Parshas Masei
Armed with the Past
The parsha of Maasei represents the culmination of the story of Israel’s
sojourn in the desert after its escape from Egypt and the revelation of
the Torah on Mount Sinai. The Jewish people are poised to enter the Holy
Land and to adjust to a more "normal" national existence. Manna will no
longer come from heaven daily nor will there be miraculous traveling wells
of water accompanying them. The parsha now deals with the issues of the
borders of Israel and its attendant problems and with the methods of the
division of the land amongst its inhabitants. All of this is pretty
mundane stuff compared to the heady experiences of the desert - miracles,
plagues, rewards and punishments, Moshe’s masked radiant countenance and
the thrill of building and servicing the mishakan. The parsha even tells
us that there will be murders and murderers in the Land of Israel and that
cities or refuge must be built to house them and protect them from
avenging enemies. From the Midrash it may be implied that there were no
such murderous occurrences during Israel’s sojourn in the desert. In
short, the rarified atmosphere and purely spiritual existence of Israel in
the Sinai desert is now over. The challenges of creating an ordered, just
and Torah society under natural national and human conditions are now the
order of the day. It will take four centuries, until the times of Shmuel,
Dovid and Shlomo for these challenges to be successfully met. The
transition from the supernatural to the mundane is much harder to
accomplish successfully than is the transition from the ordinary to the
spiritual.
To help this transition occur, memory of past events is vital. The newness
of the experience of the Land of Israel will be seen in perspective by
remembering the previous experiences of Egypt and the desert. Faith and
confidence will dominate Jewish life when the Jews recall the history of
their existence and their survival and triumph over daunting odds. Rashi
indicates that the listing of the thirty-eight encampments of Israel
during their trek through the Sinai desert is to remind the Jews of their
past difficulties and struggles and how they nevertheless prevailed. Part
of the difficulty that Israel faces today in attempting to build
a "normal" state and nation is that the early founders of secular Zionism
not only denigrated the experiences of the Jewish exile but attempted to
erase them from the memory of the "new" Jew they wished to create. Thus,
the problems that challenge and disturb us today here in Israel -
boundaries and demographics, value systems and the creation of a kinder,
gentler Israel - are compounded by the lack of memory that could help us
make reference to previous generations’ wisdom and strengths. The truth is
that we have all been here, in one way or another before, and common sense
would dictate that we therefore remember what happened then. But amnesia
is the greatest Jewish malady of our day. All of the problems and
difficulties that we face are in reality byproducts of that amnesia.
Maasei teaches us that we should remember where we have been so that we
have a sense of faith and confidence in where we want to now go.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Text Copyright © 2005 by Rabbi Berel Wein and Torah.org
Visit www.rabbiwein.com for a complete selection of Rabbi Wein's books and tapes.
