Vayeira, Breishis 21:14 Vateileich vateisa bemidbar.

Parshas Vayeira. 21:14. Vateileich vateisa bemidbar Be'er Shova.

Vateileich vateisa bemidbar Be'er Shova, (and Hogor went and got lost in the desert of Be'er Sheva). Rashi— Chozroh ligilulei beis oviho (She reverted to the abominable paganism of her father’s house).

Rav Avrohom Chaim Levin of Telz Yeshiva in Chicago, on Motzo’ei Shabbos a week before Rosh Hashanna of Samach daled, spoke about things he heard from his father. One of them was this story about R’ Mottel Pagremanski.

Not long after World War II, R’ Mottel was on a train with a friend on Friday, and they missed their stop because they were talking in learning. They got off the train at the next stop, and the friend lamented their being lost erev Shabbos far from any Jewish yishuv. R’ Mottel said that a Jew is never lost. Wherever he is, he is supposed to be. He brought a proof from this story of Haggar. How does Rashi know that she went back to avodah zarrah? Maybe she was just lost. The answer is that a Jew is never lost. If she was called lost, it shows that she was no longer a ba’alas bitochon in Hashem.
The friend said, the vort is excellent, but lemayseh, R’ Mottel, we are fahrblonghet (hopelessly lost). R’ Mottel said, we’ll see.
They inquired, and found that one jew lived in the town. They went to his house, the man came to the door, saw two Yidden, and his eyes widened, and he said in wonder, “Who are you? Are you Eliahu Hanovi?” R’ Mottel answered, no, I’m Mottel Pagremanski, but why did you say that? When he could talk again, he explained that he had a baby a week before, and he couldn’t find any mohel that could come to spend Shabbos far from any Jewish community to do the bris, and he had given up already, and here he opens the door erev Shabbos, and there are two jews standing there, when there had not been that many jews in the town for years. R’ Mottel said, I am not Eliahu Hanovi, but my friend is a mohel, and he happens to have his keilim with him. So they made the bris on Shabbos and R’ Mottel was the sandek.

When I said this story in shul the following year, a man spoke up and said that now he understands how he got Reb Mottel Pargemansky to be the sandek at his bris millah. I believe that this man had been the baby whose bris the story was told about, and his father had told him little pieces of the story of how he miraculously had a millah bizmanah in the backwoods of France.

The lesson of this story is clear. Wherever you find yourself, and particularly if you find yourself in a place that you had not intended to go, there is a reason you are there. Ask Hashem for siyato dishmayo, keep your eyes open, think about the people you see, and be very careful how you act, because you were placed there to do something important.

Update November 2022:

I was curious about a phrase in ובא לציון that ברוך הוא אלהינו שבראנו לכבודו והבדילנו מן התועים ונתן לנו תורת אמת.

This is not a passuk, it is something someone wrote for the tefilla. Why תועים, not טועים? Those that stray, wanderers, the lost... why choose that unusual word?

I happened to come across a very interesting discussion of this question on Mi Yodeya. I'll post the answer first, because I think the question is even more interesting, as you'll see. 

The person that posted the best answer is Isaac E Moses, who created the Mi Yodeya website. He writes:

R' Yehuda bar Yakar¹, in his commentary on this prayer², cites three Biblical sources for this line. (The bolded portions are the phrases he quotes.)

Leviticus 20:26

וִהְיִ֤יתֶם לִי֙ קְדֹשִׁ֔ים כִּ֥י קָד֖וֹשׁ אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֑ה וָאַבְדִּ֥ל אֶתְכֶ֛ם מִן־הָֽעַמִּ֖ים לִהְי֥וֹת לִֽי׃

You shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine.

Rashi there, citing Sifra, says that this refers to Jews designating themselves as God's people and not, e.g., Nebuchadnezzar's, by separating themselves from other nations by following the Torah and not other nations' ways.

Psalms 95:10

אַרְבָּ֘עִ֤ים שָׁנָ֨ה ׀ אָ֘ק֤וּט בְּד֗וֹר וָאֹמַ֗ר עַ֤ם תֹּעֵ֣י לֵבָ֣ב הֵ֑ם וְ֝הֵ֗ם לֹא־יָדְע֥וּ דְרָכָֽי׃

Forty years I was provoked by that generation; I thought, “They are a senseless people; they would not know My ways.”

From context, it's clear that the "senseless people" here are the generation of Jews who migrated for 40 years through the Sinai wilderness. It seems that the "senselessness" refers to the various episodes of complaint and rebellion recorded in the Torah.

Isaiah 29:24

וְיָדְע֥וּ תֹֽעֵי־ר֖וּחַ בִּינָ֑ה וְרוֹגְנִ֖ים יִלְמְדוּ־לֶֽקַח׃

And the confused shall acquire insight And grumblers accept instruction.

Looking at the Radak, Metzudat David, and Malbim, I get the sense that the "confused" here are those who are ignorant of God's responsibility for the world and His and His prophets instructions.

Taking these allusions together, I suggest that when we thank God for "וְהִבְדִּילָנוּ מִן הַתּועִים," we're thanking Him for giving us the opportunity to choose to separate ourselves from "הַתּועִים" - those who are ignorant of Him and His laws and who therefore fail to acknowledge Him properly.

---

^{1. ~1170-1220. Learned in France from the Tosafists and then taught the Ramban in Spain.}

^{2. Found in the anthology Tefillah Le'Moshe, compiled by R' Ahron Lopiansky.}

answered May 25, 2018 at 19:57

Isaac Moses♦

Great answer. But I found the information in the question even more interesting!

Here's what the questioner wrote.

....quick look in Bar Ilan (and a look through the Beurei Hatefilla site) shows no particular source for the idea of being separated from the to'im. A search of the word To'im turned up some commentaries who used the word:

1. The Lekach Tov says, "ולא כמו שאומרים התועים עצרת לאחר השבת" seeming to point to those who reject the oral law in computing the date for Shavu'ot, so the "Torah" in the following line would be the Oral Law.
2. In his Seder Pesach, Amram Ga'on writes "ותלמידי ענן ירקב שמו, אבי אביו של דניאל, חוט המשולש ברשע ובמינות, שאמר לכל התועים והזונים אחריו, עזבו דברי משנה ותלמוד ואני אעשה לכם תלמוד משלי" referring to a group that also rejected Oral Law as taught by Chazal (though they replaced it with their own Talmud).
3. The Ibn Ezra on Daniel 11:30 writes,

ויש לתמוה מחכמי צדוקים שפירשו זה לעתיד, ואמרו: כי המקדש היא מיכ"א שיחוגו עליה הישמעאלים והסירו התמיד, החמש תפילות ונתנו השיקוץ עכו"ם ואלו התועים, איך יתכן שיקרא מקדש רק ירושלים לבדה, וככה שמה בלשון ישמעאל בית ואיך הוא מיכ"א קדש, והלא פקחו אלה העורים את עיניהם וראו כי יש במיכ"א שיקוץ עד היום והלא מרקוליס שאליו יחוגו כל ישמעאל ממזרח וממערב לזרוק אבנים שם, ואלה המפרשים חללו המקדש. והגאון ז"ל אמר: כי ועשה כרצונו המלך זהו הקדרי ראש מלכות ישמעאל. וזה לא יתכן, כי כתוב וכל חמדת נשים לא יבין וזה היה אוהב נשים ופירש נשים מדינות, וזה קרוב אל דרש ואיננו פשט. ועוד: מה יעשה בכתוב לאלה אשר לא ידעוהו אבותיו?! ועוד: אם היה אלה עכו"ם אין תשובה ממרקוליס, כי זה ידעוהו אבותיו ולא סרו אנשי מיכ"א למשמעתו, עד שנשבע להם שלא יסיר עבודת מרקוליס, ואין צורך להאריך. ובן היוצר חבר ספר במועד הקץ וגם נפצתי דבריו ככלי יוצר טרם בא מועדו, כי הוא מקוה מועד עבר וכלל אומר דבריו בדברי קץ.

I realized that these three sources all are talking about those that reject Torah sheba'al peh, the Karaim and the Tzedukim. The person R Amram Gaon is talking about is Anan ben David, a notorious rebel against our mesora of Torah sheba'al peh, whose polemics and the Gaonic responses to which have been found in the Cairo Geniza. The ibn Ezra clearly refers to the Tzedukim as תועים. So it is very possible that the sentence  הבדילנו מן התועים ונתן לנו תורת אמת is davka saying Baruch Hashem that we have and we are faitful to Torah sheba'al peh, unlike those that strayed. 

Whatever the exact pshat is, it means "one who strays from the Torah. This is all is clearly based on the passuk in Mishlei 21:17 on אדם תועה מדרך השכל בקהל רפאים ינוח .  The ibn Ezra there says that the term to'eh makes sense because he is wandering around, when the path of Torah and Chochma is straight -  תועה - כי החכמה היא דרך ישרה והעוזב אותה הוא תועה במעשה הרע.  And the Gemara in BB 79a says that it is the path to Gehinnom - 

כי אתא רב דימי א"ר יונתן: כל הפורש עצמו מד"ת - נופל בגיהנם, שנאמר: (משלי כא, טז) אָדָם תּוֹעֶה מִדֶּרֶךְ הַשְׂכֵּל בִּקְהַל רְפָאִים יָנוּחַ, ואין רפאים אלא גיהנם, שנאמר: (משלי ט, יח) וְלֹא יָדַע כִּי רְפָאִים שָׁם בְּעִמְקֵי שְׁאוֹל קְרֻאֶיהָ".