Parashat Masei begins with a list of the 42 stops on the Israelites’ desert journey. There is a famous midrash which compares this list to the recounting of a father who has taken his ill child on a journey to be healed. Applying this midrash to ourselves, we look at our own life journey, with all its valleys and hills, as a sacred process of growth and healing, and we enter into the otherworldly midrashic space which sees God as a loving accompanying presence throughout the process. We feel into this presence and allow ourselves to rest in it.
Sources:
Numbers 33:1-49
Netivot Shalom on Parashat Masei, second essay (for Baal Shem Tov reference)
Rashi on Numbers 33:1
Bamidbar Rabbah 23:3
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