When I was told I was to give the Dvar Torah with week, I immediately went to look at this week’s Parsha - Beshalach. But, it turns out, there are A LOT of things that happen in this week’s Parsha. It’s packed! So I’ve settled and have selected a few pieces to highlight in hopes of sharing some interesting knowledge and, as many Dvar Torahs do, leaving you with some sort of useful lesson.
As I mentioned, quite a lot happened in this week’s Parsha. In summary, this is the Parsha in which:
- Pharoah lets the Israelites people go
- Pharoah changes his mind
- The Israelites get stuck between the Egyptians and the Red Sea,
- The Red Seat splits! Dancing and singing ensue!
- God sweetens the water at Marah
- Moshe strikes the rock, which then produces water
- Manna falls from the heavens
- The tribe of Amalek attacks, but is ultimately defeated
Whew.
Basically: Freedom from Egypt, miracle food and water in the desert, defeat of Amalek in battle.
So let’s go back. The Israelites had a goal when they left Egypt. They had a game plan, a mission: To go be free and to go serve God. We see this when Moshe, God’s sidekick, says to Pharoah: “Let my people go, that they may serve me”. (“Me” in this case refers to God). Sure enough, when the Israelites go forth from Egypt, they find themselves at a new beginning, with the new mission of follow in the ways of God.
It turns out to be easier said than done. I mentioned, there was A LOT that happened in this Parsha. That includes a lot of complaining. Seriously. The Israelites have a pattern of complaining in this Parsha. Their shining moments are:
1) At Red Sea, when Pharoah’s army comes after them. The Israelites ask “What is this that you have done to us to take us out of Egypt?” (14:11) Moshe, as any good sidekick would, encourages them not to be afraid and ensures that God will come and save the day. (He does).
2) They come to a place, which they call Marah because it means “bitter”; the water there is bitter and undrinkable. There are complaints. Hashem instructs Moshe to throw a piece of wood into the water, and voila! Sweet water! This episode ends and leaves the Israelites with the message: If you listen to the commandments and statues given by Hashem, he will not harm them the way he did the Egyptians, and he will “heal” you (15:26). This message isn’t really new information, but rather a reminder to the Israelite’s of the game plan they had when they’d left Egypt.
3) In the desert, the Israelites get hungry. “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, when we ate bread to our fill!” (16:3) God responds by sending Manna from heaven.
4). They arrive to a place called Rephidim. They say, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to make me and my children and my livestock die of thirst?” (17:3) Moshe hits rock, and water comes forth from it.
Now, if you take a look at all these complaints, you might start to realize that the reasoning behind the complaints are perfectly understandable. If you found yourself in the desert and began to get hungry or thirsty, then you might complain too! Especially if you don’t know from where or when your next piece of bread or water will come.
Alright. But what is interesting is the fourth (the last) complaint. It came with another line: “Is God in our midsts or not? (17:7) The very next sentence is “Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.” (17:8)
“Is God in our midsts or not?” is more than a complaint for food and water. It is doubt … in God! It seems a little crazy that after all the miracles that the Israelites have seen God perform until this moment that they come to question his existence among them! Even after they left Egypt with the devout mission to serve and follow God, they now question his existence!
The Midrash Rabba suggests that the Amalek attack in the next sentence is not a coincidence. The MR indicates that the arrival of Amalek was a bit of “chastisement” for Israel, and in this case, it is in response to their doubt.
Gematriah is a system that assigns a number to every Hebrew letter, and it is used to uncover deeper meanings from the Torah text. Using Gematriah, adding together the letters in Hebrew work for “doubt” – safek – equals 160. If you add together the numbers that make up the work Amalek, you will also get 160. Interesting, right? This further suggests that there is a connection between the kind of doubt that Israelites experienced, and the Amalek attack noted in the very next verse. As we know, the Israelites end up defeating the Amalekites in this battle.
There is something else happening this week: Tu-beshvat! This holiday is dubbed “The New Year of the Trees”, even though it’s still technically wintertime. It’s at this time that the earliest-blooming trees in Israel begin their cycle. Despite the cooler, the windier, rainier weather that winter brings, these trees and plants fight through and end up producing flowers – being productive - , they end up fruitful, they end up successful.
There is one other “beginning” happening right now. We are at the beginning of the semester, here at UT. I’d venture to say that many of us have set goals for ourselves this semester. For me, I have goals related to fitness and time management. For some of us, the goal we have is getting to class on time. For other, it may be to do the class’s reading before class. Whatever it is, there’s something we are excited about and are eager to accomplish.
And then we hit a wall. It could be some months later … a few weeks later … two days later. We find ourselves with an obstacle to that goal we had so determinedly set. We want to give in to the desire to quite, give into the doubt, and even readily question the goal itself.
So I leave you with this: Remember that there was a reason that you set out to do whatever it was you set out to do! Keep that in mind! Find your Moshe, your sidekick and support system, and remember why you set your goal in the first place. And, in the end, may you find yourself meeting that goal and accomplishing your mission. May you find yourself productive, fruitful and successful ☺
Shabbat Shalom!
Efrat Birenbaum is a graduate student at UT.
(Printed from her Shabbat speech).
Shabbat shalom everyone. 