The desert journey for the Jewish People was an opportunity of a lifetime. Every one of the souls on the path out of Egypt was faced with a question: after the miracle wrought for me by God taking me out of Egypt and leading me through the sea, will I be able to awake each day and give thanks to God for the lifetime of journeying through the rocky wilderness? Sure, there would be personal joys and communal celebrations, but there would also be threats and hardships beyond imagination.
The Sinai wilderness serves as a metaphor for the journey of life itself. Do I have faith that God has sent me on the journey meant for me? Is there a promised land in store for me and for us- will I embrace the notion we are headed in the redemptive direction? Will I do my part in making manifest the destiny of the Jewish People? Am I conscious of my selfhood, my family, my tribe, my People and how can I play a part in setting the next generation on the right course?
My take is that our ancestors knew that they would not cross over the Jordan or enter the land of Israel. It was up to them to set their children on the right course with the tales of their foremothers and forefathers, along with the new Torah of their teacher Moses.
Faith, gratitude for our freedom, linking ourselves to the chain of Jewish history and embracing Torah in the wilderness of life – that’s the formula we learned when we left Mount Sinai and had a lifetime ahead of us.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Bolton