Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
After a difficult year, everything is coming back and we are learning to appreciate everything anew. This past Shabbat, for the first time since the pandemic began, we were in the presence of many friends. The occasion was a Sheva Brachot celebration (held each day of the week following a marriage in honor of the new couple). I never thought I would get so excited over a conversation with friends around a dinner table. I never was so enthusiastic about candies thrown at the bridegroom when he received an aliyah to the Torah.
And then suddenly at the end of the Torah reading, I received an explanation for these wonderful feelings. In one of the final verses of the Book of Exodus, where an allusion is made to the journeys of the people through the desert, Rashi comments: "The place of their encampment is also called a journey." Not only the times that they moved forward are called journeys, but the encampments or stopovers as well. Even those times when they are compelled to stay in place are parts of the journey too; even then the people could learn and move forward in their growth and development. Our commentators explain that during every chapter of their journey, especially during the stopovers, they gathered strength for the next chapter.
We are moving ahead following a stopover that lasted a year, but this was not a year of wasted time, a void of nothingness. This year was also a chapter in our life's journey, during which we learned and moved forward, even if this was internal and hidden. And now we are moving again, only with increased strength.
Chazak! Chazak! Venitchazek! Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened!
