This week’s Torah portion, B’shalach, contains one of my favorite scenes of Torah. The Israelites are standing with the Sea of Reeds before them and Pharaoh's army chasing behind them. The Israelites cry out to Moses with a dry, sarcastic cut: “were there no graves in Mitzrayim that you had to take us out here to die?”
Moses tells the people to not be afraid, but to stand firm and see the deliverance of Adonai. He comes off surprisingly confident in my read, as this is the same man who doubted he was up for the job over and over again, and later on will be floored by further complaints of the people in the wilderness. But here in particular, he seems so sure. Perhaps this moment of true desperation, seeing there could not be any way in which he could do anything, leads him to confidence. But this confidence is not in himself, it is in Adonai.
And Adonai has other plans. Adonai is not going to save them. In fact Adonai then says: “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.”
This scene has always served as a relationship between faith and action. It is important to both believe in the possibility of liberation coming from beyond us AND to take action to do our part in causing that liberation. There is a midrash that not only did the Sea of Reeds split, but all waters on Earth split from the action of the Israelites moving into the water, with faith and action.
Parashat B’shalach can remind us that when we feel stuck between destructive forces, we might still find the courage and the strength to take action faithfully, trusting that each movement can bring about what may have seemed impossible moments earlier.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
Moses tells the people to not be afraid, but to stand firm and see the deliverance of Adonai. He comes off surprisingly confident in my read, as this is the same man who doubted he was up for the job over and over again, and later on will be floored by further complaints of the people in the wilderness. But here in particular, he seems so sure. Perhaps this moment of true desperation, seeing there could not be any way in which he could do anything, leads him to confidence. But this confidence is not in himself, it is in Adonai.
And Adonai has other plans. Adonai is not going to save them. In fact Adonai then says: “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.”
This scene has always served as a relationship between faith and action. It is important to both believe in the possibility of liberation coming from beyond us AND to take action to do our part in causing that liberation. There is a midrash that not only did the Sea of Reeds split, but all waters on Earth split from the action of the Israelites moving into the water, with faith and action.
Parashat B’shalach can remind us that when we feel stuck between destructive forces, we might still find the courage and the strength to take action faithfully, trusting that each movement can bring about what may have seemed impossible moments earlier.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
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