Keep the Faith: For graduates, 'You can steer yourself any direction you choose'

Starting when our oldest was in Pre-K, we bought a copy of the book, "Oh The Places You’ll Go," by Dr. Seuss for her teachers to write a message to her toward the end of the school year. We have done the same with our other three children and each book is collecting a beautiful narrative of blessings and tributes on the colorful pages. In some way, these books are like a log of their education telling a story of their educational journey for as long as we can continue.

There is an inner drive within us to remember where we have visited and been in life. This is the basis for all memoirs and autobiographies. We do not wish to forget what happened to us on our life’s journey and we do not wish to be forgotten by others that come after us.

In Numbers 33:1, we read, “These are the journeys of the Children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt, according to their organized groups, under the guidance of Moses and Aaron.” When one thinks of a journey, we usually define that journey by its destination, not by its point of origin. When we book an airline reservation or an AirBnB rental, we typically name the itinerary for the city or place to which we are traveling. We talk about going to college, applying for a job, going to the store. How much more would one expect this to be so when a people wandering for 40 years, stands literally mere feet away from its destination in the Land of Israel?! For this is where the people stand at the end of the book of Deuteronomy.

But not every journey is about a destination, sometimes the journey is about the challenges and growth along the way. In a commentary to the verse above, the 19^th century Russian commentator, known as Malbim, suggests that it seems that it might have been appropriate for the Torah text to read “These are the journeys of the Children of Israel, who went to the Land of Israel …” Instead, the linguistic choices in the text emphasize that the journey was indeed from Egypt. Why? Malbim goes on to suggest that to be ready to enter the Holy Land, the Israelites had to first leave behind Egypt and its challenges. Each stop along their journey represented a working through of some kind of transition to wholeness.

Although some may understand this purely in a religious sense, many others understand that the Israelites who departed from Egypt were slaves, developmentally not yet ready to be free. They could not believe (despite the miracles we read about in Exodus) in the Divine’s ability to bring them into a promised land. Had they been capable of such faith, it might have been a quick trip into the land of Israel! Rather, the Torah proceeds to exactingly list each place name where the people stopped, rebelled, quarreled, struggled, learned something, and ultimately awaited the command to move on.

But there is also another way to look at the journey from and the lists of locations along that route is brought by Maimonides, a 12^th century Spanish commentator. In the "Guide for the Perplexed" he writes that the stages of the Israelite’s journey were recorded so that subsequent generations to confirm that they really did wander through the desert and were sustained only by the miracle of God’s sustenance. The mention of these locations, at least for some subsequent generations, would trigger memories of the events that happened there, particularly of the Divine’s wondrous and miraculous revelations. In other words, the listing would prove that our parents really did walk uphill both ways to school, in the snow, without shoes.

It seems to me that the explanation for recording each place name is inextricably woven into both narratives: that of a journey from the slavery of Egypt, and also a journey to the Land of Israel characterized by an ever-stronger, closer, and more aware relationship with a sustaining presence.

Our lives are full of transitions all of the time — big and small. Those transitions are part of us and our narratives, our journeys. They move us from, through, and beyond the literal and metaphorical narrow place of Egypt and its limitations, beyond rebuke and destruction and forward to consolation. We are reminded to pause now to begin considering our stopping places and our stuck places, where we have been, where we are going, indeed the very paths we are taking to get there.

June marks a time of huge transitions and celebrations but they can also be daunting. For those who are or have recently graduated, CONGRATULATIONS! I hope that your journey has been full of learning, growth, and facing challenges that left you stronger, smarter, and more independent and that where you are headed on the next step of your journey brings other challenges and rewards. I hope you remember and thank those who helped you get there — whether by supporting you or even sharing about their own journeys and challenges.

As this year comes to a close, more messages from our children’s teachers start to fill their pages, it is both a tribute to their journey and also a collection of dreams, blessings, and wishes for the future. May the recollection of the journeys of our ancestors remind us of where we’ve been, and help us to be ever-more mindful of the Source of Life who sustains us in every moment and at every stage of our journey, that our journey together be out of Egypt and into Eretz Yisrael, or wherever our journeys and transitions take us next. As Dr Seuss reminds us in "Oh The Places You’ll Go," “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who'll decide where to go ...”

Rabbi Aviva Fellman is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Worcester. She is also an active member of Worcester Interfaith, teaches in W.I.S.E., and is a married mother of four.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Keep the Faith: On graduations and transitions ...