There are two types
of traveling. There’ one way in which
you are going from point A to point B, so you must get through the distance
that exists in between them. That is
usually the way I travel. Then there is
another way, a second way, what my mother often does, a walk just for the sake
of the walk, the traveling isn’t a mean to get somewhere else, its an end in
its own right. What kind of journey was Klal
Yisroel’s, type one or type two?
The Torah says וַיִּכְתֹּ֨ב מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶת־מוֹצָאֵיהֶ֛ם
לְמַסְעֵיהֶ֖ם עַל־פִּ֣י י״י֑,
the travels were all a command of Hashem, they weren’t just a means to an end,
it was its own mitzvah – to travel (Rogatchover.) Why was there such a command, why is travel an
end of itself?
The possuk says אֵ֜לֶּה מַסְעֵ֣י בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָצְא֛וּ
מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם. Why are all the travels referred to as leaving
Egypt, they were already out of Egypt? Why
does the Torah refer to the מסעי, the travels if it’s naming the names of
the encampments; it should say מחנות? The
explanation is that yes, physically they were out of Egypt by the first travel,
but every additional part of the journey was another step in the spiritual exodus
from Egypt. The various legs of the
journey weren’t just places that Klal Yisroel traveled through, each one was a
step in the growth of Klal Yisroel. That
is why the Torah calls it the travels, to indicate the הליכה,
the growth in every journey (like the well-known idea that man is called a הולך vs. angels are called עומדים because man can grow spiritually.) (Based upon Likutay Sichos volume 23.) That’s the explanation of why each travel is
important in its own right, for each one was a spiritual improvement in the
development in Klal Yisroel.
The Baal Shem Tov adds
that the journeys of Klal Yisroel correspond to every individual’s journey in
life. The neshema is stuck in the
body, that’s its Egypt and it must journey to rid itself of the impurities of
the body (see inside Degel Machena Epraim here, see also maamer of Rebbe 5739.)
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