In the second of this week’s Torah portions, Masei, the Torah writes, “These were the travels of the Israelites who came out of the land of Egypt, according to their hosts, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.  Moses wrote down the starting points of their various marches according to their travels, as directed by the Lord…”

The Torah then lists the 42 places in which the Jewish people stopped throughout their 40 year sojourn in the desert.  The commentaries are bothered as to why the Torah lists them all now.  We know most from earlier in the Torah.  What is the significance now of knowing the names of the oases in the desert at which they stopped?

Rashi says the reason is to tell us God’s goodness- that God did not forcemarch the people.  Since we know 14 of the places listed were reached in the first year of their travel in the book of Shemot and eight were in the last year, therefore over 38 years they only moved 20 times.   Thus most of the time in the desert  the Jewish people were at rest.  Maimonides gives a different reason-so that we would know the details of their miraculous travel and people in later generations would be able to read and believe the miraculous nature of God sustaining them in the desert.

The Seforno has a third explanation which I would like to explore: “God wanted to record the travels of the Jewish people through the desert to make known their merit in following God through the barren desert, in order that they would be fit to enter the land.”  We already know the Jewish people followed God through the desert on their way to Israel, how does highlighting their faith in following God through the desert make them fit to enter the land?

I think the Seforno is hinting at a deeper idea.   Entering the land is not just a reward for their faith in the desert but a consequence of it.  The new generation entering the land must know this now because it is this practice of faith, of optimism, of hope over the past 40 years,  which will make them the kind of people who are fitting and able, to do the hard work of becoming a nation in the land.  The “merit” for their faithful trek through the desert the Seforno refers to, is not a Divine reward, but a natural consequence.  Sometimes it first takes training to let go, in order to truly conquer and develop.

To travel through the barren desert with nothing takes not only faith but humility, a deep sense of trust, of the goodness of the universe, of the promise of a great mission, a deep sense of the mystical and that all things have a rhyme and reason and are moving toward a greater good.   This sense of the redemptive beyond the horizon is a unique vision of the Jewish people, one cultivated in that barron desert so long ago, and ironically one which will enable the Jewish people to be in charge in the land and cultivate a nation without revealed miracles and Divine care.

At our root we are all vulnerable and fragile.  Human beings think they are in control but know deep down that they are not.   Without a prior sense of trust in God, of faith and the deep down realization that we are not really in charge, that vulnerability can lead to ego and hughtyness as a defence mechanism against the knowledge of our true fragility.   But come to terms with this first throughout the 40 year trek in the desert, and we can build self reliance upon the required foundation of vulnerability, hope and truth.