The names have no meaning. Forty-two unknown and historically insignificant desert locations. Forty-two sand dunes along our winding journey to the Promised Land. Who knows where these sandbanks are, and quite frankly, who cares? The sooner we forget about these doomed deserts the better. Each stop on our trail of misery evokes painful memories of a depressing forty-year odyssey.
Our national death sentence had already been decided upon and was irrevocable. During those long and dreary years, prophecy was suspended and Hashem seemed distant. These desert stops possess meaning only for historians and archaeologists. The pit stops of the desert are cursed regions of Jewish history.
Astonishingly though, the Torah provides an extensive list of each desert location. Moreover, instead of just cataloguing them, the Torah describes the departure from each location and the arrival at the next location:
“And they took their journey out of the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah. They departed from Dophkah and camped at Alush. (Bamidbar 33:12-13).
Typically, the Torah economizes its words, rarely “wasting words” on meaningless lists. Evidently, this elaborate archive of desert locations possesses deeper meaning. This unhappy list of desolate badlands provides guidance for navigating dark periods in the Jewish future. The 40 years in the desert were a template for future moments of hester panim during which Hashem’s presence would be difficult to discern.
Mercy On The Margins
Rashi claims that the list of 42 desert stops showcases Divine mercy. During the first and last years of the 40-year trek, we traveled intensely: fourteen stops the first year and eight the final year. These two bookend years were transformative and required frequent travel. By subtraction, during the intervening 38 years we only traveled 20 additional times, averaging one journey every two years. Though we roamed the desert, we weren’t nomadic, but enjoyed relative stability. We set down roots for a year or two and enjoyed a routine and a rhythm. Despite facing certain death, life wasn’t meaningless. We weren’t scattered to the wind.
It could have been much worse. We could have aimlessly drifted through empty dunes, slowly fading away. Instead, Hashem afforded the doomed generation stability and tranquility as they traversed their final stages of life.
Calm In Between The Storms
During the past 2,000 years of galus, we endured hatred, discrimination, and violence, yet we still enjoyed intervening periods of relative calm and prosperity. In between our misfortunes, we fashioned robust and flourishing Jewish communities and we built a rich religious and cultural experience. Of course, our achievements and our successes were always abruptly and violently interrupted by violence and expulsion. However, as was true for the desert generation, in between our suffering we enjoyed success.
Hester panim makes it difficult to discern Hashem in the larger trajectory of Jewish history, but we can still uncover Him and His mercy along the margins. He isn’t completely invisible. It’s just more difficult to unveil Him, and we must look more closely.
Hester Panim Of October 7
The same is true about our most recent hester panim. On October 7th we suffered 12 hours of extreme hester panim. Hashem’s decisions that day continue to confuse us. It was and remains difficult to understand His motives that day as our people suffered a ruthless pogrom in our homeland, on Shabbat of Simchat Torah.
However, despite the tragedy and despite our inability to grasp how He could allow this to occur, it is still possible to find Hashem in the events of this dark tragedy. Hamas (Yemach Shemam) had planned a devastating attack, hoping to strike at the center of Israel. They aimed to incite violence in the West Bank and to spur an uprising amidst Israeli Arabs. Once our country was ablaze, they assumed that Hezbollah would join, creating an apocalyptic multi-front war. We were ill-prepared for this doomsday scenario on October 7th.
Baruch Hashem, and without minimizing the tragedy in any way, we avoided this worse catastrophe. With Hashem’s help, our heroic first responders, including security teams, police, soldiers, and ordinary citizens, thwarted this disaster.
Too Late For Unity?
Our quick response and our military success in the ensuing war was enabled by a resurgence of national unity. After a year of prolonged social strife and civil discord, our national unity should not be taken for granted. Suffering from a terrible year of public discontent, we were quickly hurtling into the abyss of civil war. Had the attack on our people occurred a few months later, is it possible we would have been too badly divided to rally to the defense of our land? Would warring factions in Israel have become so alienated from each other that we would have been incapable of defending our country?
October 7th left us with many questions. Hopefully, in time, we will decipher the overall meaning of this horrible day. However, we thank Hashem for the minor miracles. We thank Him that our enemies weren’t able to achieve all of their homicidal designs and we thank Him that we were still united enough to rise in defense of our people and of our land.
Holding Our Hand On October 7th
Rashi provides a second reason for the detailed roster of desert locations. He cites a Midrash which describes a father and his sick child traveling to receive medical care. During their return journey, they nostalgically recall each stop along the route of their original journey to visit the doctor. Though they were worried and frightened, they faced adversity side-by-side, and on the return journey, they look back and relish their togetherness.
They can only properly appreciate their togetherness once the child has been medically healed and they no longer face the risk of death. During their initial journey, they were too anxious and too frazzled to relish their closeness. Only once they are “out of the woods” could they look back and savor the bonds they built and the closeness they felt.
By listing the 42 stops in the desert, Hashem reminds us that He stood by us as a Father during our bleakest moments. If we had to suffer, at least we suffered with Him alongside us. Though Hashem suspended overt prophecy during those 38 years, He still delivered daily manna from heaven, supernatural protection from the harsh desert conditions, and daily water rations.
For this reason, the list of desert camps doesn’t appear in earlier parshiyot but only in Masei, toward the end of the 40 years as we were about to enter the land of Israel. Only after exiting the dark tunnel did we become capable of looking back and appreciating the companionship that Hashem provided during the trying journey.
He Was In Auschwitz
Now that we have emerged from the long, dark tunnel of Jewish history, and we are inching toward the final stages of redemption, we can look back at our past differently. We can look back at our exile and appreciate that Hashem never abandoned us. Otherwise, we would not have survived. My Rebbe, Harav Amital (whose yahrzeit was this week) was once asked where G-d was in Auschwitz. He responded that He was with us in the camps. We may not have understood Him, but He was with us.
The same is true about October 7th. Though we have emerged from the long tunnel of Jewish history, for those 12 hours we walked through a mini-tunnel of hester panim. How could this happen? We don’t know. Where was Hashem on October 7th? He was with us in the kibbutzim and along the roadways clutching our hands in the same manner that the father held his son’s hand as they jointly faced death. We don’t currently know why Hashem didn’t prevent this disaster. However, we do know that He was with us on that dark day and has stood by our side ever since.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me (Tehillim 23).” n
Rabbi Moshe Taragin is a rabbi at Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, a hesder yeshiva, with smicha from Yeshiva University and a master’s in English literature from the City University of New York. He is the author of “Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below” (Kodesh Press), which provides religious responses to Oct. 7.
