Forty two times the Torah reiterates ubjhu – ugxhu “and they journeyed/and they rested.” The commentators suggest reasons for the Torah’s recounting each and every situation in Klal Yisrael’s sojourn. One thing is clear: Each word is there for a purpose; it is there to teach us a lesson. Horav Moshe Swift, zl, infers a meaningful lesson from this apparent redundancy. Life has its ups and downs, its moments of opportunity and success, and its periods of mistakes and catastrophe. The important lesson to remember is to take each of life’s situations in mind, study it and apply it. It is important to learn from our mistakes, so that they do not return to haunt us. It is not necessary to relive all over again to correct our mistakes. We can make up for them during the same journey. All we have to do is look back, analyze our wrongs and be sure not to repeat them. ubjhu – ugxhu is not redundant if at each stage in our journey we derive a lesson for the future. Each “repetition” emphasizes the importance of looking back at the beginning of every stage in life and learning from past experiences to avoid repeating mistakes.
