Moving on – Mass’ei
“And they journeyed, and they encamped” – this refrain echoes through the sidra.
For forty years the Israelites progressed from stopping place to stopping place in the wilderness until they reached the borders of the Land. It could be that here and there they found themselves in a congenial place and were tempted to stay there. But the Divine command was insistent. They could not rest or put down roots until their goal was reached.
In a sense their experience is ours. Why do we have to move on from stage to stage in life’s journey? When we find we feel comfortable with who we are and where we are, why can’t we settle down and stay there for good? Why can’t we say “Freeze it!” when we like the tableau of any given moment in life?
AA Milne has a delightful poem in which a small child decides to like being six and says, “I think I’ll stay six for ever and ever!” The trouble is that life never affords us that luxury. All life is movement, and we have to move on.
It is not only that the child has to grow up and the parent has to let go. In every department of life you have to be prepared to move on, to venture forward, to grow.
We do it in material things; we work hard to increase our assets and to upgrade our lifestyle. So why are we reluctant to grow and move in the less tangible aspects of life?
Do you really want to stay in an intellectual, cultural or spiritual rut?
Every day, month and year we ought to be increasing our knowledge and deepening our understanding.
It is tempting to say the world is becoming so complex that it is beyond our understanding: but the sages remind us, “It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it”.
What applies to knowledge generally certainly applies to Jewish knowledge. How bizarre it is to find highly educated adults who have frozen their Jewish knowledge at the age of thirteen or less and never discovered the challenge and fascination of the limitless riches of the Jewish idea.
What do rabbis do? No matter how much they know, they continually learn and add to their understanding. And learning is not just for rabbis. It is a mitzvah for every Jew!
Our religious observance also needs to progress. You may well be comfortable maintaining your parents’ level of mitzvot. Ponder, though, the words of Solomon Schechter, “You cannot be Jewish with your grandfather’s heart”.
You have to make your own way in Judaism, respecting your parents and honouring their example, but finding your own meaning in Jewish observance and adding to your own agenda of mitzvot.
