Life is a journey, not a destination. That sounds great, but sometimes you get tired of constantly traveling and just want to be home. That's the way our people have felt for thousands of years. As I prepare to travel to Israel, our homeland, together with my family and members of our community, I feel the pull, the longing to end the journey and finally arrive at the destination, to live in peace in our homeland in a world that celebrates the divine. So, how do we keep the drive going? How do we motivate ourselves to maintain the course?
The answer lies in this week's double Torah portion, Maatos-Masai. There, we learn about the various stops of the Jewish people over their forty-year journey from Egypt to the promised land. Each encampment was essential to the nation's maturation process and taught the future generation a lesson they would need for inhabiting the promised land and realizing their destiny as a light unto nations. This is why the Torah says it was one long journey, not forty-nine journeys, since each step was a necessary part of their growth and eventually brought them exactly where they needed to be.
We, too, are on a collective journey as the Jewish people and individually, each in our way. While the road has been long and tiring, we can see the horizon in the distance. Our nation settled peacefully in our homeland. Yes, we face a few more obstacles in our path, but we are so close to bringing Moshiach that we must strengthen our resolve and push ourselves to get it done. The promised land is in sight; it's time we rally together to support each other and finally finish off this exile of thousands of years by bringing peace and harmony to the entire world.
Mission: We are close to completing the journey. Let's motivate each other to overcome the last few obstacles and bring peace and harmony to the world.