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MASA
(JOURNEY)
Masa ñ (Journey) ñ Reflection, Return, and Renewal
Judaism calls upon us to understand that our individual life journeys are both reflected in and illuminated by the larger journeys of our people (and vice versa), and that our success in life depends as much upon the integrity with which we progress as it does upon reaching our goals. Our Jewish paths are full of paradoxes. Through our forward movement we seek tshuvah/return. Our journeys to distant lands serve to take us deeper into our own selves. Our commitment to the telling and retelling of past stories equips us to face the future. The Jewish path, both communal and individual, comes with baggage that carries us as much as we carry it. It also comes with a promise and a vision ñ our lives are merely a blip on the cosmic radar screen, and yet every step we take is of the utmost importance to those we know and the overall picture. Our people has been motivated in its journeys by sacred calling, by seemingly chance encounters, by fear, by wonder, by oppression and by the promise of a better life. And the documentation of these journeys, our Torah, helps us both to make sense of it all and to better gauge our next steps.
Our language of journey is borrowed from the book of Genesis, Chapter 12. When Avram responds to Godís call to ìlech lecha from your land, and from your place of birth, and from your fatherís house to the land that I will show you,î the story of the world becomes the story of our people. Jewish learning and identity begin.
But it is important to understand that even our most individual journeys are somehow a continuation of those that came before, and are shaped in part by those with whom we travel. If one turns back to Chapter 11 in Genesis, it is actually Terach, Avramís father, who begins a journey of this sort for no apparent reason. He simply picks up his entire family and goes. Torah tells us that he settles at a crossroads. It is there that he dies, and Avram first hears the compelling voice that motivates him to actually continue the journey that his father began. We are all on a continuation of someone elseís journey. We are moved by multiple voices, and often settle at crossroads for unknown reasons. The stories of the Torah hold valuable lessons for each of us.
The order in which Avram is told to ìgoî seems to be backward. Wouldnít it make more sense, in a geographical journey, for one to first leave oneís fatherís house, then oneís city/village of birth, and then oneís land? Torah speaks to the need to travel internally as well as externally - first to leave our place of cultural comfort, then the ways of thinking into which we were born, and finally separate ourselves entirely from our parents in order to become what we must become. This journey travels not from land to land, but from the periphery of oneís being to the core - lecha (lit. to you) - to oneís true self.
Is the journey a means to and end, or is the journey the end in itself? In Chapter 33 of the book of Numbers, almost at the conclusion of our 40 years in the desert, we are presented with a recap of sorts -
These are the journeys of the Children of Israel who went out of the Land of Egypt to/for the purpose of their multitudes by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Moses wrote their goings out (motzíeihem) for the purpose of their journeys (masíeihem), according to God - and these are their journeys (masíeihem) for the purpose of their goings out (motzíeihem).
Following these verses, the Torah lists 42 different journeys that we took on our way to the Promised Land; honoring, recording, reflecting upon smaller pieces of a larger journey is essential for learning and growth. Samson Raphael Hirsch draws our attention to two different perspectives on these verses. From Godís vantage point, we leave our current place, or state of being, for the sake of the journey. From our perspective, we journey only in order to leave a place of discomfort or dis-satisfaction. Our nature is to seek foundation. Our desire is to be settled and secure, even as we understand the need and the value of change, leaving behind, yearning, and aspiring almost constantly for something more. Each small leg of a longer journey carries unique significance. Each step affords us the opportunity for growth and learning.
While time as we know it continues to take us forward, we seemingly return over and over in our Torah study, in our holy days, in our remembrances and our celebrations. Central to Jewish thought is the concept of return - Tshuvah. Reflecting upon and learning from our journey thus far is vital to the realization of our vision. And while we speak of our lives as well as our natural world as cyclical, the Jewish journey is more like a spiral by nature. Each time we return to our age old rituals, study and commemorations, we acknowledge that everything about them is the same, and yet it is all new, because it is we who have changed. There are always new things to be learned, as we bring new gifts and skills and needs to the table from year to year. Our weekly, monthly, annual, and life cycles become recursive - although we have momentarily returned to the same place, everything within our world and our soul is different.
In our secular lives, we are used to phrases such as, ìthat was then; this is now,î or, ìitís all in the past.î In our religious lives we are more in tune with ìthere is no before or after in Torah.î Learning is timeless; return to the re-enactment of a previous time takes us forward. We need only to think of Pesach to understand - the entire point is to tell the story of past journeys, so that we may hear what we need to hear each year in order to go forward with purpose, vision and strength.
Our journeys span generations, and we are deeply affected by those who came before. There are times when we stay in one place for years, and times when we are constantly growing and changing. Internal journeys are sometimes even more important than external ones. We most often need to embark on one in order to realize the other. Reflection through documentation enables others to benefit from our journeys. Our holy days, our rituals, our attention to text, our commentaries, are all tools for reflection, growth and renewal.
Lenses (cont'd): 1 l 2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9
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