In the Middle East, There Are No Shortcuts

The article uses episodes from the Torah portion Chukat to argue that survival in the Middle East demands patience, faith, restraint and endurance, not quick fixes. It says Israel’s early journey through the desert showed that the region is harsh, confusing and unforgiving, and that even in hardship one should expect courage and composure rather than panic or nostalgia for Egypt, where slavery had been the alternative.

It points to the first crises over water and later over food, when the people repeatedly asked Moses and Aaron why they had brought them out of Egypt and complained that they would die in the wilderness. The author highlights the recurring Hebrew word for “why,” saying the complaints were disproportionate and distorted reality, to the point that the people seemed to remember Egypt fondly and forget its oppression.

The same pattern appears, the article says, in Israel’s encounters with Edom, Canaan and Sihon. Moses asks Edom for permission to pass through peacefully on the king’s highway, promising not to use fields, vineyards or wells, but Edom refuses and threatens war. Canaan’s king of Arad attacks Israel, and Sihon also denies passage, gathers his people, and fights Israel near Jahaz.

The piece concludes that this is the meaning of the modern Middle East too, no easy answers and no shortcuts. It recalls the people’s complaints that their souls were short or dried out in the wilderness, and quotes Naomi Shemer’s line that the road is long and broad. The message is that the Jewish people must keep walking, even when the horizon still feels far away.