The Long Walk

Aug 4th, 2011 by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Holidays, Music of Halacha, Spiritual Growth

2 Comments

In January 1864, the U.S. Army forcibly removed between 8,000 and 9,000 Navajo Indians from their traditional lands in the eastern Arizona Territory and the western New Mexico Territory to internment camps in Bosque Redondo in the Pecos River valley. They had been conquered by a campaign whereby the U.S. Army had systematically destroyed their crops and other food sources, and the old and weak among the Navajo had to either surrender or die. During the Long Walk, at least 200 died  or were kidnapped along the 300-mile trek that took over 18 days to travel by foot. Their settlement in Bosque Redondo had such catastrophic consequences in death and disease and was so disastrously expensive that the U.S. returned them to a reservation in their original homeland in a second “Long Walk” in June 1868.

We are far too familiar with such Long Walks. The Babylonians marched the Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon. We still remember the cruel taunts of the Arabs as our crushed and defeated ancestors walked out of Jerusalem. The Romans imposed their own Long Walks as they exiled the Jews from Israel. The Germans forced their infamous Death March from numerous concentration camps so that they could finish off the Jews who had refused to die in the camps. The “Walk” offers a glimmer of hope; ‘You are walking to a better place,’ but it is always “Your Walk;” you have to survive on your own. The walkers are vulnerable to enemies who attach them on the way, as the Arabs attacked us, as the Poles murdered us, and as the Zuni and Jemez tribes attacked the Navajo Walkers.

The Walkers must call on heroic strength to survive. They are helpless, starving, exhausted, vulnerable, weak, and desperate, but they are also heroes. Perhaps this is why the Sages describe our laws as Halacha – Walking: They remind us that when we continue to Walk with Halacha, no matter how vulnerable, weak, and desperate we may be, we are heroes. The Sages teach us that Halacha trains us in the heroism of these Walkers.

I can see Jeremiah linking himself to the chain of exiles so that he can walk with them. The Babylonians repeatedly refuse to allow the great prophet to join the lines of exiles, but he persists: He too wants to be a walker. He pays honor to their heroism and empowers them to survive until they reach Babylon where they can thrive. Jeremiah wants them to understand that the strength on which they call as they walk, is the strength that will allow them to continue living.

Many of us reflect on our life’s journey as we prepare for Tisha B’Av and the period of Teshuva that follows. We are encouraged to reflect on our failures and disappointments as a way of experiencing the Churban, or destruction. We should remember that when we recall the painful parts of our journey that we too, called on hidden strengths and heroism. We possess the strength to keep on marching through life; the same strength that will help us achieve our potential.

If we are going to recall our Long Walk, we would do well to rejoice in the strengths we discovered. It will be those strengths that will allow us to repair the effects of Tisha B’Av.

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

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2 Comments

• moshe stepansky Jul 8, 2010 at 8:43 pm

  Some points to ponder:

  What makes a long walk long? After all, a line is just an infinite series of dots. So too, a walk is just an infinite series of steps, one after another, and each step wouldn’t necessarily be considered long. The key factor is perspective==>if you focus on one step at a time,then you may not reach the appreciation of length. But after having covered some distance, the product of the number of steps taken during a specified period of time => that’s when you get an appreciation of ‘long’

  On the other hand,when each step is a journey unto itself (each step in the infamous Death Marches from the concentration camps was a matter of life and death!, even one step is a long walk.

  So, which is it? Is it a loooooooooong walk or an infinite number of very brief steps?
  R’Shlomo gave over in the name of Rebbe Nakhman the description of a reality of an interminable journey,but at journey’s end, the wayfarer has gleaned the clarity that each step was necessary to arrive at the destination.
  The Zohar says the day Yoseif was sprung from prison to appear before Par’o was Rosh HaShannah. At that moment of release from prison, Yoseif realized that everything he’d experienced -being thrown in the pit, then sold to the arab merchants, sold to Potiphar,Potiphar’s wife’s slander,jailtime and the subsequent forgetfulness (and ingratitude) of Par’o ’s butler – all these occurrences had to happen to set up his appearing before Par’o.

  So it is, said R’Shlomo, that each one of us undergoes series’ of events and we’re trying to understand G-d’s plan and what message is being beamed our way. Sometimes we are fortunate to experience the culmination and then we attain the clarity of why we experienced the various unfolding stages of unfolding events.

  Y’sha’yahu(60;22) tells us of G-d’s promise (last verse of Haftara of Ci Tavo)”Ani HaShem, b’Eetah Akhee’sheh’na”,I am G-d ,in it’s time I will hasten it(the end of days).
  ChaZ”L pick up on the seeming contradiction – if it’s in its time – how is G-d hastening it? And conversely =>If G-d is hastening it, how would that be ‘in its time’? They explain it as follows: If Ahm Yisrael does nothing, the end of days will come as marked on G-d’s calendar. But, if Ahm Yisrael returns and comes back closer, then G-d will push up the gate and hasten the redemption.

  I’d like to suggest an explanation of”b’Eetah Akhee’she’na” somewhat along the lines of R’Shlomo’s elucidation of the Rebbe Nakhman torah cited above.
  The Redemption will come as marked on G-d’s calendar.The only difference will be, if we,Ahm Yisrael, merit it, then it will seem hastened==> that this long walk didn’t seem as long, because we achieved the clarity that we experienced everything we needed to,just to make it to this point of Redemption.
  (The Ivrit root of Akhee’she’na has multiple layers – 1.hasten or 2.to make someone else sense/feel. So,Akhee’she’na -G-d will enlighten us that all the trials that the Jewish People have endured till this defining moment of The Great Redemption were part of this Long Walk to Freedom.)
• moshe stepansky Jul 8, 2010 at 9:41 pm

  typo”then G-d will push up the gate and hasten the redemption.” (last line of next to last paragraph,9 lines from bottom) should read “date” not “gate”.