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In this issue
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review

Escaping ‘Toward’ a Goal

By Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski


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A passage in this week's Bible reading that might well be dismissed as sloppy editing, actually provides profound psychological insight — if we bother to notice


“These are the journeys of the Children of Israel, who went forth from the land of Egypt …Moses wrote their goings forth according to their journeys at the bidding of G-d, and these were their journeys according to their goings forth.”

  —   Numbers 33:1-2


http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Many commentaries try to explain the changing in the wording and obvious reversal of the sequence of terms: ''Moses wrote their goings forth according to their journeys …and these were their journeys according to their goings forth.''


Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808 -1888) observes that when G-d made the Israelites break camp, the purpose was always to reach a fresh goal. Each journey was a progress toward a goal. But to the people it was the reverse. They were generally dissatisfied wherever they stayed. They just wanted to leave. It did not matter where they were going to next. Hence, to G-d it was ''their goings forth according to their journeys,'' whereas to the Israelites it was their ''journeys according to their goings forth.''


The Maggid of Dubnow (1741-1804) enlightens us with a parable. A young man suffered much abuse from his stepmother, and looked forward to the day that he would be able to leave home. When he was of age, his father suggested a match for him with a fine young woman from a good family in another city that he'd almost certainly want to marry.


As they traveled, the young man kept on remarking how far they had gone from home. The father, on the other hand, kept on remarking how much closer they were to their destination.


The young man, the Maggid says, had no idea what awaited him, so he was much more pleased with the distance he was putting between himself and his abusive stepmother. The father, on the other hand, having met the young woman and her family, knew that his son would be received with warmth and love.


So it was with the Israelites, said the Maggid. They had no concept of the kedushah (holiness) of the Promised Land. All they appreciated was that they were away from the cruel enslavement in Egypt, hence for them the emphasis was their ''journeys according to their goings forth.'' From G-d's perspective, however, the goal of entering the Promised Land was primary, hence ''their goings forth according to their journeys,''


When we are dissatisfied with something, we may try a ''geographic cure,'' without giving serious thought to why things should really be different in the new location. If our problems are within us, we take them along wherever we go. It is far better to consider the possible merits of a new location, and to see if there is indeed valid reason why the change should alleviate our problems.

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Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D. is a psychiatrist and ordained rabbi. He is the founder of the Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Pittsburgh, a leading center for addiction treatment. An Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, he is a prolific author, with some 30 books to his credit, including, "Twerski on Chumash" (Bible), from which this was excerpted (Sales of this book help fund JWR). Comment by clicking here.

© 2009, Mesorah Publications, Ltd.