Matot/Mas'ei (Updated)

One of the most well worn jokes around,

I believe it's number 1189:

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A guy brings his friend to the Master Joke Teller Convention.

Someone stands up and says “3” and everyone laughs.

Someone else belts out “9!” and the crowd goes wild.

The newcomer, finding the scene outrageous,

gets up and announces “11.” And no one laughs.

He asks his friend why no one laughed

and the friend replies “you told it wrong!”

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TThis came to mind as an introduction to Rabeinu Bachai's approach to the encampments listed in (one of) this week's parsha (parshot)

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Rabeinu Bachai addresses the question of the wisdom behind places listed in Mas’ei and suggests the following: The point of this itinerary is to remind people of all the miracles that occurred in all the places that G-d led them and that they survived the dangerous desert via G-d’s rotection rather than naturally. As they read through the list they recalled the specific miracles that transpired all along the way. Rabeinu Bachai points out that the words for nature and drowning are basically the same (Teva) to show that one can drown in the "natural" world. This list is meant as insurance against viewing our survival in the desert as a “natural”-G-d free experience.

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The lesson of this practically speaking is that in our own lives we are cared for by G-d, just as our ancestors were in the desert. Reading through the list of places where G-d cared for the generation of the desert should serve to remind us of the trajectory of our own journeys, and how G-d cares for us all along the way. They read of each place and were reminded of the well, and the man, and the clothes not wearing out. So too we should relfect on our life passages and recognize the miracles all along the way.

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It has been suggested (I recall hearing this from Rabbi Nathan Cardoza) that the difference between what we call nature and what we call miraculous is how often the phenomenon occurs. A seed put into the ground, followed by a plant sprouting is considered natural because it always happens. If a person were to be buried in the ground and then rise up again that would be considered a miracle because its not something you see every day.

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The story is told in the Talmud of a girl who mistakenly prepared vinegar instead of oil for Shabbos candles. She realized this right at the deadline and told her father. His reaction? He told her, "He who said that oil should burn will say that vinegar should burn." Miraculously, the vinegar burned. The rabbi's words sound like typical rabbinic verbosity; why did he say this longhand and not simply say that G-d would make the vinegar burn? The Sefat Emet explans that the rabbi wanted to stress this point: Oil only burns only because G-d says it should (as we say daily - G-d renews the works of creation every day).
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Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz suggests that the reason why The Rabbis considered deprving Megilat Esther of the holiness accorded other books of Tanach is the following: The Megila took place over a long period of years. If any of us would keep a diary over any chunk of our years and later look back at it we would find it miraculous to see how we moved from point A to point Z. In labeling the Megila as holy the Rabbis feared that the point - that anyone could write a similar story about Divine Providence in their own life - might be lost.
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A summer student once asked me if Judaism believes in coincidences. There are those that make a case for this being a complicated question. I fear that this is an area that we can not afford to complicate. The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that this matter is an essential of Jewish Faith. Every thing that happens in this world happens by G-d’s decree.
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Rabbi Yudi Shmuelevitz told me this next idea in his uncle's name. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz suggests a reason why Vayeitzei is the only parsha which has no spaces in it. Vayeitzei tells the story of Yaakov Avinu and the tribulations he experienced. If one were to pause along the way one would feel sorry for the terrible situations Yaakov endured. But the end of the parsha/story is that he was the father of the twelve Shevatim. You need to look at the whole picture in order to appreciate that all is for the best, as all is from G-d. This is the lesson of the fact that this story is told without a pause. So too with our lives, we need to look at the big picture rather than the little pieces for things to make more sense.

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I, like all of us, need to work on really believing that G-d runs the world. I will share just one personal thought. As I look back on the most recent years of my life I see and thank G-d for the miracle that is the tapping of my fingers right now. It wasn't that long ago that I feared computers. Today I blog regularly for interested individuals. This is one of the miracles of my life. I thank G-d for this miracle and look forward to working with Him on new projects
starting right now.

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