This essay was meant to be for last week’s parasha, Massei, but the insight only came to me on Shabbat as I was reading the parasha and wandering, once again, what is the deeper significance of the Torah listing all 42 stops of the Israelites in the Wilderness? As I was going over the list, a few of the location names jumped out at me for being of great historical significance. What if, I thought, the 42 stops represent a historical timeline for all the major events in Jewish history, from the Exodus to the End of Days? Could it be that the Torah was encoding all the key national “journeys” of Israel in the future? As I went through them, it made more and more sense, and a neat picture of Jewish history emerged. I decided to write about it this week instead of saving it for next year because some of the “stops” on the Israelite journey are particularly relevant now, both in light of what is happening around the world and in the Holy Land, and as we get ready to commemorate Tisha b’Av this Sunday. Let’s take a deeper look at the 42 stops of the Israelite journey. Continue reading →