masei

This weeks parsha thought is dedicated לזכר נשמת ר' אליעזר בן שבתי

The posuk says ויכתוב משה את מוצאיהם למסעיהם על פי ה' ואלה מסעיהם למוצאיהם Moshe recorded the stops for their journeys that were by Hashems command; these were their journeys according to their stops. Why the change in the order? First it says מוצאיהם למסעיהם stops for their journeys, & then it says מסעיהם למוצאיהם these were their journeys according to their stops.
The בעל הפלאה explains the posuk of רצון יראיו יעשה ואת שועתם ישמע ויושיעם - the will of those that fear him he does, and their cry he will hear and save them.
That even though 'ה knows that the will of the ones who fear him isn't for their benefit, still he does their will. Once they will realize that it wasn't beneficial for them & cry out to Him, then he will save them.
The וידבר משה says that after Moshe said למה הרעות לעם הזה; why are you doing bad to this nation, 'ה had to fulfill his request & take them right out even though it was too early for them to go into Eretz Yisroel. That's why it says they needed מוצאיהם למסעיהם; that they went out because of the journeys, when in reality it was מסעיהם למוצאיהם these journeys were only necessary because they went out ahead of time.
Now if we only needed the journeys to make up the time until we could go into the land, why the need for all the stops along the way?
The way the Machazeh Avraham explains the changing of the wording helps us understand the need for the stops along the way. He says that it's teaching us how to view our lives. We tend to think that events happen to us because we're in a certain place at a certain time, & since one was put into this situation a certain outcome occurs. While that might be our natural thought process, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, we travel to a certain place because 'ה wants us to. He wants something to happen to us there, & not vice versa. At almost every stop they made, something significant happened. It wasn't by chance that 'ה brought them to each place, for He wanted them to experience each trial. The stops were not because of the journey, but rather the journey was to get to the stops. We needed these stops to teach us that even though throughout the generations we won't have Moshe to lead us and tell us what each stop along the way means, we have to know that wherever we end up, including all the stops along the way, is exactly where we're suppose to be, because if 'ה put us there then that's where we belong!