to Israel, it is pretty much heading north along the Mediterranean.  The Torah explained that Hashem did not take them that way in order that they should not turn around and run back if they encountered war.  So instead they circled around to the south of Israel, eventually entering from the East across the Jordan river.  Along the way, they had no idea which way they were going, how long they would be traveling or how long they would be camping in any one place.

(Bamidbar 9:17-23)  “Whenever the cloud would depart from over the Tent of Meeting, this was a sign that the Israelites should travel, [and] the Israelites would encamp in the place where the cloud rested.  At G-d’s bidding the Israelites traveled, and at G-d’s bidding they encamped. As long as the cloud hovered above the Tabernacle, they remained encamped.  If the cloud lingered over the Tabernacle for many days, the Israelites... did not travel...  Sometimes the cloud remained over the Tabernacle [just] from nightfall until morning... [or] a day and a night... Whether it was for two days, a month, or a year that the cloud lingered, hovering over the Tabernacle, the Israelites would encamp and not travel; and when it departed, they traveled....”

As this eternal nation was being formed, Hashem taught us a lesson in faith.  They had no idea when or where they were going.  All they knew was that Hashem was guiding them on the path they needed in order to get to Israel.  Chassidus explains that in order to be able to properly sanctify the land and fulfil our purpose of revealing Hashem’s presence on Earth, we needed to tame the darkness of the physical world.  This is represented by the desert, a desolate and almost lifeless place, representing the deso;ation and lifelessness of evil and spiritual darkness.  As the Jews, carrying the Holy Ark and the Mishkan (Tabernacle) wandered through the desert, they brought light and life, preparing the way for our eternal mission.

This concept is not just history.  As our nation was formed, Hashem revealed Himself to us in many ways, and then the great revelations ended.  But this does not mean that the Divine Providence ended, G-d forbid.  It continues as it did then.  It’s just that now we have to work harder to see it.  It is true in each of our lives. 

We think that we have our lives all planned out.  We are where we are because we choose to be.  We have our jobs and our income set and this is where we will live and this is what we will be doing.  But  it doesn’t always work out that way.  In fact, our Sages tell us, it is really never that way.  King David wrote in Psalms (37:23) “A person’s footsteps are determined by Hashem, and He delights in his path.”  Just as in the desert the people went wherever Hashem led them in order to purify the desert, so it is always.  We go where we go because Hashem wants us to purify whatever place we are in.  The only difference is that then the people saw it with their eyes and today we need to see with our mind’s eye.  

In the book “Hayom Yom,” a daily spiritual thought compiled by the Rebbe, he writes: :”Whoever has faith in individual Divine Providence knows that ‘A person’s steps are established by G-d,’ that this particular soul must purify and improve something specific in a particular place. For centuries, or even since the world's creation, that which needs purification or improvement waits for this soul to come and purify or improve it. The soul too, has been waiting - ever since it came into being - for its time to descend, so that it can discharge the tasks of purification and improvement assigned to it.”

This is a very comforting and inspiring thought, especially if things don’t go the way we planned.  Hashem has a plan and He controls our circumstances.  How we choose to act, to be caught up in darkness and despair or to illuminate the darkness, is our choice.