This portion includes, at the beginning of Maasei, a curious series of descriptions. The first 49 verses of Chapter 33 contain a complete itinerary of the journey, or wanderings, of the Jews in the Sinai. The description includes locations that appear no where else in the Torah, and includes highlights of the journey. In 49 relatively short verses, the entire wandering of our people is defined through a listing of sometimes obscure place names.
The parasha does not stop with a recapitulation of the journey; it continues with a description of the boundaries of Israel, and identifies the leaders of each of the tribes. The parasha is not simply a recollection; it is also a prophecy of what is to come. We are not only told where we have been, we are told where we will be and how we will be governed. It is not prophecy; it places the people very clearly and graphically at a transitional stage, where they will be evolving from a nomadic people to a settled nation.
This sense of looking forward and backward is essential. The past is essential to us. While, as noted above, not every one of the places is memorable, this list of our journey brings back to our minds (and should have brought back to the minds of those who were there) the experiences of the exodus from Egypt. It’s the same way that looking at pictures or reviewing an itinerary from a vacation taken years ago brings back the memory of the sites we saw, the foods we ate, the large and small experiences that are part of every journey.
Moreover, we are reminded that the past is what anchors us. Unless we recognize our past, not only in individual stories but as a unified whole, we cannot make sense of ourselves. The past makes us what we are today; each one of us remembers not only our individual past, but our national past, an intrinsic portion of which is the wandering in the desert.
At the same time, we cannot and should not be content with the past. The past is static and immutable (even if our interpretations of it are not). A history of places and names has no potential, although it may set the stage for the future. The future is our possibility.
We should remember that we are all, constantly, in a state of transition. Sometimes it is obvious. I have watched my children prepare to leave for college, and they (and we) are very, very aware of the sense of change that surrounds them. I can see them look, sometimes wistfully, at the house (and the refrigerator and television!), and I know that they are creating memories of the past to draw upon, that they are setting the scene of the past. At the same time, they are looking forward to the experiences to come, and imagining their dormitories and class schedules and creating the reality they will experience in a few weeks.
The challenge presented by this parasha is to marry the past and the present. We all can learn to face our past, as part of the creation of our present and future, but also to remember that our future is filled with unknown and untried possibilities.