In this week’s parasha it speaks about journeys, that is the name of the parasha, journeys, masaei. Moshe apparently took a travelogue of all their encampments in their 40 years, al pi Hashem, based on Hashem’s dictation. But the log is woefully disappointing. It seem like a laundry list of names and places. What do I walk away with? Why do we need this list?

Two medieval commentators, Rashi from France and Seforno from Spain suggest two almost opposite purposes for the recording of this travelogue. Rashi says that it shows the khasdo shel makom, the kindness of G-d, to record for posterity the kindness of G-d in providing for us for 40 years in the desert. But the Spanish commentator, Seforno says that it is not to show how good G-d was to us but on the contrary, it shows zechutam shel yisrael, our merit, to declare before G-d how remarkable the Jews were in being willing to walk and march into the desert and follow G-d for 40 years in an uninhabitable environ.

Rashi is saying that the travelogue is in order to recognize G-d’s love for the Jews. Sforno is saying that the log is in order to take note of the love of the Jewish people for G-d to follow Him in the dessert for 40 years. We often remark about how remarkable it is that the Jews have survived the many centuries of persecution and now, the many decades of war. For this we owe a debt of gratitude to Hashem. But there is another aspect to our survival we can be guilty of overlooking; the amazing tenacity of the Jewish people to survive in the face of peril. Let us give thanks to G-d for keeping us all these years and let us appreciate the sacrifice of Jews through the ages who were able to survive all this travail. Let us hope that our generation is again worthy of surviving the long and challenging journey.