Many Journeys
by Abbe Lyons
In Parshat Masei, in Numbers chapter 33, Moshe lists the 42 journeys of the Israelites from Egypt to the Plains of Moab by the Jordan River. “They set out from Ramses, and they encamped at Succot. They set out from Succot and encamped at Etham.” At first glance, this list of the 42 journeys might appear similar to other “lists” in the Torah such as genealogies, census listings, and detailed listings of who brought which offerings on which days. Since graphic tables and charts were not easily created either digitally or in hard copy, these passages establish a formula to separate the specific details. The repetitive formula “they set out from A and encamped at B” can seem like a cookie cutter or a rubber stamp, stamping the same shape over and over again in the dough or on the page. In a way, it’s a kind of information overload, and it can be hard not to tune out as the repetition keeps going and going.
I learned from Hazzan Jack Kessler and Rabbi David Zaslow that the meanings of the names in in the 42 journeys, can not only keep us tuned in but also lead us to new levels of understanding. Suddenly, the Israelites are journeying to places like “Speaking freely before the hidden master,” “Towering Mouth of Freedom Caverns,” “Bitterness,” This-is-the-end Sea,” “Ultimate Revelation,” “Exploding Pomegranate,” “Beginning of Community,” “Goodness,” “Bottle Rattling Ghosts,” and “Sporadic Moments of Transformation.” Each journey is unique and the place names don’t fit into a neat pattern.Taken together, these names reflect the dual nature of the overall path: both geographical and developmental. On a map, their overall route is winding and indirect. Likewise, the development of the Israelites from a mixed multitude of former slaves and other marginalized people into a purposeful community is not linear and doesn’t conform to a neat pattern.
And although the repetitive formula “they set out from A and encamped at B” repeats many times, the formula itself sometimes has variations, most notably when Aaron dies, though also:
“They set out from Alush and encamped at Rephidim; it was there that the people had no water to drink.”
Even when using a cookie cutter or rubber stamp, no two repetitions are identical. And even what seem like straight line journeys can be subject to variations large and small. And so too human beings are neither linear nor cookie cutter. Despite our collective ideas that there is a norm, we humans are all in our own way, quirky. We really are like a rainbow with our spectrums of physical and behavioral attributes. Even within groups that on the surface seem to be fairly homogenous, every person is unique. Some of our uniquenesses are known and accepted as “normal” variation. For example, whether or not you can roll your tongue, whether you love or hate mushrooms, whether you can usually, sometimes, occasionally or rarely sing on key. Some, like many psychological issues, chronic pain, metabolic disorders, neurological or learning challenges, are hidden or masked. And some cross an invisible, indistinct, undefinable line and are explicitly identified and sometimes labeled as “different” or “disabled.”
The Degel Machaneh Ephraim compares the 42 journeys to the metaphorical journey of life, from birth through death and from constricted to expansive consciousness. And just as the Israelites develop as a people, through 42 journeys over 40 years, each of us humans experience change throughout our lifetimes. Our challenges, our gifts, and our identities may change. How we are perceived or labeled by others (or not) may change. In Torah Journeys, Rabbi Shefa Gold says that the 42 journeys teach us “that every stage is essential to the journey. There are no short-cuts; no way to skip over the challenges. Even what seem like mistakes or dead-ends or wrong turns along the way can provide us with the necessary raw ingredients for wisdom.” Sometimes you find yourself at Goodness, while other times you may have camped unawares at Graves of Craving, and it’s important to remember that no one of the journeys gives us the whole.
Similarly, the variation in the 42 journeys can teach us that the variations in ability & disability, both visible and invisible, are all essential to the fullness of God’s image. There may be a general template for human beings, but no one human being actually matches the template. The multifaceted Divine Image is an incredible array encompassing each human being. Would that we each could widen our perspective to look beyond our assumptions based on what we can easily see, to respond to the essential Divine Image in all whom we encounter.
Hazzan Abbe Lyons directs the ALEPH Cantorial program and is on faculty for the Davvenen’ Leadership Training Institute (DLTI). She is dedicated to making Jewish music, learning and practice both accessible and inspiring, in everyday life as well as at sacred times. Her teaching, music and writing is informed by her education and experience as a musician and somatic educator, parent, and person with lifelong visual challenges.
