S

itting is the new smoking. So goes 
the new health mantra. Spend too 
much time at a desk or in front of 
a screen and you are at risk of significant 
danger to your health. The World Health 
Organization has identified 
physical inactivity as the 
fourth greatest health haz-
ard today, ahead of obesity. 
In the words of Dr James 
Levine, one of the world’s 
leading experts on the sub-
ject and the man credited 
with coining the mantra, 
says, “We are sitting our-
selves to death.”
The reason is that we were not made to 
sit still. Our bodies were made for move-
ment, standing, walking and running. If 
we fail to give the body regular exercise, it 
can easily malfunction and put us at risk 
of serious illness. The question is: does 
the same apply to the soul, the spirit, the 
mind?
It is fascinating to look at the sequence 
of verbs in the very first verse of the book 
of Psalms: “Happy is the man who does 
not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, 
or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in 
the seat of the scornful” (Ps. 1:1). That 
is a picture of the bad life, lived in pur-
suit of the wrong values. Note how the 
bad man begins by walking, then stands, 
then sits. A bad life immobilizes. That is 
the point of the famous verses in Hallel: 
“Their idols are silver and gold, the work 
of men’s hands. They have mouths, but 

do not speak, eyes but do not see, ears but 
do not hear, noses but do not smell. They 
have hands but cannot feel, feet but cannot 
walk, nor can they make a sound with 
their throats. Those who make them will 
be like them; so will all who trust in them” 
(Ps. 115:4-8).
If you live for lifeless things — as in the 
bumper sticker, “He who dies with the 
most toys, wins” — you will become life-
less.

JEWISH JOURNEYS
Except in the House of the Lord, Jews 
do not sit. Jewish life began with two 
momentous journeys, Abraham from 
Mesopotamia, Moses and the Israelites 
from Egypt. “Walk on ahead of Me and 
be blameless” said God to Abraham (Gen. 
17:1). At the age of 99, having just been 
circumcised, Abraham saw three strangers 
passing by and “ran to meet them.” On the 
verse, “Jacob dwelled [vayeshev, the verb 
that also means “to sit”] in the land where 
his father had stayed” Rashi, citing the 
Sages, commented: “Jacob sought to live 
in tranquility, but immediately there broke 
in on him the troubles of Joseph.” The 
righteous do not sit still. They do not have 
a quiet life.
Rarely is the point made with more sub-
tlety than at the end of this week’s parsha 
and the book of Exodus as a whole. The 
Tabernacle had been made and assem-
bled. The closing verses tell us about the 
relationship between it and the “cloud of 
glory” that filled the Tent of Meeting. The 

Tabernacle was made to be portable. It 
could be dismantled and its parts carried 
as the Israelites traveled on the next stage 
of their journey. When the time came 
for them to move on, the cloud moved 
from the Tent of Meeting to a position 
outside the camp, signaling the direction 
the Israelites were to take. This is how the 
Torah describes it:
“When the cloud lifted from above the 
tabernacle, the Israelites went onward in all 
their journeys, but if the cloud did not lift, 
they did not set out until the day it lifted. 
So the cloud of the Lord was over the tab-
ernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by 
night, in the sight of all the house of Israel 
in all their journeys” (Ex. 40:36-38)
There is a significant difference between 
the two occurrences of the phrase “in all 
their journeys.” In the first, the words are 
meant literally. When the cloud lifted, the 
Israelites knew they were about to begin 
a new stage of their journey. However, 
in the second instance, they cannot be 
meant literally. The cloud was not “over 
the Tabernacle” in all their journeys. To 
the contrary, it was there only when they 
stopped journeying and instead pitched 
camp. During the journeys the cloud went 
on ahead.

A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
Rashi notes this and makes the following 
comment: “
A place where they encamped 
is also called massa, ‘a journey’ . . . because 
from the place of encampment they always 
set out again on a new journey, therefore 
they are all called ‘journeys.’”
The point is linguistic, but the message 
is remarkable. In a few brief words, Rashi 
has summarized an existential truth about 
Jewish identity. To be a Jew is to travel. 
Judaism is a journey, not a destination. 
Even a place of rest, an encampment, is 
still called a journey. The patriarchs lived, 
not in houses, but in tents. The first time 
we are told that a patriarch built a house, 
proves the point: “Jacob traveled to Succot. 
There he built himself a house and made 
shelters [sukkot] for his livestock. That 
is why he called the place Succot” (Gen. 
33:17).
The verse is astonishing. Jacob has just 

Don’t Sit: Walk 

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

RABBISACKS.ORG

36 | MARCH 3 • 2022 

