Weekly D'var Torah

Dedicated to the families of Majdal Shams in empathy, solidarity and heartbreak. 

As the Torah’s narrative draws to a close, we are given a list of the forty-two encampments of Israel during the forty-year journey from Egypt to the final encampment on the Jordan River.

Some of these encampments were mere one-night layovers while we remained in others for days, months or even years.

But each encampment came with its own hidden purpose, its own lesson- its own secret to unlock on our way to freedom.

And its own letter of the Divine Name.

That’s right.  One of G-d’s most sacred hidden names is composed of 42 letters.  The Kabbala (Jewish mystical wisdom) teaches that each Hebrew letter channels a different divine energy.  The 42 letter name contains then the secret of the Exodus, of liberation.  The journey to freedom and self-liberation is a journey we are all on, not just our ancestors.

Where does this name come from?  It’s the first 42 letters of the Torah itself: the number of the days of creation (6), multiplied by the number of the Shabbat (7). 

It’s no coincidence that the V’ahavta prayer, the essence of the Jewish message of love, unity, compassion and justice, also contains 42 letters at the beginning of each word.  So does the first blessing of the Amida, the Ancestors’ blessing, Avot, contain 42 letters.  Every Friday night, we read a 42-letter prayer for freedom and liberation called Ana BaKoach that contains the 42 letters, at the beginning each word.

Here is a (somewhat) free translation:

G-d of Might by whose Hand peoples are made free-

Receive the song of Thy Nation, In Awe we turn to Thee-

Uplift and purify us as we seek strength on their behalf-

Those in search of freedom, in tyranny’s dark grasp-

Guard and lead them, turn to those who invoke Thy Holiness-

Hear our outcry and through Thy hidden ways, redeem them in their loneliness-

The sound and cadence of these words, it is said, awakens sparks in the Jewish soul.

Each journey, even the darkest ones, the Torah teaches us, can be a journey of redemption if we can call upon our powers of empathy. 

So no matter where we find ourselves in the challenges we face, we can be agents of holiness if we can remember, in the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.

Let our Jewish voices always be voices of compassion, of support, of humanity- in this way, we find the hidden letters of holiness within ourselves, in others and in the world around us.

Shabbat Shalom!