Matot-Masei
R. Bachya ibn Pakuda on Parashat Matot-Masei, read on Shabbat Matot-Masei · Approaching Tisha B'Av — with one of this week's three questions for the two of you.
Parshat Masei lists the forty-two journeys of Bnei Yisrael — every encampment, every step, from Egypt to the borders of the Land. Looking back, every stop seems part of the route. In the moment, many of them must have seemed pointless, even harmful. Bachya in Shaar HaBitachon makes this exact point about every life: that what looks like a meandering wilderness, in retrospect, is the precise path home. Bitachon is the willingness to keep walking the route as it unfolds, trusting that the One who maps it sees the destination from the starting point. As we approach Tisha B'Av — the deepest grief of the calendar — this teaching matters. Even what looks like only loss, in the longer view, is being woven into return.
Looking back at the journey of our marriage so far, what was an 'encampment' that felt pointless at the time but, in retrospect, was clearly part of the path?
The full week — the passage itself with its source, the other two questions, and the closing verse of hope — lives in the app. Together Tomorrow on the App Store.