The Torah speaks in great detail about the journeys of the Children of Israel through their years in the wilderness.  The Torah specifies each and every one of the 42 journeys which they undertook.

The Torah does not just tell us things for no reason.  There is always a lesson which we can take away for our everyday lives.

All of us have embarked upon many journeys throughout our lives, both physically and spiritually.  We make many stops along the way.  These stops are important--they are rungs on the ladder, stages on the way to our destination.  It is all too easy, once we get there, to forget about the stages we passed along the way.  Sometimes we forget about the people who helped us along the way.

The Torah reminds us that even though we may have reached our destination, we should always be cognizant of the path which brought us there and not to take for granted those who have encouraged and guided us throughout our "journeys".  Those previous stages may seem like mere "stepping stones" now that we have reached our goal, but they are nonetheless important.  At the time, they represented a journey, progress, a step closer to our destination.  They are still important now as without them we would not be where we are today.

 

 

A young boy was traveling from Jerusalem to the Galilee.  He arrived at a four-way crossroads and discovered, to his horror, that the sign had fallen down.

Now he had no way to know which road to take to reach his destination.  What was he to do?

The answer was simple.  He knew where he was coming from -- Jerusalem.  By arranging the sign so that Jerusalem pointed to the path he had just come from, he was able to figure out which way to go.

When we know where we have come from, we can know where we are going to.  This Torah remind us of this.  May we all strive, and ultimately reach our destination.