The roundabout path – B’shallach
The Israelites leaving Egypt, from the Golden Haggadah,Catalonia, c.1300
Rabbi EE Dessler explains in Michtav Me’Eliyahu that the circuitous route is symbolic of human life.
Things rarely go smoothly. Especially when a person sins, it is rarely possible to make an instant decision to come back to God in one fell swoop.
Instead of the Billy Graham “instant conversion” approach, one needs to go through the wilderness, learn to struggle against evil and resist temptation at every turning, eventually becoming morally strong enough to return to God and stay there.
