My family and I headed out on vacation yesterday - Destination: New York City and surrounding metropolitan area. We arrived late Thursday night. Whenever we take long drive that require us to cross the Canadian/American border; our kids begin asking numerous questions about borders, about going in to a country about leaving a country, why some cars are checked and others are not checked. Of course once across the border, there are also numerous questions about where we are going, the route we taking to arrive at our destination, the distance we have already traveled and of course "how much longer do we have to go before we a get there?" Maps are handy, landmarks are useful and general vagaries regarding the time left are incredibly effective. Of course, all this assumes that the person answering the questions (namely me), knows exactly where we are going, has some perspective of time, distance, traffic, and driving conditions. Obviously the greater the experience, the greater the chance of accuracy in offering answers to these questions. These types of questions are not just confined to physical travel. These are the same questions that we not only ask as children, we ask these same questions as adults about the direction of our lives. The direction we hope to go and the direction we have already gone.
Upon being told that G-d had chosen him to return to Egypt and begin G-d's plan for redeeming Bnai Yisroel; and after Moshe had finally accepted the fact that he was changin the direction of his life, Moshe told his father in law that the time had come for him to leave. Unlike, Yaakov's father in law, Laban who tried to trick Yaakov into staying; Yitro behaved quite differently. Being a spiritual person, (Yitro was a priest in the Midian tribe) Yitro understood that rather than fighting or tricking Moshe into staying; he offered Moshe his blessing Lech L'Shalom - Go in Peace (Ex. 4:18) Then Moshe packed up Zipporah, his two sons, his donkey and they headed towards Egypt. The Torah does not share with us any conversation between Moshe and Zipporah about heading back to Egypt. The boys don't ask "when will we be there?" One can imagine that there would have been a conversation, or even some questions during the traveling. It would appear that Moshe was so focused on his mission, so aware of where he was going, so purposeful with each step that he took towards Egypt, that there was no need for anyone to ask him the anxiety ridden questions of how much longer, or when do we get there.
However, even Moshe was sidetracked. The last seven psukim (verses) of chapter 4 about his wife circumcising their newborn baby pose a troubling narrative. Faced with G-d's command to immediately go to Egypt and the circumcision of his young son, Moshe decides to travel immediately. Had he circumcised the baby, he would have had to wait three days for the baby to be healthy enough travel. In the Talmudic Tractate Nedarim 31b-32b , the sages explain the Moshe's decision to head to Egypt was correct since G-d knew about the baby. The problem was upon his arrival at the inn. Rather than make the arrangements for the circumcision, he made the arrangements to stay at the inn. Hence, Moshe life was threatened (Ex 4:24-25) Thankfully, Zipporah realized that the Bris had to occur for the sake of the baby as well as Moshe.
Sometimes we can get so focused upon the destination that we fail to take into account the needs of others. Sometimes we focused upon one route that we don't pay attention to other possible routes that will still permit us to reach the destination. Sometimes we are so focuse upon our "purpose" and our "mission" that it can come at the expense of others or even ourselves. Even during the week, we can caught so caught up in the week and all hurrying that we ultimately forget our destination. Our destination a balance between arriving quickly but enjoying the trip, between arriving as quickly as possible but as safely as well. Shabbat forces us to strike that balance. We hurry to get through our week but we do so with an eye on Shabbat, knowing that we can stop our hurrying. We know that on Shabbat we can change the focus of our existence from being mission oriented to family oriented. In doing so, we are able to strike a balance so that the destination of our lives has purpose outside our families and within our familes.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Yitz
No comments:
Post a Comment