On the 20th of Iyar, 2449, G‑d gave the signal and the people set out from Mount Sinai. Besides the golden Ark that housed the second set of Tablets and was transported with the rest of the Tabernacle, Moses had constructed a second ark to house the first, shattered set of Tablets. This ark was carried in front of the people, right behind G d’s cloud that led the way.
Following the Ark of the Torah
וַאֲרוֹן בְּרִית ה' נֹסֵעַ לִפְנֵיהֶם וגו':
(במדבר י:לג)
The ark of G‑d’s covenant traveled ahead of them.
Numbers 10:33
In all of their travels in the desert, the Jewish people were preceded by this ark and by the cloud of G‑d, which led the way and cleared the path of potentially harmful animals and obstacles. And so has it been in the long history of the Jewish people: Throughout our journeys, whenever we follow the “ark” – i.e., the light of the Torah – we have found spiritual and physical rest. We are protected from the emotional and physical dangers of the world, enabling us to find true meaning in our existence.1
How can you state that as long as we follow the Torah we have always found physical rest? That is not necessarily true. And we all know it. What is golus Mitzrayim? Galus Bavel? Galus Rome, Greece? Persia? Crusades, Inquisitions, Progroms, Shoah, Communism, antiSemitsm? What of all the murders, death, disease, illness, poverty, misfortune, pain, sorrow? Plenty of Torah observant Yidden have unfortunately suffered throughout our history. Erudite Yidden. Holy & Pure souls. And you write that all we have to do is follow the ark, and we will have spiritual and physical rest? When, in Olam Haba? Then state, in Olam Haba. Don't give such blanket statements. Be honest. Yes, there are BH good times, periods of decades, perhaps centuries, but history is repleat with upheaval For Torah observant Jews and nonobservant Jews. Explain this.