The Garden Within | MATTOT-MASSEI מַּטּוֹת-מַסְעֵי - Portion 42-43

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Teachers of Torah have coined the Hebrew term PaRDeS (פרדס – a word literally meaning “garden” or "orchid") to refer to a four-tiered system of biblical interpretation, which reveals that each word, verse, and story in the Bible could be simultaneously understood on four different levels.  

Through this year-long course, we will explore the very words of God from these levels of the garden.  The name The Garden Within was chosen for this teaching series because it adopts the PaRDeS system of learning and because it delights in the spiritual pleasure through reaching new understandings and being pierced by lightning flashes of the intellect. The pleasure gained, of course, also refers to the nearness we feel to God when learning His Word.

One of the primary goals of The Garden Within is to demonstrate that the “stories” in the Torah are not merely one-time occurrences, temporal incidents undergone by specific individuals long ago. Rather these stories are archetypal in nature, reflecting or representing various physical and spiritual energies ever present in all aspects of reality and within each and every person.  That is, the Torah is deeply personal and speaks directly to each individual reader for where they are in their life.  So, come, take a walk with God in the Garden of the Torah!

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Good evening, everyone, heir of 12. Welcome to the garden within. This evening we wrap up, say for Bahamid Bahar, that is the Book of Numbers with the double portion, which is Matot Masai. And so we'll bring that to a conclusion. And I thought uh bring a little bit of a treat since we're doing the garden within. And specifically, that means we're looking at uh the Torah with that uh garden perspective, right? In Hebrew, the word for garden or orchard is pardays, uh, which the commentators from the Hebraic perspective uh throughout the generations have used that as an acronym for Peshat, Remez, Drash, Sod, for the four levels of interpretation. Uh, and so that's kind of what we've been intentionally trying to do in uh this series. And so I thought uh tonight as we wrap it up, we'll do a little bit more of that, especially looking at uh some things with numbers again and breaking that down, um, including um the number 42, as that's significant in this portion a couple of different ways, uh, and some other uh aspects of breaking down what a vow is, as that's an important part of this week's portion. Uh and so that's kind of where we are headed. But let's get started with the blessing before the study of Torah. We pray. Baruchata Adanai, Elohinu Melakoilam, Ashekidishanu bomis vita, vesevanu le sok bidibrei Torah. Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and has commanded us to be immersed to the words and the matters of Torah. Amen. So, as I said, we are in a double portion to wrap up the book of Numbers, which is portions number 42 and 43 of the Torah's 54 portions. Uh, those two portions are known as Matot and Masé, covers Numbers chapter 30 through 36, uh and uh kind of uh wraps up the uh Torah, the book of Numbers and the uh wilderness wanderings, if you will, uh, by talking about uh the importance of taking on a vow. So we'll look a little bit into what that is uh and why it's sacred and holy and why it should be entered into with fear and trembling. Um but also uh the 42 stops, if you will, are kind of rehearsed or remembered. So when the children of Israel were journeying throughout the wilderness for 40 years, uh they had 42 destinations, right? And so an important axiom in your Hebraic toolbox, right, is places are never just places, and of course, names are never just names, and so uh the names of those places are important, and so though the the the bigger kind of blueprint idea uh is that that wandering in the wilderness is kind of a blueprint for every person's life, right? That in one way or another we're all kind of going through a wilderness journey in our own life, right? There'll be times where um we feel we're prospering, or feel at times we're succeeding, or we're moving well along our path. There'll be other times where we feel we are dying of thirst or dying of hunger, we feel God has abandoned us, where we are struggling and we wonder if God is even listening or if he even exists and if life is worth even living anymore. Uh, and that's all part of living in the wilderness. Those are all different stops along the way. And so each of the journeys for the children of Israel in some ways connect to journeys we make in our own life. And that's why knowing the meaning of the names of those places and so forth are important. So if you go to the archives of, uh I always encourage you to listen to the archives. Not only do we discuss that in previous um Monday evening classes, but there is a PDF uh that lists the 42 stops, right? The names of them and what those names translate to, what those meanings are, and even how we can relate to them in our own journey. So we won't go into that kind of in-depth with it this evening because we have before. Uh, and so you can always listen to the archives. So those archives are there for your edification, right? And for your review or for your discovery for the very first time. Uh, but they are there, but that's a very, very important concept in the book of Numbers, so that you realize you're not just reading history of something that some ancient Israelites did 3,000 years ago, though you are, and though that's true, uh, you're also reading something very practical and applicable to your life. Uh, we'll hint at that a little bit tonight, but because we hint at it tonight, I want you to be aware that the resources to go more in depth we have on our website, okay? Um, and you can check that out in Echoes of Eden, uh, and you can check that out in Sun Inscriptures. Okay, those are the two kind of like we have the garden within, previous uh iterations of our Monday night classes. Check those out for deeper dives into Matot Masé, uh for different perspectives of that. All right, so let's look into the text here and let's look at the unique qualities of uh Val. So Numbers chapter 30, verse 2. Uh it says here, and Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, This is the matter that the Lord has commanded. So this is kind of going to be a lesson uh of importance of paying attention to how uh times when Moses is speaking in the Torah, how he reports to the children of Israel and by extension to us, how he received the information from God. Okay, so different times he prefaces it with different expressions. This is one of the more less common ways, all right, when he says, This is the matter that the Lord has commanded. Uh that's a less common way. Uh, and so we're gonna talk about what that means. Okay, so in commenting on Matot's opening verse, uh Rashi in the Kumish notes that there is a difference between the prophecy of Moses and that of all of the other prophets, that in many ways Moses is kind of the prophet par excellence, he's the the greater of all of the Old Testament prophets. And and this is because of his very unique relationship with God from uh the burning bush and from Sinai and the descriptions where he was able to see essentially God face to face, where he was able to at least as close as anyone's come to that, where when he wanted to really experience the fullness of God, God at least acquiesced and let him see kind of the backside of him and so forth. God refers to him in terms of being a friend. We've talked about how uh Moses was able to communicate with God almost on that friend level and even kind of um, you know, the chutzpah he would have with God. And so Rashi says, you know, when you compare Moses to the other prophets, uh, he's at a different level. And while all of the other prophets, and and including Moses at times, in fact, much of the time for Moses, they would often introduce their prophecies to the people, or it gets reported in the scriptures with kind of a phrase that says, Thus the Lord says, or in King James English, thus saith the Lord, right? Kind of gets reported in that way. But occasionally Moses, and only Moses, would begin with the phrase, this is the matter that the Lord has commanded. Instead of thus says the Lord, or thus saith the Lord, it's this very unique, this is the matter. Not thus says the Lord, but this is the matter that the Lord has commanded. And these phrases, the difference in them actually alludes to two different types of prophecy, two different types of things being communicated. And so we need to pay attention to that. And that's very important when you're reading through the scriptures. When things are reported differently, when different vocabulary is used, uh that's on purpose. And so uh all the other prophets, and when you read through them, you'll see that they received their visions, and that's what they're usually recorded as, their visions through what has traditionally been described as an unclear, hazy lens or some kind of dreamlike status. While Moses, as the scriptures describe, was able to speak to God essentially in Hebrew panim al-panim, face-to-face. Uh that is not so much they saw God face to face, but they communicated as face to face. They had a communication level that was on a different level than God had with any of the other prophets. No other prophet was described as communicating with God, panim al-panim, face to face. Um, and so the difference between these two forms of communication, where it's coming through dreams, it's coming through visions, uh, that's kind of um hazy versus at times Moses having this translucent lens of face to face is contrasted between the words thus and this, thus saith the Lord, and this is the matter. In other words, other prophets received what were inherently less clear, more symbolic kind of dreams and visions that they then had to translate into allegorical language that would be appropriately understood by their audiences. Only Moses received and transmitted the actual words spoken directly by God, and that's indicated when you see this phrase, this is the matter that the Lord has commanded. That's when Moses is letting you know that what follows is in quotation marks from God, quite literally. And so Matot, this this the first of this week's double portion, begins with the mitzvot, the connections, the laws concerning the vows, and opens with the words, this is the matter that the Lord has commanded. And as I said, the phrase does appear elsewhere, but it is less common than the thus saith the Lord. And so we may wonder why Moses specified that this is exactly what God commanded in this particular case, instead of choosing to explain it, you know, God splain it for them as he did most of the time. And so the Torah approach to making vows is complicated by the fact that most commentators on Scripture, most of the sages that write commentaries on Scripture, have taught that it's much better not to make vows at all. And right, we probably have even heard that ourselves. Uh, since permission to make vows opens us up to the possibility of people making vows that they cannot, that they should not, or that they will not keep, uh, there's the strong warning against making any vows in the first place, right? Uh and so the sages understood that in too many instances, vows are made in the heat of the moment, in a fit of anger, are under extreme stress, and they don't reflect the people's real desires or attitudes. And, you know, you can think about, right, the foxhole promises and things like that. And so the Torah itself stresses the importance of keeping one's word because it recognizes these dangers. And so it says in the next verse, Numbers 30, verse 3. If a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds from his mouth. Now, given this state of affairs, the following question should obviously be asked. Why then does the Torah allow for vows at all? In answering this question, we will also shed light on why this set of laws is introduced by the words signifying that this is the matter that the Lord has commanded. Although it is true that many, if not most, vows are made in moments of weakness or under psychological pressure, sometimes vows can have a positive effect. Sometimes vows provide people with the necessary resolve that they need in order to change a relationship or a situation they find themselves in, or even their very lives. Every strategy and plan they have tried may have failed, and so they may desperately need something to cling to that will get them through the day or that will lead them to the next morning. When all other options have failed and all of the rule books and law books have not shown the way, the Torah permits individuals to make personal vows to steal themselves to achieve their goals. And so our good friend in the Guardi Within, good old Rabbi Shlomo Karlbach, I've shared him with you many times. He's one of uh he's of saintly memory now, but he is one of my favorite rabbis because he was a favorite teacher of many of my teachers. He taught that even though the Torah is a constant source of inspiration and advice and is an incredible guide in navigating the realities of this world, he says, you know, sometimes the answers to some of the most important questions that we find popping up in our lives, we don't always find them neatly formulated in the black and white writings in the Bible. For instance, and for example, we may not find, if we're deciding, you know, is this person that I'm dating, should I marry them? Well, there's a good chance we're not gonna be able to find in the Gospel of John where it says, You Chad, thou shalt marry Trisha, right? It probably is not going to say that anywhere in the Bible. It's never gonna be that clear, right? It's just not gonna be like that. And there's gonna be lots of instances in the Bible where things we are going through in life, it's just not gonna be spelled out quite that black and white, uh, not only with who and when to marry, but where to live or even what profession to pursue. And even when the Torah does provide that sound advice in that black and white form, as it can and does many a time, it's also not easy to integrate that wisdom into our decision-making process or to change some of our deeply ingrained attitudes. And for these reasons, the Torah allows people to make vows for a limited time to help them achieve specific goals. And so what's going on in the Torah is this with a vow. Here in a nutshell is what a vow is. A vow is when God allows a person to establish an individual, unique mitzvah. Right? So let's review what a mitzvah is, right? A mitzvah in Hebrew comes from the root zafta. Now that's often, most commonly going to be translated into English as commandment. But we've learned that's probably not the best translation because we often associate commandment in English with a strict set of rules, do this and don't do that. That's not really in Biblical Hebrew what's behind mitzvah or zafta. Uh, it has a component of that, but uh the real emphasis behind it is that this exists so that you can make a connection. In fact, in modern Hebrew, this root is used for the formation of the word for team, right? That you you will function and make this connection as a team, right? That what's a team? It's when everybody's connecting and working together. And so God is given these mitzvahs, right? So not so that he's just saying do this and don't do that arbitrarily, but he's saying, these are ways you connect with me, and these are ways that I can connect with you. See, then it's not so much a cruel God or an arbitrary deity in the sky just spitting out rules at us that make no sense to us, right? Instead, it's a loving God who says, I want a relationship with you. And because I want that relationship with you, I'm going to give you means. This should start sounding familiar to us in the church, right? I'm going to give you means of grace. So, you know, do this, right? Take bread and wine and do this in remembrance of me. And when you do this, that sounds very commandment-like, doesn't it? But when we do this, we aren't just doing it and obeying for random reasons, hoping we don't get struck by lightning. When we do it, we know we're encountering the real presence of our Messiah. We know we're receiving the body and blood, we know we're receiving the forgiveness of our sins. We are making a real connection between heaven and earth, right? That's the real meaning of mitzvah. And so in this week's Torah portion, when it starts talking about these vows, it's essentially saying, kind of like if you were in college, I remember when I was in university, I went to a very small private liberal arts college, and that uh afforded a lot of freedom uh because it basically meant if they didn't have a class for you, you could create your own class. And the rule was, the official rule was if you can find a professor that'll agree to supervise it and teach it, you can we'll give you credit for it. Like if you you and a professor can figure out a syllabus and all of that. So I remember I wanted to learn about mathematics, Mozart, and the golden mean, and how Mozart's piano concertos all followed the golden mean, and that's why so many people who didn't even like classical music still love to listen to Mozart's concertos and so forth. So I went to a music professor and I went to a math professor and I told them about it, and they were like, that sounds awesome, let's do it, right? I had I got five hours credit for that, right? That you know, I had to break the paper. I created my own class, right? So this is basically what a vow is is God saying, if the 613 connections that I've created for you, if you're not finding one that's kind of jiving with you at the moment, like well, let's find one for you, right? Let's find one for you. Let's let's find a way that you can make this connection with me so that we can develop this relationship that is needed, right? Something that can strengthen you so that you can follow through and implement something that's fundamental to your growth, something that's a life changing, um, that can help you grow and closer to your creator. And so this explains why the Torah then introduces all of these rules and regulations about it with this is the matter that the Lord has commanded. It reflects the fact that the vows need to be crystal clear. Right. And sharply focused. Just like when I wanted to create my own college class, I couldn't just like make something up and go, you know, be very nebulous about it. Like it had to be very specific. It had to be outlined. Here are the assignments. Here's the books I'm going to read. The professors had to say, here's how we're going to test them. And you know, here's how we're going to grade them. Here's going to be the standards. It needs to be very crystal clear. It needs to be sharply focused. And it needs to be a way that will allow the individual to accomplish what elsewhere would not have been there to allow them to do so. And in this sense, the vow must be as clear as the type of prophecy that Moses had when he received the Torah from God at Sinai. And that's why he says, this is the matter. He's saying, if you're going to do this, which it gives very clear warnings about, be very careful when you do it, right? And that's why most of the advice is you probably really shouldn't do it, right? You got to be very careful because you're going to be held to it. But if you're going to do it, it needs to be very, very clear. And it needs to be very specific. An additional fascinating aspect regarding these ideas is also revealed by the fact that the Hebrew word for vow in Hebrew is nader, which begins with the letter nun. And we've been playing around with the letter nun for a while. It was a big part of last week's portion, and it was a big part of the portion the week before with Pincus. So the last two portions have had the letter nun as a unique symbol in it. The spear that Pincus took was shaped like the final letter nun, right? We talked about that. And the Hebrew word Mishpatan, we talked about last week, denoting the daughters of Zehlaph's case, ended with the unusually large final nun in the Torah scroll. In both of those cases, the nun symbolize the ability to focus completely, to harness all of one's physical and spiritual energy in order to boldly stride forward and accomplish one's goal. And so we have that nun continuing to manifest itself. And it's going to show up again in the portion as we keep going. Pincus was able to galvanize all 248 of his limbs, the Gamatria of Romach, as we talked about last week, to complete his mission. And likewise, the purpose of a vow was to help people concentrate all of their energies in order to accomplish a goal that to that point had been unattainable for them. It is as if the individual taking a vow is metaphorically picking up a spear in his or her hand and spearing the chosen target with every ounce of their mental, physical, and spiritual energy. And in this way, a vow can hit the bullseye like nothing else and is similar to the clear prophetic vision, a face-to-face, a panim, al-panim with the divine. In the Hebraic tradition, it teaches that if we make an effort to reach out to God, right? And this is also in the book of James as well in the New Testament, God responds and grants assistance from on high. This is called an awakening below, causes an awakening from above. Making a vow is an excellent example of our taking the initiative, showing God our commitment in order to elicit his assistance. Even more crucially, a vow awakens people's latent willpower and their inner strength so that they can accomplish something under which ordinary circumstances would be impossible. The faithful servant. So as we have seen in this year's journey through the Torah, the Garden Within, we have been analyzing at times words according to their letters and seeing how that yields deeper and profound meaning. So one of the things I wanted to do, one of my goals in the Garden Within, was to share with you from the Eastern tradition and the Hebraic tradition, the biblical tradition, their biblical, the way they approach biblical interpretation. It's different than it's done in the West. And one of that is how they look at words and how they derive meaning from those words. And so this is an intrinsic part of the pardays system. Peshat, remesh, darash, and so on. So if we look at the Hebrew word for vowel, ne der and we split it into its syllables, we get two words. Ne and dare. Alright? Which actually means in Hebrew the letter nun dwells. If you take ne der and make it ne der, it means the letter nun dwells. Alright? And we've talked about in the garden within uh one of the things they also like to do is change word order. We don't do this in our biblical interpretation. Primarily, by the way, the reason we don't do it is we don't have the original language. So doing this in English, right, wouldn't make much sense. Okay, um, this is called permutation, but permutation is incredibly common uh in a Hebraic approach to scripture. If you permute this, then you get um rad, which means the letter nun descends. And as we also discussed last week, the letter nun is one of five letters that actually has two written forms. When it's written in the beginning of a letter or in the middle of a letter, it's written one way, and when it's written at the end of a word, it's written another way. Okay, so it has two forms. Okay. Due uh to this fact, right? Um one, when it's at the beginning in the middle, it has a bent over nature. Okay, it's it's kind of a straight line with two bends. So it's bent over. In fact, that's often how it's described, the bent over letter. And when it's at the end, it's straight up and down and long. And that's called faithful. It's very faithful. So it's bent over and it's faithful. When you spell out the letter nun in Hebrew, it's nun nun. But it has the bent over and the faithful form, which the Talmud then says it's bent over and faithful. The long straight line of the final form and its original form, the straight and unboundly faithful form. So supporting this characterization, the letter nun also appears in the middle of the words for poor in Hebrew, ani, humble, anav. So usually people take vows only when they have reached lowly and humble states of mind, figuratively bent over from the weight of life's challenges. They must, as it were, bend down, search deep within themselves, and then they find the strength and the inspiration to be faithful and straight. Oftentimes, making a vow enables people to discover the strength to get back on their feet, to figuratively rise up, straighten out like the final nun. A beautiful example of the relationship between these two forms of the nun is inner is uh, I think, illustrated by Joshua, Moses' successor, who remember in last week's portion was named as Moses' successor. In the Torah, Joshua is often called Joshua, the son of Nun. Okay. Now, on a Peshat level, this simply means that his father's name was Nun. However, on a deeper level, in the garden and parades, it gives rise to a whole host of meanings. Indeed, Joshua is the paradigm of the faithful servant, who the Torah testifies, quote, never left Moses' tent, Exodus 33, 11, meaning he never left his side, and tent also means like house of study. So he was perpetually Moses' student. He was always learning from Moses. That's Exodus 33, 11. So after a lifetime of humbly serving Moses, and more importantly, receiving the written and oral traditions directly from Moses, just as Moses had received them from God himself, Joshua stands tall himself and becomes the leader. So just as he was originally bent over and humble, like the beginning nun, he eventually becomes the final nun, the leader. Since the word nun can also mean fish in Aramaic, this also alludes to the deep connection between Moses and Joshua. Firstly, Moses received his name from the daughter of Pharaoh after she received him from the water. Exodus chapter 2, verse 10. She called his name Moses, as she said, for from the water I drew him. Just so you know, Moses, Moshe is not a Hebrew name. It's an Egyptian name, and it's related to the water. Secondly, as Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg explains, that Joshua was immersed in the sea of wisdom that he learned from Moses, like a fish swimming in the sea. And drawing this analogy to one of its logical conclusions, Rabbi Ginsburg notes that Moses, Joshua's teacher and spiritual father, was himself drawn from the water like a fish. And God himself describes Moses as his faithful servant in Numbers 12, verse 7. And the Torah additionally says of Moses, Numbers 12, verse 3, that he was the most humble man on the face of the earth. This reveals a profound connection between humility and leadership. Humbleness does not mean allowing everyone to walk all over you so that you are a weak and ineffectual leader. It means achieving a sincere existential sense of humbleness in relation to God. And this state of mind is actually the prerequisite of true Hebraic Torah leadership, as demonstrated by Moses and the other leaders who have come throughout history after Moses, including Joshua. And so the word Nun also means kingship. One of Messiah's names, according to the sages, is Yinun. And there you see the Nun. As David writes in Psalm 72, verse 17. The sages interpreted the phrase translated as his name shall rule as his name is Yunun. They took Yunun instead of rule to be a name. So one of Messiah's name. So one of Messiah's names has nun in it. Messiah, like Moses before him, combines humility and leadership, little nun, big nun, to become the ultimate leader. Again, all alluded in the letter Nun. The dynamics of the journey. Numbers 33, verse 2. And Moses wrote their going forth according to their journeys at the command of the Lord. And these were their journeys according to their going forth. So this is from Masse, the very last portion in the book of Numbers. It marks the end of Israel's 40 years sojourning in the desert, in the wilderness. The entire book of Deuteronomy, which we will begin next week, actually takes place over just a 37-day period. So when you read the book of Numbers, that's 40 years. When you read the book of Deuteronomy, that's 37 days. The book of Deuteronomy is basically Moses' last will and testament. It's Moses on his deathbed. It's Moses in hospice care. It's Moses knowing the end is most definitely at hand. He just doesn't know the exact day and hour, but he knows it's 100% imminent. It's 37 days, right? And so it's everything that he wants to say before he dies. And in many ways, it's a complete rehashing of Exodus through Numbers and 37 days. That he wants to make sure that the children of Israel fully have rehearsed, grasped, and understood before they cross over the Jordan and enter into the land. And so here in Masé, we're ending the journey. We're coming to the end of the 40 years. And so in Massey, the Torah summarizes the 42 journeys. So in those 40 years, they stopped at 42 locations. So when it would say they came here and then they went here, there were 42 of those locations that occurred in Israel's wandering in the wilderness. From the time they left Egypt to their current encampment in the plains of Moab, across from the Jordan River from Jericho. So that's where they're at. Modern day Jordan is where this portion. The last portion of Numbers, you're in modern day Jordan. If you look in a map in your Bible or even modern day map, and you find Jericho, and you find the Jordan River, and you just go right across from there, right? That's where they're at. Okay, that's the same spot that eventually Elisha will see Elijah ascend into heaven, and that'll be the same spot Jesus comes to be baptized by John the Baptist. So a very, very significant cosmic hot spot, if you will. But that's where they're located. These journeys are introduced, if you paid attention there to Numbers 33, verse 2, in a way that creates a mirror image. This is always important in Torah. Always pay attention to word orders and verses. And Moses wrote their going forth according to their journeys at the command of the Lord, and these were their journeys according to their going forth. So the words going forth and journeys are found in the first half of the verse. They appear in the opposite order in the second half of the verse. So if you're thinking from a Hebraic perspective, from a Hebraic mindset, that's important. It's not just redundancy. It's not just you could cut out the second part of the verse because it's saying the same thing, because just looking at it in English, it is just saying the same thing, and it is redundant, and you could shorten that verse in half, right? But you don't want to do that because then you'll lose the meaning, right? It matters. So in the Art Scroll Humish, Rabbi Shimson Raphael Hirsch, he comments on the significance of this inversion. He says the first half of the verse, they're going forth according to their journeys, is written from God's perspective, as each time they went forth, their journey had a specific purpose. While the second half of the verse is written from the people's perspective. Since the people were often restless or dissatisfied, the journey itself is emphasized and not its purpose. As the verse makes clear, the journeys were more about leaving than about going anywhere. Their journeys according to their going forth. This point, although subtle, is so true. Oftentimes we have the forethought to map out our next moves in life in keeping with our long-term plans with regard to a broader vision of where we might be going in life. And sometimes, though, we really do not know what we should what should be coming next, but our intuition at best or our fears at worst compel us to make a move without fully knowing what the ramifications of such a move might be. And so both of those kind of tensions are contained in that verse. And that's why it's repeated the way it is, right? Sometimes you know all about it and you get this perfect plan and you're headed on this track, and other times you're just going by intuition or fear and you're not really sure what's up, right? And it's kind of both end. So the sages actually suggest that in certain circumstances, a change of physical location actually provides us with a new perspective on our lives, and it can motivate us to even change our fate. Or alternatively, it can cause our fate to be changed on a metaphysical level. Although following a well-thought-out plan in many ways is the ideal way to pursue what we believe is our purpose in life, in retrospect, even acting on our intuition or even out of fear can also turn out to be, as the verse states, at the command of God. So both can be part of God's will. Both can be part of God's plan. Both can turn out for what is best for us. One senses a dynamic, pulsating energy in the summary of the journeys, which is dramatically captured by the unique way the words are chanted during the public Torah reading. So when a Torah scroll is brought out, the Torah is never read, it's always sung. It's always chanted. And it has a melody. And the melodies, if you're Jewish and you attend synagogue, they're as familiar to you as you know, Amazing Grace is to a lifelong Christian or how great thou art, or pick a famous or popular contemporary song, one that people, if there are regulars in church, when they hear it, they know what it is. Even if they don't know all of the lyrics, they at least know to hum along to it, right? You recognize it. That is the lyrics of the Torah. There's only so many of them. This particular portion of the Torah shares its melody with one other portion in the Torah. The only other time this unique melody is used is when the song of the sea is read slash sung in public. And there too the energy is palpable as the Hebrews have just escaped from Egypt and have seen their pursuers drowned in the sea of reeds. And according to the Kasudut, this teaches us that the Torah provides each and every person and every generation with practical instructions. And these 42 journeys, they are the archetypal pattern for every individual's life journey. And just as there was a path out of Egypt, there was the journey out of Egypt when the journey began. So it's book-in melodies, right? So it's very fitting. And it's a reminder. It's a reminder of that, and that these are the archetypal journey. This is every person's journey, even though each person will experience in their own unique way. Rabbi Yitzek Ginsburg notes the beautiful correspondence between the 42 journeys and the 42 times the Hebrew root for love, ahava, appears in the five books of Moses. So when you read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the five books of the Torah, it has the word love 42 times. And so there is a connection with the 42 times of love and the 42 times of the stops along the journey. And furthermore, Rabbi Ginsberg notes that these 42 locations correspond with the 42 letter name of God. So there are many names of God. One of them Is 42 letters long. It's commemorated in the prayer of the Anabukoach. And the association of these various sets of 42 teach us that each of the journeys in the wilderness as well as each person's journey throughout their life take place within the overall context of God's love. Despite sometimes being filled with obstacles, failures, frustrations, uncertainties, and other wilderness-like experiences, God is there, God is journeying with you, God is governing you, and God is there loving you. Knowing that God's love for each and every person forms the basic existential parameters in which we operate, has the power to turn our obstacles into challenges, our trials into opportunities, and our adversities into triumphs. As each place along the journey is mentioned in the Torah, the same formula is repeated. They journeyed from, fill in the blank, and they camped in, fill in the blank. This pattern alludes to how all process and progress works in a dynamic ebb and flow of starts and stops, of activity and rest, taking the initiative and then passively receiving. The same dynamic forms the basic structure of Hebrew time, such as six days of work followed by a time of rest, six years of work followed by the sabbatical year. In Hebrew thought, this is energetic ebb and flow known as run and return, a phrase borrowed from Ezekiel 1.14, when Ezekiel saw in his vision the angelic movement of the run and return of the angels from above. This pulsation of run and return manifests itself throughout creation, throughout nature, throughout our life. And once we can begin to realize run and return is a rhythm of life, we can be more attuned to recognize it when it is happening in our life, and then perhaps more attuned to jump into that rhythm and master it. So whether it's from the contraction and expansion at the very origin of the universe, to the beating of our hearts and the pulse of the blood running through our arteries and our veins, from the exhalation and the inhalation of breath to the highs and lows of human emotions, from the cycles of the seasons to the ebb and flows of the tides, from the give and take of relationships to the cycle of life and death mirrored by the pulsating rhythm of motion within every cell and atom, the journeys and encampments in the wilderness allude to a further manifestation of this dynamic. The ongoing cycle of exile and redemption that have formed the parameters of history and leave a deep impression on all of God's people. A beautiful remes, a hint to the pulse of life encoded in these journeys, is found in the numerical value of the very word of the final portion, Masé. Masé equals 180 when you add up its letters. 180 is ten times eighteen. Eighteen is the numerical value of the Hebrew word for life, Chai. Ten times a number symbolizes the activation of that word or its concept's inherent potential. And so what that means for you with this week when you read Ma Sei is this. This portion's journeys represents the manner in which the people's latent potential becomes activated and realized, and Israel becomes a true nation. And so what it means for you is this is the week where latent potential, where what you can become, or what lays dormant inside of you, what your potential, what God has created you to be, what your purpose in this universe is for, what is laying dormant inside of you, the gift the Spirit has given you, it becomes active. And it can become activated this week. And that holds true for each person as he or she makes their way through their life's journey. And so part of it is also to look through those 42 journeys and find out maybe where you are at in that journey, to find out: are you running or are you returning? Are you ebbing? Are you flowing? Are you filling up? Or are you giving out? Are you receiving or are you giving? Are you draining? Are you being filled up? Like what is going on in that? And where are you in that process? And how are you with accepting it and getting into that rhythm? Massey says, this is the time to activate all of that. The inverse construction of that verse, introducing the journeys, as well as the juxtaposition of journeys and encampments, also provides us with deep insight into the nature of process and progress, especially when we are able to view it retrospectively. Sometimes those very periods in life when we thought we were forging forward and conquering mountains, when we look back, we actually see that we were spinning our wheels and going nowhere. And fueled by a host of factors, from ego to peer pressure, from base desire to instant gratification, in retrospect, the glitter and the excitement of those glorious days turned out to be false gold and the product of a wasted time or far worse. Alternatively, when we look back, some of our least glorious periods in our lives, when we remained relatively stationary and bit the bullet to build a career or to build our family, to raise our children, save money, accomplish a life dream, are engaged in some kind of restraint or restriction or discipline, either to conquer a serious character flaw or something else, those often turn out to be the times when we actually grew and progressed the most. When mapped out, the journeys and encampments in the wilderness seem to lack any coherent rationale or direction. If you take the 42 encampments and you try to map them on a map, they aren't following anything that makes sense. They're all over the place. They go to some places more than once. They're not taking the most direct route, they're not taking the shortest route, they're not taking the safest route, they're not avoiding the enemy. There's nothing logical to it. They're all over the map, right? But wandering aimlessly in the wilderness, does that not in many times describe the path we take when we are progressing through our own life? One step forward and two steps back is the popular phrase that sums up much of how we experience life. Yet when God grants us a certain level of retrospective clarity, we can perceive how every step of the way played an integral part of formulating the whole. And the same will be true with Israel. It makes no sense intellectually, cognitively, it makes no sense strategically or militarily or politically, but from a spiritual point of view, it took 40 years and 42 stops to get the Egypt out of the people. God got them out of Egypt overnight, but it took them 42 stops and 40 years to get the Egypt out of them. And it took it in that order and in that way and over that period of time to prepare them to be able to enter into the land. And so sometimes our life may seem random, sometimes it may seem haphazard, sometimes it may not make sense, sometimes it may seem cruel, sometimes it may seem unfair. And we may not have any clue. It may seem completely aimless. At some point, by God's grace, there will be some retrospective glory to it. And we'll go, but that's why I am what I am now. That's what allowed me to be here. That's what allowed me to meet this person. That's what allowed me to know this. That's what allowed me to grow here. That's what allowed me to be what I am now. Same thing. Our journeys in life can be good. So in this portion at the end of the book of Numbers, and after 40 years in the wilderness and 42 stops, the Torah seeks to reveal the hidden logic that was at play from the very beginning, all the way in the book of Exodus when they left Egypt. People at the end of their lives also tend to review their lives retrospectively, through what one hopes is the wisdom acquired along the way. Few things are sadder to witness than an elderly person bitter and disappointed at what he or she did with the precious gift of life. If we realize throughout that God's loving kindness, the 42 times God's love is mentioned in the Torah, that God's love is always accompanying us every step of the way, when we make our final accounting of our lives, the bottom line should be fundamentally positive, because we will see that all along the way, God's love, most especially expressed to us in the gift that is his son, the Messiah, was always accompanying us along the way to bring us into relationship with him, so that in the end we would enter into the promised land, that is, into eternal life with him. Abraham's journey. The number 42. Again, the number of journeys mentioned in this week's portion, final portion, has many deep associations in Hebraic mystical thought. The Hebraic prayer, the Anabakoach, is one of them. Another one is connected to Abraham. The prophet Isaiah says this in Isaiah 41, verse 8. But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham who loved me. The numerical value of the phrase, the seed of Abraham who loved me, in Hebrew as Zerah Avraham Ohavi. That equals, when you add up the letters, 543. Which equals the same as the name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush when he said, I will be, that I will be. And the word in Hebrew for I will be is ehy. Eye by itself equals 21. I will be. When you take the fact that eye is repeated twice in Exodus, 21 plus 21 is 42. The same number of journeys experienced by the seed of Abraham. And this alludes to the idea that our journeys in life are the way we realize on a personal level how I will be what I will be. Your journeys through life make you what you will be. Parenthetically, when the two names of God from the full name I will be, that I will be, yeah, when you square 21, 21 times 21, that equals 441. 441 in Hebrew is emet, which means truth. And this supports the sage's teaching that God's seal is truth, emet. And it is interesting to note that Jacob and Abraham are spoken about in another verse in Micah chapter 7, verse 20. You will give truth, emet, to Jacob, loving kindness, chesed to Abraham, which you swore to our forefathers from days of yore. You will give 441 to Jacob. You will give chesed to Abraham. Now squaring a number reveals its full manifestation. And we can learn from this that each person's fulfillment of their potential is what establishes their own unique truth. In the very first communication from God to Abraham, God tells Abraham back in Genesis 12, Lechlecha, right? Go, go. Leave his land, leave his birthplace, leave his father's home, leave everything that's familiar to him, leave his language, leave where he grew up, leave his relatives, leave his house, leave everything absolutely familiar. Leave it all, and then God doesn't even tell him where he's gonna go. I'll show it to you later. Just get pack up and just go. Lake Lachah. Just get up and go. I'll show you later where you're gonna go. The Torah records many other journeys undertaken by Abraham as well. One statement regarding these journeys uses the same root word as the name of this week's portion, Masi. In Genesis 12, 9, Abraham traveled via Yasa from the same route as Masé, continually traveling southward. The direction of south in Hebraic thought always refers to and connects to Kesed, the attribute most associated with Abraham, loving kindness. Therefore, this verse is interpreted to mean that wherever Abraham was traveling, he was always going southward, always traveling towards Kesed, always traveling with deeds of loving-kindness and grace and compassion. The idea that Abraham was always traveling with an attitude of loving-kindness connects to a teaching of Rabbi Yitzhek Ginsburg, who notes a deep connection between the 42 journeys in the wilderness and the 42 times the Hebrew word for love appears in the books of the Torah. This teaches us that each of the journeys in the wilderness and each person's journey through life will always occur in the overall context of God's love and God's concern. For ultimately, God's desire for the best is for the best for each person. Life, of course, has its constant challenges, but knowing that the journey of life is meant for our good gives us strength to rise to the occasion. The sages say in Tractate Sota, the actions of the forefathers are to be signs to the children. And Paul echoes this when he says that what happened in the wilderness, what happened with the patriarchs, was to be lessons for us. The thoughts, the speech, the actions of the patriarchs and the matriarchs not only paved the way for their spiritual children, they were archetypal in nature, engraving reality for the future generations. The words of the Almighty to Abraham, Lake Leka, is not just an emphasis of go, go, but l'cha also means to yourself. So the true mission of Abraham was to go, Lech, Lachha, go to yourself. So he wasn't just to go on a physical journey, but he was to go on an inner journey as well. And so every journey, not only those taken by the Israelites and their 40 years in the wilderness, but every journey we take, every journey you take, is a challenge and an opportunity to journey within. The dynamic of go to yourself applies to every person and every generation. Abraham was the trailblazer for each one of us, and to remind us that we are always traveling south. We are always traveling with Chesed. We are always traveling with God's loving kindness. And God is always going with us, always going with us to bring about what is best for us. And there we will conclude the book of numbers. So gave you a little bit of the garden perspective tonight with the book of numbers, playing with some numbers. So hopefully you caught a little my garden catch there with numbers. All right. But next week we will pick it up in the book of Deuteronomy. And again, Deuteronomy will cover just the 37-period day, the last 37 days of Moses' life. That's what the book of Deuteronomy is about. And it is Moses being retrospective. And in some ways, he's nostalgic. And you and so it's like in some ways it's like sweet and kind and and loving and the way you would think like a nostalgic old grandfather would be. And in other ways, he's like old and grumpy and like ticked, like like you would think an old grumpy man would be. Like, like, get this right, dad gummit, right? Like uh he's um he's still kind of insistent on some things. So uh it's it's it's it's it's a good review. That's and that's why in Hebrew it's not called Deuteronomy, right? It's called you know, it's got it, it's called Devarim, words. It's called Deuteronomy, and from the Septuagint in the Vulgate, the Latin and the Greek, um uh Deuteronomy basically meaning a second law, meaning second giving, because it basically reiterates, it's like reading everything over again, but in a synopsis form, and that's kind of what Moses is doing. Um so you kind of get what Moses thinks is important from Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Uh so we'll pick that up next week, and we'll do so again with a little bit of the garden perspective. So let's close with the blessing. Baruchata alonai notain hatarah. 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