by Daniel Gropper
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Geller reminds us that Torah is best understood when we slow down and pay attention to the small details. Amidst the detailed descriptions found in this double portion, it is easy to overlook the specific gift of the mirrors or any other small linguistic change found in Vayak'heil and P'kudei .

The small detail that catches my eye is the final word of Exodus. "For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Eternal rested by day, and fire would appear in it by night, in the view of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys -- b'chol mas'ei'hem " (Exodus 40:38). Notice that the text uses the plural, journeys. Given that the entire wilderness trek took our ancestors from Egypt to the Promised Land, wouldn't it make more sense to say, "throughout their journey?" If I fly to Israel through London, I consider it a single journey, not two separate ones. What is going on here?

Rashi looks at this and asks the same question. He says, "The place where they camped was also known as a journey -- a masa." What? Since when is a rest stop a journey? Rashi comes to this because two verses earlier, it says that Israel journeyed when the cloud lifted and here, when the cloud of God's glory remained in place, it was also called a journey. In other words, things don't just happen when you are moving, they also happen when you are at rest. The place of rest is as much its own journey as a place of movement. There is something to be learned, gleaned, and discovered in every experience. Woven together these form one larger journey of life. Our task is to notice that things happen when we are at rest, just as they happen when we are in motion.

But I like to also think that the text speaks to us as an ever-living document. Bringing the grand sweep of Jewish history and memory to mind, these last words of Exodus still ring true and the plural form of this word helps to illuminate its meaning: the God who brought us out of Egypt and through the wilderness is still very much with us, throughout all of our journeys, be they individual, communal, or generational. Maybe that's why we were to donate mirrors, to reflect on where we can find God, wherever we might go.

Chazak chazak v'nit'chazeik -- May we be strengthened through this journey of Torah.

Rabbi Daniel Gropper is the spiritual leader of Community Synagogue in Rye, New York.

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