Masei: Respect The Process

Hi, this is Alaska with the para in five. We're in five minutes. I try to give you a little insight into the para and we finish this week paras. And the para starts off in a not very interesting way. And the Jews left here and they went to there and they went to here and then they encamped there and then they and and then they traveled to here and then they encamped there and then they traveled from here and they encamped there and we go through the different journeys. 42 different journeys significant. Uh yeah, there's lots of 42s and I'm not going to go into them now. That's for a different one. But uh if you add up all the cabonos that Bum brought 14 three times, that's 42. If you see how many I levium there are, Levite cities, there's 42. Yeah. So 42 pops up in a lot of places. But um and in fact, those of you who read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's of course the answer to life, the universe, and everything. 42. But um but put that aside just for a moment. The M asks a very simple question and that is we don't need all of this. You don't need to say at each stop they traveled and they encamped. You could have just said Vu Vu on each stop. They traveled here. They traveled there. They traveled there. Obviously, if they're traveling a second time, they stopped. Or you could just say the Yaku. They encamped here. They encamped here. They encamped here. They encamped here. Why is it necessary on every stop to say? And he says a beautiful idea that's so important for all of us and that is life is a journey and it's not just a question of getting to the destination. The journey is important as well. That's the concept of if you don't need the journey you're already at your destination. But if you need the journey, then you're there. The Ramban says, uh, as the bird flies, it's a 3-day journey from Mitam to Hari, but it took us seven weeks because we needed seven weeks to be able to get to Matra. And so we needed the journey. Yeah. I always say this, Rabbi Kish from Waterberry uh high school, he he has an expression, respect the process. You need the journey. If you didn't need the journey, you wouldn't have it. So, every single place they went was to accomplish something. They didn't just stop for the night. says they marched during the night also. So they could keep going during the night. They didn't have to stop. So if they stop someplace, then Hashem wants them to stop here and he wants them to have the journey to respect the process. Um, Douglas Adams, since we just mentioned The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he said, he had a quote that I saw once that said, "I don't know if I went everywhere I was supposed to go, but I think I ended up where I was supposed to be." Well, we say different. You have to go every place you have to go. There's a reason you went here. There's a reason you ended up here. I'm sure I told the story already a long time ago where um I was going to do a Shabaton in the Big Bear Mountains and there was an avalanche and we couldn't get there. So, we turned around and started heading back to um Los Angeles, but uh the traffic on a Friday afternoon just horrendous. And we get down from the mountains and we're driving. It's all flat which lets you see the sun. you know, and the sun is going down. And uh we realized we were running out of time, so we pulled off the road. Uh I was with the Rottenberg and uh we checked into a truck stop motel and me and AB ran out to uh the supermarket. We found a box of matzas. Couldn't find any kosher bread for a box of matzas. We found he couldn't find kosher wine. We found beer, make keshan medina. Um he uh uh we fought a lot of ice cuz we were bringing our own food to the shabatone anyway. Well, they were bringing the food. I was going to eat it and they filled the bathtub with the ice and then put the food in. You know, we picked up a few other things that we could and get back just in time. and I throw myself on the bed in my truck stop motel and say, "I can't believe this is how I'm gonna spend Shabas." And it was for a purpose. It was to teach me that you can find Shabas anywhere. Shabas is beyond time and space. And that was the message that had to be given across. And so if you end up someplace, you didn't just end up there. you ended up there for a reason and that sometimes I mean that's the story of the uh four captives who were coming from the yeshivas in Bavl to raise money and they got captured by pirates and they were ransomed to four different communities. Why? So that they would end up building Torah in different places around the world. So, I'm sure they thought when they were captured by pirates, wow, this is this is terrible. There's no possible reason for this. But it was true. The journey was important to arrive at the destination so that you could do what you had to do. Life, my friends, is a journey. And we're there to arrive at a destination. The final destination is a temporary one. The final destination is Yamosa Mashiach. And if we accomplish what we're supposed to accomplish along the way, then Hashem and Cla will finally arrive at our final destination. Everyone should have a good chabas.