A Journey Without an End
When the Torah lists the 42 journeys from Egypt, they are all characterized as journeys from Mitzraim. Each and every journey that took then further away from the geographic region known as Mitzraim, they were simultaneously breaking out of yet another level and layer of confinement and spiritual stagnation. In the realm of goodness and holiness, staying in one place is undesirable and sometimes even harmful.
42 Journeys: Old News?
The second of the two Torah readings, this Shabbos is called Masei, the journeys. In the beginning of this Parsha the Torah recounts the 42 journeys of the Jewish people from the time they left Egypt to the time that they were poised to enter the promised Land — the Land of Israel.
When we begin to analyze the significance of the Torah recounting these 42 journeys, the obvious question arises. The Torah is not a history book. As its name implies, Torah is a book of Divine instruction and guidance. What significance is there in recounting the journeys the Jewish people traveled when they left Egypt?
To understand the Torah’s message to us, we should examine the terminology employed by the Torah in this matter.
“These are the journeys of the Children of Israel that left from the Land of Egypt.”
The use of the plural “journeys” in reference to the exodus from Egypt implies that it took more than one journey to leave Egypt. This is rather strange, inasmuch as it took only one journey to get out of the land called Egypt. When they left Ramses and arrive in Sukkot, they had already crossed the border and were no longer in Egypt. Had the Torah written “These are the journeys from the land of Egypt to the land of Israel” it would have made sense. But, now that the Torah writes only of their journeys from the the Land of Egypt, it begs for an explanation.
Not Out of Egypt Yet
Chassidic literature abounds with references to the deeper meaning of the word Mitzraim, the Hebrew name for Egypt. The root of the word can actually be traced to the word that means “confinement” or “in distress.” One can easily understand why the Torah gives this name to Egypt, due to the brutal nature of oppression the Jewish people experienced during their stay there.
But there is more to the name than its connotation of physical oppression. Mitzraim also — and perhaps, primarily — implies the stifling of one’s spiritual state. Thus, the mere fact that the exodus from Egypt marked the end of slavery and brutal oppression, it did not mean that the Jewish nation were totally out of Mitzraim.
Upon their departure from Egypt, the Jewish people were free. They were no longer slaves in a hostile environment, and they may no longer have carried with them an Egyptian Passport, but by no means were they completely out of the woods. As much as they were out of one aspect — albeit a significant one — of Mitzraim — the place that represented the nadir of impurity in the spiritual sense that mirrored the physical degradation — they were still not out of Mitzraim in all senses of the word. With every journey further, however, they were able to emerge from one more layer of confinement and constraints.
Thus, when the Torah lists the 42 journeys from Egypt, they are all characterized as journeys from Mitzraim. Each and every journey that took then further away from the geographic region known as Mitzraim, they were simultaneously breaking out of yet another level and layer of confinement and spiritual stagnation, because in the realm of goodness and holiness, staying in one place is undesirable and sometimes even harmful.
Parallel with Four Exiles
This lesson concerning the need to continually “break” out of Mitzraim, coincides with the fact that this week’s Parsha concludes the fourth of the Five Books of Moses. Chassidic literature discusses how each of the four books of the Torah corresponds to one of the four exiles that we went through.
This means that each book of the Torah enables us to break out of a different form of exile, until we reach the fifth book, which corresponds to the Redemption.
This is analogous to the four cups of wine that we drink at the seder that correspond to the four expressions of redemption. The fifth cup is said to correspond to the fifth expression that represents our complete return to the Promised Land of Israel.
Concluding the fourth book means that we are now ready to enter into the next and ultimate stage of Redemption.
To facilitate this process of redemption, it is crucial that we realize the lesson of the multiple journeys from Egypt- Mitzraim. When we realize that no matter how much we removed ourselves from undesirable situations that are analogous to Mitzraim, we must continue to journey out of even subtle forms of constraint, continuously aspiring to greater heights. Until we reach our ultimate but imminent destination — Moshiach and Redemption — we are not out of Mitzraim.
The realization that we have to strive for our departure from yet another level that confines, limits and inhibits us, only to realize that we still have to move on, is the way we actually hasten the process of the Redemption.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Matos-Masei by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
