Parshat Beshalach/Tu B'Shevat
January 17th-18th, 2003
15 Shevat, 5763

It’s almost unbelievable.

I don’t mean the miraculous splitting of the Sea for the Jewish people (and subsequent drowning of the Egyptian army) that is the centerpiece of this week’s parsha. I accept that event as part of our historical experience as a people, as recorded for us by Moshe (at the behest of Hashem) in our holy Torah. It was obviously an open (and positively

mind-blowing) nes (miracle), a display of G-d’s ("supernatural") mastery of the laws of nature and His desire to perform wonders on behalf of the Jewish people. I acknowledge that it was, indeed, a miracle (like many recorded in the Torah), but as a person of faith, I find it believable. In spite of the attempts of some cable-TV science specials to explain it away as a freakish tidal pattern, etc., and to thereby remove the necessity of a Divine Mover…displaced by (the laughable) "Mother Nature."

Please note, by the way, that had the Jewish people at the Sea merely been the beneficiaries of some strange "natural" atmospheric condition, the fact that it occurred precisely at the time that they were fleeing from Pharaoh’s quickly advancing legions (and in desperate need of some salvation or—if you prefer—some "lucky break") would itself be a tremendous miracle. Apparently, the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chasidic movement, gave something like this very retort to the challenge of a skeptic. [See The Call of the Torah, by Rabbi Eli Munk, Volume II, p. 178]

Nor do I mean that I find unbelievable the fact that the Jewish people (or a portion thereof) took to complaining in the very moment of crisis, as the enemy closed in. "They said to Moshe, ‘Were there no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the Wilderness?’" (14, 11) I find that extremely believable…all the way down to the characteristically Jewish tone (sardonic) of the complaint. (Can’t you easily imagine Jackie Mason--or Jerry Seinfeld--delivering that line?)

To be fair to my ancestors, I should say that they also showed their great nobility of spirit throughout this whole ordeal. First, they prayed fervently to Hashem in their moment of danger ("They seized the occupation of their forefathers," as Rashi puts it), and then they sang the exalted "Song at the Sea" (shiras ha’yam) after the miraculous salvation. (Chapter 15, verses 1-21) See? We’re not only a nation of kvetchers and comedians; we’re also the descendants of prophets, and of passionate believers in the one G-d of Israel!

So, it is not the miracle at the Sea, the complaining beforehand or the lofty expression of joy afterwards that I find almost unbelievable (as I mentioned at the outset). Rather, it is the fact that following this dramatic event, with its open display of G-d’s glorious might and Providence, there could be a lesson recorded in the Torah (later in this very same parsha) that was to be even more valuable to the Children of Israel.

I’m talking about a scene with none of the fanfare of the splitting of the Sea. It’s an intriguing little incident, to be sure, but easily overlooked after the drama that precedes it in the portion.

"So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore its name was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’ And he cried to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he threw [it] into the waters, made the waters sweet; there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them…" (15, 22-25; my emphasis)

On a simple level, the Jewish people were being taught another yet degree of G-d’s wondrous power. In analyzing this verse, the Midrash cites examples of bitter plants able to sweeten bitter, or unpalatable, waters (as Rabbi Munk writes in The Call of the Torah). So the tree that Moshe cast into the waters was itself bitter, and yet it was able to transcend its own nature, as it were, and make the bitter waters sweet. We can conclude: Hashem is not limited by "laws" of nature, or by relationships of cause and effect, or by the predicted outcomes of chemical processes.

Great, but in what way is that a more valuable lesson than what they learned at the Sea? It seems, in fact, to be quite along the same lines!

We need to turn to the brilliant Torah commentary of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (19th century German leader) in order to appreciate the wondrous (and fundamental) lesson being taught here to the Children of Israel.

As Hirsch explains, to perceive the presence of G-d at our extraordinary moments of national danger and crisis is very important (and a blessing, to boot). Our Jewish faith is built on the great miracles of our history--as recorded in these portions of the Book of Exodus. But there’s another lesson we need to internalize as well, and one that comes in quite handy for the thousands upon thousands of hours (most of our lives, in fact) during which we are not experiencing extraordinary danger and national crisis. And the lesson is that G-d will (and does) take care of us in the hours of our everyday lives as well.

According to Hirsch, this experience of the Jewish people at Marah, occurring at the very start of their journey through the Sinai wilderness, was meant to be emblematic of the whole "education" that G-d wanted them to receive in their travels. Hashem wanted them to learn

"…that He could be depended on for the ordinary requirements of everyday life

in all their circumstances, that the so-called little daily necessities of man are

not too small and petty for the Divine Eye to see, and the Divine Hand to

provide [for], that one who is faithful to G-d with every breath he draws, can

confidently rely on the constant presence of His help." (Commentary to Exodus,

p. 204)

For us to serve G-d properly (and happily), we must be confident in G-d’s power to help us. We need to know that He provides us with our daily bread (and water). That is as big a miracle (bigger!) than the splitting of the Red Sea. Moreover, we must be sure that "carrying out His will, as expressed in the Torah, has the power to guide us safely and happily through the desolate deserts of Life, and to sweeten for us the bitterest draughts that life can offer us."

It is in following the Torah, joyfully carrying out its dictates (and absorbing its words and ideas), that even the bitterest waters of life can be rendered sweeter. The account of the incident at Marah hints to this in two ways. First, the "tree" that Moshe was shown (and commanded to throw in the water) symbolically refers to the Torah--which is termed a "tree of Life for those who cling to it" (Proverbs). Second, the Midrash tells us that it was at Marah that the Jewish people received the first portions of Torah law to study (laws of the Sabbath, monetary laws, the decree of the red heifer—see Rashi). This is what is alluded to above: "there He made for them a statute and an ordinance." G-d gave them statutes and ordinances to delve into!

And this is what sweetened the bitterness of their mood, the mood of kvetching and complaining. Though on one level they complained due to a lack of water, the Talmud explains that on a deeper level, it was the lack of the waters of Torah that led them to begin to falter in their faith in G-d and in Moshe. (Otherwise, they would have trusted that G-d would provide for them, and would not have taken to complaining.) To be strong spiritually, to be strong in our faith and love of G-d, the Jewish people need to cling to the tree of Life, the Torah and its mitzvos. At Marah, G-d satisfied their physical thirst ("the water became sweet") and their spiritual thirst ("He made for them a statute and an ordinance"). He taught us that through the "tree of Life" (the Torah), all the bitterness we experience in this world can be transcended (or transformed). We need the sweet words of Torah to enlighten and enliven our souls.

As King David writes (in that same vein): "Had your Torah not been my preoccupation, then I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your precepts, for through them You have preserved me" (Psalms, 119). In preoccupying ourselves with the Torah, we can always find sweet waters that quench the thirst of our souls, lifting us above our troubles and "afflictions," and helping us to connect to the One Who sends them.

That is an extremely valuable lesson for us in these difficult times. May we look for, and find, the sweetness in our Jewish heritage, in our Torah and its mitzvos. With their help (and with Hashem’s help!), we can come to appreciate more and more the "everyday" blessings of being alive…and of being part of G-d’s people, chosen to be "a [spiritual] light unto the nations."
GOOD SHABBOS!

My e-mail address is yosefe@comcast.net

Archives

Insights Into Genesis | Insights Into Exodus | Insights Into Leviticus
Insights into Numbers | Insights Into Deuteronomy

Rabbi Yosef Edelstein, Savannah Kollel. Phone: 912-351-0469; fax: 354-9923