For our Welcome Back event for the Spring ’26 semester, our student board suggested some version of the Geo-Guessr game. So we asked students to submit pictures of their winter break places – for students at the event to guess WHO and WHERE of the photos. Some were easier, some were harder, all made for good interactive welcome back chatter.
But this WHO & WHERE game also tied into the Daily Study for that day, Tuesday of Parsha Bo – readings leading up to the Exodus:
G-d promised Abraham that the Jews would leave Egypt with great wealth. And in today’s Tuesday reading of Bo – G-d asks the Jewish people to please be sure to ask Egyptians for gold and silver before the Exodus so that the divine promise to Abraham could be fulfilled.
But why is the great wealth so important altogether?
Chassidic teaching sees the “great wealth” as the elevation of hidden spiritual sparks throughout the world, and throughout Jewish exiles. Our (WHO) interactions in various places (the WHERE) far and near, all play a role in the redemption and elevation of these spiritual sparks. Our meaningful and uplifting interactions in time and space, in various locales and with different people and things – all help fuse the spiritual and physical. They reveal glimpses of heaven on earth.
When we are in a certain place – there’s a hidden spiritual agenda and purpose. Each of us has a divine mission to the places and things and people that we encounter. And this is true even if we think we’re only there to enjoy a getaway vacation.