The Masei section begins with the phrase "These are the journeys of the Children of Israel." The Torah then details the places where the Jews camped during their forty years of wandering in the desert. This immediately raises a question: if the emphasis is on the places where they camped, Why does the parashah begin "These are the trips of the Children of Israel? The question is even more profound according to the well-known teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, that the forty-two journeys of the Jewish people in the desert are reflected in the life of each individual, from birth to entry into the supreme life. The Baal Shem Tov explains that each of the places where the Jews camped in the desert represents a specific level of service to God that one must attain. The emphasis, then, is on arrive at those levels and not the journey towards them.
The explanation for all this is that the Torah wants to show us the path of life that God desires: the Jew should always be on a 'journey,' in a constant movement of elevation. One must advance in life and not be static.
Being 'static' means always remaining in the same place. Even if one rises, their elevations are relative and limited. 'Advancing' (truly) means absolutely leaving one's place and rising to a higher level, unrelated to the previous level, infinitely higher. This is what the Torah indicates with the verse "These are the journeys"—one must always be in a state of "journeying," rising level upon level.
It is explained in Hasidic philosophy that the forty-two journeys through the desert also symbolize different states of exile for the Jewish people, when they lived in the "desert of the nations." It follows, then, that the encampments of the Jewish people on their desert journey represent the state of descent and exile, when the Jewish people were settled in exile. Despite this, this state is also called "journeys" because, from a deeper perspective, the descent is also part of the journey and the ascent.
The goal of the descent into exile is the redemption that follows. It is a descent for a rise (ieridá letzorej aliáIt is only through the descent that the great ascent comes, like the superiority of light that comes from darkness.
From this every Jew can draw hope: even when one has stumbled into sin and transgressed the Divine Will, one must not give up. One must strive to reveal "the superiority of the light that comes from darkness," that is, that precisely from descent and sin one arrives at ascent and strengthening in the service of God; therein lies the importance of the Teshuvah - the return to God. When one does Teshuvah It reveals, in the end, that the descent was the beginning of the ascent.
Nor should the great descent of exile cause us to give up, God forbid. We must remember that the descent, too, is part of the journeys that led to the great elevation of transforming their mourning into rejoicing, even transforming these sad days between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av into days of rejoicing, joy, and celebration in our time.
Extracted from Shulchan Shabbat.