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JULY 16, 2020 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
Think, Feel, Grow
The Power of the Journey By Shmuel Reichman
T
he Torah is not only a guide to living a life of truth within the physical world, it is also the literal blueprint and DNA of this physical world. Our physical world is a projection and emanation of the deep spiritual reality described by the Torah. This is the meaning of the Midrash, “Istaklah b’Oraisah u’barah almah”, Hashem looked into the Torah and used it to create the world. The physical world is an emanation and expression of Torah, the spiritual root of existence. As such, every single word of Torah is of infinite importance. The Rambam, echoing this same idea, explains that if one rejects a single word of the Torah, it is as if he has rejected the entire Torah. The Ramban explains in the introduction to his commentary on Bereishis that the entire Torah is one elongated Shem Hashem, one interconnected sefer, a single organic entity. Just as a single missing chromosome can affect an entire human being, the same is true for a sefer Torah. Even a single missing letter renders the entire text passul. Every single word and letter in the Torah is absolutely fundamental. If this is true, the beginning of Parshas Masei seems troubling. The first forty-nine pesukim in the parsha list, one by one, the various places that the Jewish People passed through along their journey in the Midbar. In the majority of these places, nothing of note occurred; the Jewish People simply passed through. Why is it necessary to men-
tion every single place, every single stage of our journey? The Ramban alludes to the fact that these forty-two encampments contain many hidden secrets, and the Magen Avraham suggests that they represent the forty-two letter name of Hashem. Although we will not go into the depths of these answers, I would like to develop a deep theme related to these encampments, suggesting some inspiring and deep ideas we can learn.
The Importance of Every Step Although we often focus on the end result, every single step of a process is of critical importance.
If we truly understood the power of this idea, our view of time and potential would forever change. Consider, for example, a single day of your life. Your day begins with infinite spiritual potential, with 86,400 seconds to utilize. At the very beginning of every day, you have the ability to learn new ideas, improve your relationships, and achieve countless new accomplishments. After 1000 seconds of your day have passed, whatever you accomplished of that time- of that potential- is real, and the rest is lost. However, the potential for the remaining 85,400 seconds is shaped by how you spent the first 1000 seconds. If you spent them well, taking full
advantage of your time, sharpening your mind and awareness and building positive momentum, then you now have greater access to a higher version of yourself within which to continue building and creating your life. If you thought unempowering thoughts or failed to create a positive trajectory, instead attaching yourself to any number of self-destructive activities, then you have set yourself up for a very difficult journey ahead, perhaps diminishing the quality of potential for the rest of your day. Every thought, word, action, and decision has infinite cosmic reverberations and repercussions. This may be overwhelming to consider, and it may be unhealthy to continuously fixate upon the severity of each infinitesimal aspect of our lives, but the truth remains nonetheless. We should therefore contemplate this as often as we can, as this realization will help awaken us to the importance of everything, something truly crucial to recognize. Every single step in our journey creates ripples throughout every aspect of our lives. This is an example of true oneness, and this is the importance of every step. We can now begin to appreciate why the Torah includes every single step of Klal Yisrael’s journey.
Enjoying the Journey There is a story of a man who wanted to climb a mountain. He calculated that it would take him roughly a month to reach the top, so he bought the supplies, packed the food, and
