We will discuss a Bitachon-related Dvar Torah from Parashat Matot-Masei, which always comes out during the 3 weeks.
In Parashat Masei (which means travels) we read of the 42 stops Bnei Yisrael made in the desert. Our rabbis tell us that just as they made 42 stops then, there will be 42 stops that will happen to the Jews of the future as well.
Just like there it was על פי ה׳ ינחו ,ועל פי ה׳ יסעו
Every travel they made was because Hashem told them it was time to leave. Sometimes they only stayed for a day or two, other times it was for week and sometimes they stayed for years in the same place. Only when the cloud moved did they know it was time to pack up and move on.
Our rabbis tell us this traveling holds for Galut as well. First we were sent to Spain, then to Syria. When the time finally comes, we will all move on to next spot. That’s how it works. Hashem moves us from place to place
It’s been said in the name of Rav Chaim Volozhin that the final stop of this Galut will be America. That will be the last stop of the Torah over the generations. We are in the 42nd and last travel of the generations.
It’s important to realize these moves don’t only happen to the Jewish people at large. They happen to Jews as individuals as well.
A man recently related to my friend that he grew up in Aleppo, Syria and was happy there. He was successful and content. But then, for financial reasons, he was forced to leave. He came to America and eventually became successful. Looking back years later, he sees how if they hadn’t left, they’d have ultimately become bombed out rubble. Hashem always moves us out at the right moment. We don’t always see it, but we have to believe its Hashem sending us.
Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch, Rosh Yeshiva of Telz in Cleveland, originally from Telz in Europe, teaches us a beautiful lesson about this, based on the Haftarah read on Erev Rosh Hodesh/Shabbat (called Mahar Hodesh) about David’s escape from Shaul. David had a secret meeting with Yonatan, (Shaul’s son who was also David’s dear friend). They made a deal: David was on the run, and Yonatan would send signals via arrows to let David know if it was safe to return. If an arrow was shot far, it would mean that Shaul was still upset, and that David should
“לך כי שלחך ה”
“Go, because Hashem has sent you.”
Rav Bloch asks, why it says “Go?” Why not say “Escape?”
His answer is that we see from here that even when it seems like you’re being chased out as a refugee, it’s really G-d saving you. Rav Bloch made this speech at the Hanukat Habayit of the Telz Yeshiva, which was rebuilt in Cleveland after the original was destroyed in Lithuania. Rav Bloch explained that he was saved while almost the entire city was wiped out. Only a few rabbis survived of the yeshiva. At the time, he was fighting with someone who had opened his shop on Shabbat. Rav Bloch protested, and was ultimately forced to leave the city, due to what he thought was political pressure. In reality, this escape, which led him to America, caused his survival. Sometimes it looks like we are being chased, when in reality, we are being sent to a better place.
It’s just like David HaMelech writes in his Mizmor L’David Hashem Ro’ee, about a sheep that goes to certain spot, thinking it’s nice and tranquil. He wants to stay, but then his shepherd pokes him, and he has to leave his spot and go someplace else. That’s life. We have to know when we move, that it’s always for a good reason. Every change of job, move to a new neighborhood, or switch to a new school- they’re all Masaot-travels. It’s all
על פי ה׳ ינחו ועל פי ה׳ יסעו
G-d is directing us, and it is our belief that our Shepard is putting us in the most luscious of grazing places.