Thursday, July 24, 2014

Parshat Masei- "Where Are We?"





      Parshat Masei always coincides with the three weeks of the Jewish people mourning for the destruction of the holy temples. The Torah never speaks of sorrow without imparting hope and consolation. So in this weeks parsha it imbues us with faith and strength that even though such tragedies happened in the month of Av also known as "Menachem Av" which means "a comforting father". The parsha is coming to teach each and every one of us that nothing just happens like that. Everything that happens to us in our life is for a reason whether it looks terrible or not we need to believe in Hashem and know that He is there guiding every motion. This parsha is hear to remind us that we are not alone because we have Hashem our Father and our King. How even our forefathers had a long journey before entering the promised land. No matter how difficult their journey was Hashem at the end of the day remembered His promise and brought them back. So too, we should never lose hope because Hashem has His master plan in progress all that is left of us to do is put our seat belts on and take action and responsibilities for our mistakes and know that there is room for repentance. The Torah then goes on to speak about the 42 encampments along life's journey. Forty two is a mystical number, compromising the letters in God's ineffable Name. There is a kabbalistic teaching that as a result of our sins those letters in God's holy Name have become blemished, and so we embark upon our journeys to gather those holy sparks and return them to wholeness, to God's holy Name, which we have blemished through our sins. When our journeys become hard and challenging, we suddenly start to think how can we continue with such a hard test. However, we must remember there is a purpose to our journeys. We need to only follow the ways of Hashem through His infinite Torah and Hashem will guide us to our ultimate destination. May Hashem bless each and every one of you to tap into your neshamot into your holy souls and re navigate your souls and know where you are heading because everyone needs to make sure they are heading in the direction where we will bring ourselves closer to G-d and closer to ourselves.