Hazak Hazak V’nithazek – we’ve come to the end of another book of the Torah and the end of a long journey.

Today’s Torah portion is not only the final one in Bemidbar, in the book of Numbers, but in some ways, it is also the end of the Torah as well. The last version of this book sound like a fitting conclusion to the books of Moses: “These are the commandments and regulations that the Lord enjoined upon the Israelites through Moses on the steppes of Moab at the Jordan near Jericho.”

The people of Israel had reached their destination; all they had to do was cross the Jordan. What more was there to say? Historically Deuteronomy, which we will begin next week, is actually a separate literary unit different in style, content, and purpose from the other books of the Torah. In the book of Kings we learn that Deuteronomy was actually uncovered centuries later in the temple. Scholars continue to argue about whether this was a discovery or a recovery. In the fifth book of the Torah, Moses makes a personal statement to Israel. We no longer find the ubiquitous statements, Vayidaber (or vayomer) Adonai el Moshe laymor, “The Lord spoke to God, saying...” that we find in the other books of the Torah.

So Parshat Mas’ei is the end, so to speak. To emphasize that we’ve reached the end of the journey, today’s parshah opens with a detailed travelogue of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness. We read a list of forty two locations to which the Israelites traveled as they traversed the wilderness.

Indeed, the sages wondered why it was necessary to record all of these locations. When I go on a trip I make a point of stopping off at the AAA office to get a triptych before I leave so that I know exactly where I’m going and how to get there. The Torah seems to have it all backwards. After the fact, Moses records all the places the people visited on their journey. If we assume that the Torah is more than just a list of fond recollections or historical and geographic minutia, then we have to ask ourselves. “What purpose does this list serve?”

There have been many attempts to answer this question throughout the ages. Rashi suggests that this list was meant to remind the people of God’s great love for them – although God had decreed that Israel should wander in the wilderness for forty years, he only required them to move a limited number of times and He allowed them time to rest in between their journeys.

Rabbi Tanhuma offers another answer. He suggests that faith and trust are built on memories and shared experiences. He compares Israel to a child who became ill and whose father took him to a special doctor. While returning home after his child was cured, the father lovingly recalled what happened at each location along the way to the doctor’s office. He tells his son, “Here we rested, here you caught a cold, and here you had a headache…”

Maimonides makes the claim that the list of locations was meant to refute the opinions of the other nations who claimed that the reason it took the Israelites so long to reach the Promised Land was that they were lost. The Torah tells us that all their journeys were al pi adoinai, “according to the word of God.” Nothing was an accident or
pure chance.

All these explanations are nice but I’d like to suggest another, simpler, reason for the long list of place names in today’s Parshah. The list of names at the end of Bemidbar is a reminder to us that there are no shortcuts in life for reaching our desired destination. Looking back, Moses and the people of Israel began to understand that each step and each stage along the way was necessary; Israel could not have reach its spiritual or physical destination any quicker or easier. Although their where highs and lows along the way, each stop helped to shape the nation’s identity in some crucial way.

The truth is, it shouldn’t have taken the Israelites more than about eleven days to cross the Sinai Peninsula. But the people of Israel had more to accomplish than simply arriving in the Promised Land. They had to grow up and become a nation. They had to learn the importance of independence and they had to develop a deep faith and trust in God. The people of Israel had to cease to be slaves and become a nation of free people.

In our own lives we are constantly looking for short cuts. We’re all in a terrible rush to accomplish our goals in the quickest and easiest way possible.

We celebrate such short cuts these days on television. Wealth and fame can be attained quickly and easily through a competition on television. You too can become a millionaire or a teen idol by ‘strutting your stuff’ on prime time television.

We want a quick and easy way to take care of our health. Why bother changing your diet when you can take a pill that will allow you to lower your cholesterol? Why bother dieting or exercising when you can have an operation that will allow you to loose weight?

We want a quick and easy way to get ahead in our professions. Why bother worry about the rest of lives when you can reach the top before you are thirty five and then coast for the rest of your life? Society is full of people who have deferred getting married and having children until our late thirties and early forties. These people don’t often stop to ask how this will affect their families or their own lives.

We want a quick and easy way to create meaningful friendships and relationships – but relationships are a product of time, caring, and attention.

We want a quick and easy way to raise our children as Jews. But it takes more than having a Bar Mitzvah for a child to grow up with a sense of pride in their identity and a mature understanding of what it means to be a Jew. Sure, you can send a child to religious school once a week at Chabad and then have a Bar Mitzvah, but that doesn’t mean they will appreciate the depth and meaning of Jewish living. Even our own religious school is a shortcut – people believe that by sending their kids to classes three days a week they have fulfilled their obligations.

Life is a journey. There are many stops along the way, and you can’t simply skip them or ignore them and expect everything to turn out ‘OK.’ The Torah reminds us of all the milestones and mishaps along the way toward maturity in the wilderness so that the people will realize that the forty years they spent in the desert were not a waste of time or an unnecessary detour. In retrospect each moment - even the dark ones - served some important purpose in helping the nation to find itself.

The same is true for us. We sometimes forget that the most important moment in life is the one we’re experiencing right now. When we are young we can’t wait for the next birthday. When we’re adolescents, we can’t wait till we’re old enough to drive. When we’re in college we just want to get out of class so we can make our way in the world. Every moment is an anticipation of another, until we reach a certain point when we start looking backward. Then we start wishing we could be twenty or twenty five or thirty again. The tragedy of life is that we seem to always want to be someplace other than where we are.

If today marks the end of Israel’s journey, then it also marks the beginning of a new journey as well. For me, the High Holy Days begin with the book of Deuteronomy, with Tisha B’av which we will observe next Saturday night, and with the seven Haftorot of consolation which we read during the coming weeks leading up to the Jewish New Year. Unfortunately most people will show up until Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for a few hours with the hope of having a quick and easy spiritual infusion of energy that will last them through the year. They might even come to services feeling some regret, and a little guilt for the errors and failings of the past year. They will sincerely say they are sorry.

But there are no shortcuts on the path to repentance and renewal. It’s a long hard path on which we must travel through the weeks and months ahead. Each day is an opportunity for self reflection and improvement. Each hour a chance for us to re-access the path we have followed in our lives until now. There are milestones along the way for us to approach as we begin this journey toward the New Year and toward a new life.

And when we get there we will be able to look back and recall the many steps and stages along the way. If we’re lucky we will we may even come to understand: “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”

Shabbat Shalom