The End is Never the End

The End is Never the End

This week’s Torah portion brings us to the final section of the Book of Exodus.  It’s a summary of a construction project that began weeks ago.  God sets out a plan to build the Mishkan, a holy tent that is meant to be a gathering place for the community and central location of the ritual cult of sacrifice. After everything is collected and assembled, Moses is summoned to the front of the tent. The book closes with the statement, “For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the LORD rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, all in the view of the House of Israel throughout all of their journeys.” (Ex.40:38)

The path of the Exodus is in fact a journey. We never wandered in the desert, we were never lost, we never (despite protests) went back to Egypt because we could not find our way.  God and the Israelites had a mutual goal when they stepped through the waters and into the desert.  There needs to be spiritual and moral progress for the nation and the world.  The story of our travels is a story of national transformation from slavery to freedom, from chaos to order, from inequity to justice and from shame to dignity. It was a true and total transformation.  The nation that saw Canaan from the steppes of Moab were literally and figuratively a different people.   

The path of the Exodus is also our journey.  Each of us can recount this story daily in our prayers. We reenact the night of the Passover around our dinner tables.  We remember the Exodus at every life cycle event.  The Exodus not only shaped our people in history, it continues to shape each of us, daily.  Our lives are the story of our own transformation.  From the moment we fall out of our mother’s womb to the moment we are interred in the earth’s bosom, the idea of the Exodus tells us that life is not just a bit of wandering between sunrise and sunset.  We do not simply waft between work and play.   We have a purpose, a mission as Jews to make ourselves holy through the commandments.  The end of our days should not look like the beginning.  Our world should be better when we left it then when we entered it.  Through the Exodus, we can transform ourselves literally and figuratively into different people.  

From this perspective it is easy to understand why the Book of Exodus ends with the verse, “For the cloud of God rests on the Tabernacle” Here is a slave-nation wrested from their slavery and pushed across the desert to the mountain for a purpose. Now, when they are ready to journey on, God’s presence rests on the Tabernacle. God knew that the journey across the wilderness will be hard and the average Israelite needs direction and comfort.  A cloud by day to cool the fires of passion, anger, and frustration,  and warming fire by night cast a light of hope against the fear of the dark.

Once, a successful businessman sat with me.  He said, “Rabbi, I’ve built a business, I manage dozens of employees, I have a beautiful family, and a lovely home.  Why do I feel like I’ve done nothing important, nothing meaningful?” His questions are our questions.  It’s in the long middle part of our lives where we feel this most.  What are the stumbling blocks in my life?  Did I make the right career choices?  What do I do when the kids leave home?  How do I recapture a sense of meaning in the monotony of work?  Day by day the morass of work, the demands of the family, can leave us in this nebulous place.  The Hasidic master, Degel Machane Ephraim, picked up on this feeling when he once compared the forty-two places the nation stopped during the Exodus to life’s own winding journey.  He says that every day when we rise in the morning we might say that it is hard to be a Jew.  It’s hard to be a good person.  It’s hard to figure out why we were put on this earth.  Each of us has a myriad of stopping points in which we question our choices and indeed our purpose.  That’s natural.  It’s at that moment, when we need the reminder of how to find our purpose again.  This week’s Torah portion holds the answer. The Tabernacle, is the movable home for each of us.  In it, is the emanating spark of truth that says, “You will be Holy, for I the LORD your God am Holy” (Lev. 19:2).  Day and night there is a Partner to our journey.  The cloud by day, the fire by night is God’s way of reminding us to never give up.  Never forget you can be better.  Never forget that you have a responsibility to aspire. Never forget that you have a purpose.  When you feel like you are wandering, look up for the symbol that says, “come in, you’re home.” Our life is not a wandering in the wasteland but a journey through the wilderness. We have a purpose. And no matter where you are on your journey, there is a Partner to remind us who we really are and why we are here.