Moses then asked the king of Edom to allow the Jewish people to pass through his land on the way to the Land of Israel. The Edomites refused, so Moses led the people southward, detouring around their territory.
The Soul is Never in Exile
דֶּרֶךְ הַמֶּלֶךְ נֵלֵךְ לֹא נִטֶּה יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאול עַד אֲשֶׁר נַעֲבֹר גְּבֻלֶךָ: (במדבר כ:יז)
[In his message to the king of Edom, Moses said,] “We will walk along the king’s road, turning neither to the right nor to the left until we have passed through your territory.” Numbers 20:17

Moses’ message to the Edomite king is the same message that our Divine souls must convey to the material world so long as we are still in exile. “True, we Jews are physically the same as all people; we have physical needs that must be met by working and living in the physical world. Nonetheless, we will not let this fact obscure our true purpose in life: to fulfill our Divine mission of elevating and refining physicality. We will walk along our Divine King’s road; we will not deviate from G‑d’s ways, either to the right or to the left!”

By remaining true to both our inner selves and to our Divine mission, we will merit witnessing the ultimate redemption of the world and its transformation into G‑d’s true home.1