Beha’alotecha
“Sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning, and when the cloud departed in the morning, they travelled.” – Numbers, 9:21
VWHILE working as a youth director in Worcester Massachusetts, a young Chabad Rabbi named Avraham Glick received an invitation to relocate to Melbourne to become the principle of a local Jewish day school.
He asked for and received the approval and blessing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of sainted memory.
While winding up his activities in Worcester, and simultaneously preparing for his move to Australia, he began to feel like he was in a limbo state, neither fully here nor there. He was not yet gone, and yet his mind was already elsewhere.
During a personal audience, he confided his state of mind to the Rebbe, who responded:
“During the forty years the Jews wandered in the wilderness, they would sometimes stay in a place for just one day, yet they would go through the tremendous trouble of setting up the Tabernacle—the Tent of Meeting—each and every time.
Now, the Tabernacle was a formidable structure, consisting of hundreds of foundation sockets, wall sections, pillars, tapestries, and furnishings; a work crew of several thousand Levites assembled the Sanctuary at each camp, and dismantled and transported it when the Divine command would come to move on. Yet it was erected at every encampment—even if only for a single day!
The Talmud derives many laws from this, including the principle that if you find yourself in a place even for just one day, it is as though you are fixed there permanently.
This teaches us that each and every one of our “stations” in life is significant unto itself. A person may find himself in a certain place or situation for a very brief period, and it may seem to him that he is merely “on the way” to some other place. Yet there is always something in that place or situation to be sanctified— something that can serve as a “Tent of Meeting” between heaven and earth.”
Internalising this perspective can be truly transformative as it guides us to make the most out of precisely where, when, how, and with whom we are, no matter how fleeting or insignificant a moment, encounter or experience may appear to be.
By cultivating an appreciation for the role of Divine Providence in our lives, we can discover the hidden meaning and opportunity within any situation we find ourselves in, always and in all ways.
RABBI MENDEL KALMENSON