The Road that Made You |
I don’t say that for birthday wishes — though I received them gratefully. I say it because birthdays do something to rabbis. They make the text personal whether we want it to or not.
Last week was Parashat Pinchas — the 46th anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah parashah. This week is Matot-Masei. And somewhere in the movement between those two parshiyot I found myself thinking about stops on a map. The old AAA TripTik. The road that made you.
This week’s parashah begins “These are the journeys of the children of Israel who went out from the land of Egypt.” (Bamidbar 33:1)
What follows is a list. Forty-two stops. Most of them appear nowhere else in the Torah — no story attached, no miracle recorded, no complaint, no manna. Just a name. They camped at Makheilot. They traveled from Tahat. They set out from Terah.
Why does Moses write this? Rashi says God commanded it — the stops matter in themselves.
Ramban offers something more layered: Moses intends to record divine kindness, and cites Maimonides — the miracles were real to those who witnessed them, but future generations will hear them only as hearsay and disbelieve. The list is........