The Shorter Way May Not Be Best After All

BESHALAH, Exodus 13:17-17:16

Rabbi Adam Zeff

This week's Torah reading begins with a rather astounding verse: "Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines because it was nearer" (Exodus 13:17).

This is surprising, even shocking, since we wouldn't normally expect that the most direct route between Egypt and the land of Israel would be disqualified because it was shorter.

In leading the people out of slavery and toward freedom, wouldn't God have wanted them to arrive in the Promised Land as soon as they could? Why would God choose not to lead the people the shortest possible way?

In many areas of our lives, we often think that the shortest way is the best, and it is hard to have the patience to go the long way around to achieve any goal. But our tradition teaches us that the shorter way is not necessarily better.

In the Talmud (Eruvin 53b), Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah illustrates this point with a story: "Once a child got the better of me. I was traveling and I met with a child at a crossroads. I asked him, 'Which way to the city?' and he replied, 'This is the short way that is long, and that is the long way that is short.' I took the 'short way that is long.'

"I soon reached the city but found my approach obstructed by gardens and orchards. So I retraced my steps and said to the child, 'My son, did you not tell me that this is the short way?' Answered the child, 'Did I not tell you that it is also long?' "

As Rabbi Yehoshua found, the shorter, more direct way to approach what we desire most fervently can often lead to unexpected and fearsome obstacles on the journey that we may be ill-prepared to overcome.

By contrast, journeying by the longer path can allow us the time to develop the skills and capabilities we need to truly achieve our goals.

In his commentary on this particular verse in the Torah, the medieval sage Abraham Ibn Ezra argued that, indeed, God did not want the Israelites to arrive in the Promised Land too soon. The newly freed slaves needed some experience with freedom before they could hope to found a new society based on this unfamiliar idea.

They had been slaves for generations; they could not throw off that elemental experience and embrace both the privileges and the responsibilities of living as free people in a matter of days or weeks.

We often refer to the 40 years during which the Israelites dwelt in the wilderness as years of "wandering." The word implies that this period was an aimless succession of moves from one place to the next, without purpose or plan.

The lesson of this week's Torah reading is that we can see that period instead as a journey along the "long way that is short," a chance for the people to develop the skills and capabilities they will need to be successful in a new land.

Applying this lesson to our own lives, it challenges us to discern when we are taking the "short way that is long," when we are turning away from the longer, perhaps more difficult path that may be more effective in getting us where we need to go. May we all learn to appreciate the blessings of the longer journey that, as it did for the Israelites, can take us to our own Promised Land.

Rabbi Adam Zeff serves as rabbi of Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia. Email him at: rabbi@germantownjewishcentre.org.