Don't Be Satisfied

Print         Matos         Maasei
Parshas Maasei begins, "These are the travels of the Children of Israel that they went out of Egypt," the word "journeys" is said in the plural, meaning that in order to get out of Egypt they had to travel many journeys.

There is a famous question asked about this. They only went out of Egypt on the first journey from Ramses to Sukkos, they were already out of Egypt then. Why does it say "journeys" in plural?

Another question. The Jewish people traveled 42 journeys coming out of Egypt until they reached the Holy Land. Egypt in Hebrew is Mitzrayim, which is from the word Maitzarim, meaning constrictions, which is what they broke free from. Why did they need 42 journeys to break free, when with the first journey they were already free?

What are we meant to learn from this?

When it comes to constraints and being free there are many levels, freedom is relative. If you break free from a lower level you are still in constraints compared to a higher level. So although they broke free from Egypt, they still had a way to go, every journey breaking free from the constraints of the previous level, until they reached true freedom, the completion of their journeys, Yarden Yereicho, and they entered the Holy Land. And that is why it says "journeys," in the plural.

The same is true about this dark and bitter exile, we are on a journey, every time we reach a point of freedom, and it gets a little bit comfortable, we are reminded that we haven't reached the ultimate freedom, Yarden Yereicho, which is symbolic of Moshiach, about whom it says, "He will judge by smell," Yereicho is related to the word reiach, which means smell.

The same is true for each and every one of us. What we accomplished yesterday is good, we broke through the constraints of yesterday and it is an accomplishment, but now that we reached this level, this becomes the new baseline, and today we can go higher. It is a big mistake to think that you have already reached high enough, if you can go higher you must, because a person is called a mehalech, which means to go and to not stay put, every day higher and higher.

This is seen in Davening, which is called the ladder of Yaakov, as it says, "A ladder set on the ground and its top reaches the heaven." When you Daven you are reaching up to Hashem, as opposed to Torah study, which is from the top down, it is what it is, infinite, and we try to understand it, each of us according to our ability. However Davening is us reaching up to Hashem, trying to take our relationship with Him to a deeper and higher level.

When we Daven, every section of the prayer is another rung on the ladder, from when we prepare to Daven by setting our minds to focus on prayer, until we reach the Amida, and when we get there we are so one with Him that we don't exist, we are completely nullified before Him to the point where we have to say, "Hashem, open my lips and my mouth will tell your praises." Totally vulnerable and intimate.

And when we Daven every day, we are not doing the same thing as yesterday, rather we are picking up at the closeness we attained yesterday and we reach even deeper and higher than ever.

In a marriage it is the same way. The deepness of love that you reached yesterday is not enough today, every day you have to take it higher and deeper through being open, honest and vulnerable.

If we strive to go ever higher as a nation and in our personal relationship with Hashem, we will surely merit the final journey, the ultimate freedom, the coming of Moshiach. May he come soon.