To Use for Good
The Baal Shem Tov taught that every Jew undergoes forty-two journeys throughout their life—from “who went out of the land of Egypt,” alluding to birth, until reaching the “Land of Israel,” the land of supernal life. A person knows which of the journeys already taken were used for good and which were not. But as for the journeys still ahead—those are in the person's hands to use entirely for good.
(the Rebbe)
A Journey Toward Redemption
This requires careful attention: they left Egypt in a single journey—from Raamses to Sukkot—so why does it say “journeys” in the plural? The answer is that until we reach “the Jordan near Jericho,” the future Redemption, we are still in “Egypt”, from the word meitzar, meaning constraint or boundary. Every journey until the coming of Moshiach is still in the category of “going out from Egypt.”
(the Alter Rebbe, Likkutei Torah)
The Journeys that Elijah Writes
Moses wrote down all the journeys of the Children of Israel... Now Elijah is writing all the journeys, wanderings, and tribulations of Israel. When Moshiach comes, this will be the book that everyone learns from.
(Rabbi David of Lelov)
The Possibility to Repair
This world is called the “World of Rectification (Tikun),” and a person must correct each day what they did the day before. Angels are called “standers” because they remain on one level and have neither the capacity nor the need to repair the past. But the Children of Israel go from level to level, as in, “These are the journeys of the Children of Israel.”
(Siftei Tzaddikim)
10 Years in Exile!?!?
Rabbi Moshe of Kobrin once asked a young man about his activities and his source of livelihood. The young man replied: “I sit in the Beit Midrash and study Torah. Before my wedding, my father and father-in-law agreed that during the first five years, my father would support us, and during the next five years, my father-in-law would provide for us. So, we’re financially set for ten years.”
Rabbi Moshe said to him: “Believe me, when I see someone repairing a broken window in his house, I marvel at him—after all, at any moment, the Moshiach could come and we’ll all go up to the Land of Israel. And you’re telling me you’re set for ten years in exile?!”
This issue of Living Jewish is dedicated for an Aliyat HaNeshama for Moshe Shmuel ben David Betzalel (Noll), HY”D. Moshe Shmuel fell in battle in Gaza on the 12th of Tammuz while protecting the Jewish People.
