Dear Temple Emanu-El Friends,
A certain midrash has popped up in my life more than once over the past week or so. It feels like a particularly timely midrash to share.
For forty years the Holy One made Israel go in a roundabout way through the wilderness, saying: "Should I now lead them on a straight route, everyone will take possession of a field or a vineyard and regard themselves as not obligated to study Torah. I shall therefore lead them by way of the wilderness, where they will eat manna, drink the waters of the well, and so give themselves to the study of Torah, which will be inculcated in them. (Midrash
Tanhuma B’shalach
)
This midrash gives one possible answer to why the Israelites had to take the long way to Sinai and to the Promised Land. If God led the Israelites on a more direct route, the Israelites would have become occupied with material possessions rather than dedicating themselves to living a life of Torah. Leading them the long way around meant that the Israelites had time to prepare themselves to receive Torah.
