Parshat Behaalotecha, 5th Portion (Numbers 10:11-10:34), June 5, 2014

This portion is interesting. The Israelites didn't realize that they'd be 40 years in the desert. They thought they were just three days from their promised land. But because of their complaining that follows this portion, a simple journey becomes a long one.

This is the nature of life. Simple jobs get difficult and difficult jobs are sometimes easy. Part of the determinate is our attitude.

The legions or troops move to the next location one group at a time. We see a well-thought-out plan for the exit. And a cloud followed them as they traveled, believed to be the Eternal.

I think the word the Eternal is problematic because some people take it as a man in the sky, while I take it as the nature of what is. How do we converse when we use the same word to mean something so different?