Numbers Cycle Four Massey 33:1 to 36:13

Massey



This weeks parsha is Massey, or journeys. Let’s begin with the basics. Of course, we can explain the one journey… this movement of the Israelites from place to place... as simply where we have to go to arrive at our destination. This is a necessary ground-level understanding, sort of like in the game Monopoly. We are the pieces on the board and we know where we need to go to win. I think though that it serves us well to look at journeys as it is written in the plural form, on a multitude of levels. Seen this way, the journey becomes the action of both outer and inner purification…that necessary preparation to merge with God. The mystic the Sfas Emet says this: It was only due to Israel’s preparation as they entered the land that the heavenly land of Israel descended upon the earthly land…It was this inward land that God showed Moses (p. 276 The Language of Truth, translated and interpreted by Arthur Green.)


How do we get from one level to the next? Ah, that’s the million dollar question.


Well as far as I can see, in Massey we get a list of the places…a Torah-map, a sort of how-we-get-there list. The rhythm and repetition and the overview helps us to see that it is a march forward, an inner march as well as outer, a human ordeal, a universal experience and yet so close-in. The review itself sends a hint that we’re almost there. So there’s excitement, a charge, electricity, that final push, that last mile in the marathon. You harness the energy. You know it’s there. The places or stops along the way can be likened to taking the Greyhound cross country. It includes all the wild, unexpected, joyous, shocking and sad experiences we would never expect in the silent but important small towns with their inhabitants and concerns. It includes how we might take on new self-stories and let some go. This transformation….within our hearts…tends to merge with each new place on the road. And suddenly we feel different, as if our whole body is receiving new boundaries.


Our inheritance is the final destination, after we have immersed ourselves in each new movement forward. After we have walked beyond our present reality, walked right out of our skin, to merge with the next reality and the next... and the next. We keep walking, or riding that bus and we keep moving out of ourselves, leaving behind that which can no longer merge with the next new place. We see that our body is experiencing its own journey…the brain-waves, the cells, the messages sent to hands and feet.


What happens to the words, ideas, visions, matter left behind? We relegate them to specific towns on the edge of our consciousness, keep them safe, know they are there. Sometimes we completely destroy them. And at the same time, we honor them. We know all by name, remember each step, each piece of ourselves we let- go-of. We possess it, not in a destructive sense, but as an embrace. And at the same time, we continue to make the effort to move forward to acquire our lot.


Do we destroy people? Of course not. Do we destroy the Canaanites or the Muslims or the Palestinians? Of course not. Just like we, the Israelites (anyone who prays to God) are the symbol for the divine sparks here on earth, the Shechinah (according to the kabbalists)…the Canaanites (anyone who prays to idols) are a symbol as well. It doesn’t mean that anyone is better than anyone else. The use of symbol to manifest all of these different aspects of ourselves opens doors and loosens the reign on an otherwise flat global understanding. It allows us to explore and accept even the most treacherous piece of the journey, our darkest shadows, our most gripping doubts. It creates white space for the light to flow-in. The Sfas Emet says…..The children of Israel are themselves “borders” into which the holiness can flow; it was as they entered into their physical borders that the upper Land “fell” into their inheritance.


How do we apply this to today? Love the body that holds your soul. Make the effort to move forward, to take that step, to be a part of the journey. Honor steps long since left behind. See these past places of fear and doubt as important steps that helped you to be where you are now. Honor others for being there. Know who you can heal and who might be before you on the same road…who can heal you. Have compassion. Look forward to places in the future. Know your boundaries. Know the edge of your boundaries, the fine details. Honor other vessels. Know the distinction, tribe within tribe. See that the firmer the boundaries the more chesed you can pour in. And yes, pour it in. Love and love and love more. Love the person who by mistake killed your partner. Just love. Do not confuse purification with destruction. Do not lose step in the journey. As we might experience in Monopoly…Do not go back to jail. Do not lose a hundred dollars. Know who you are.