TorahParsha

What makes us strong

 

for Parshat BeShalach

 

i

The nation of Amalek comes to attack.

Moses goes up to the hilltop, carrying his staff.

Aaron and Hur go up with him.

Moses lifts his hands up.

And as Moses would lift up his hand,

the people would succeed in battle.

But Moses’ hands grew heavy.

*

So Aaron and Hur helped Moses’ hands—

one holding from here

and one from here,

and Moses’ hands, holding the staff,

stayed steadfast until the sun set.

 

ii

Aaron’s two hands from here,

and Hur’s two hands from here,

and Moses’ two hands between them,

and Moses’ staff,

all steadfast:

it is like the Menorah,

the  seven-branched Candelabra in the Temple:

three branches of the Menorah from one side

and three from its second side,

and the seventh pole at the center,

all seven lit continually, 

for all generations.

 

iii

It is the source of our light,

our strength:

Many uniting together,

sharing together for the long work. 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

Exodus 17:8-12; ; 25:32; 27:20-21

In a nation, does every person matter?

for Parshat BeShalach

 

i

After the people leave Egypt

after they have witnessed the Plagues

and the Splitting of the Sea

they come to the Desert

to become a nation.

 

ii

In the Desert, they are hungry.

They long for the pot of meat

and the plentiful bread

they had in Egypt.

*

God sends them down Manna from Heaven.

Each person gets one omer of Manna each day:

one unit

enough for one person

for one day—

and not more.

 

iii

God could have given the people unlimited Manna,

like meat from an overflowing pot.

Instead He gives just enough

for each person

for each day.

 

iv

In a whole nation

that is an unfolding of history,

a single person

a single day

may seem not to matter.

So from the outset, God shows

how each person is uniquely nourished by God

and each day is uniquely nourished by God.

 

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

For Parshat B'Shalach

 

What do we take from God?

 

i

The people gather manna,

grain from God,

all through their years in the Desert,

gathering one omer for each person.

*

An omer is one-tenth of an efah

is the last phrase

of the story of manna.

 

ii

Moses tells Israel:

bake what you will bake of the manna;

and the word for bake is ofeh,

like efah.

So say an efah

is a measure of baking.

*

Later Moses says

bring an omer of your harvest

before God.

So say an omer

is a measure of gathering.

 

iii

Then an omer is one-tenth of an efah

is a translation of what we gather from God

into what we make from it.

*

Then to know we can translate

from omer to efah

is to know that from God’s works

we make our own forms.

 

iv

This knowing is the final gift

that God’s gift leaves for us.

 

_____
Sparked by an idea of my friend Yossi Kra

 

_____

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

 

Please pray for Neshama Emunah bat Batya

www.TorahParsha.com / @TorahParsha

 

 

How do we move past trauma?

 

(for Parshat B'Shalach)

 

Many who have lived through hunger cannot stop hoarding.  They survived by clutching at literal crumbs and now though they are safe they cannot let go. They gather napkins from restaurants, packets of sugar or salt, whatever they can get. They have not lost their fright.

*

In the Desert God sends manna, the special bread. Six days a week it comes and the people go in the open to gather it.  And the manna will go bad if they store it: they live on just that day’s bread.

*

These are people to whom the Egyptians said: get yourselves straw wherever you can find it. They needed the straw for bricks for their horrible slave-work. And so they spread out across all Egypt to find straw. And they learned the need to scavenge. They learned the perils of not finding. They learned the need to store up.

*
Now God tells them: I am the One Who gives you the things you gather. I give manna each day. You do not need to rely on yourself to ensure your bread each day. You can rely on Me.

*
If they learn this, they can move past trauma.

 

 

 

                                                                     

____

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

 

Please pray for the premature infants Kalev Ezra and Baer Yakov bnei Emunah. Please continue to pray for  Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther.

 

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Witnessing (for Parshat BeShalach)

i
The Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron.

Would we had died by the hand of HaShem in the land of Egypt, the people say, when we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate our fill of bread: for you two have brought us out into this Desert to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

*
Then God sends the people manna—nourishment for their Desert life.

And when God promises that He will provide food, the Presence of HaShem appeared before the people.

ii
These people have watched God deliver the Ten Plagues.

They have seen God split open the sea, and drown the Egyptian army in it.

They have sung: Sing to HaShem, for He has triumphed.

*
But these are lofty things.

These are national things.

Hunger is a personal matter.

iii
God says: Each man is to gather the manna according to his own appetite, for himself and for those in his tent.

Each man’s own hunger has its encounter with God.

Each man’s family encounters God.

God says: I am the God Who even tends to each one of you.

*

It is in this relationship that the people find the Presence of HaShem.

________

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

Please pray for the recovery of Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah

Verses cited: Exodus 16:2-3,10,16
Read more Torah thoughts at TorahParsha.com

Technology is Not Prayer

i
Pharaoh in his chariot and Pharaoh's six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt chase the Children of Israel as they flee Egypt.

And the Children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

(And chariots at the time must have been the height of military technology, of sophisticated weaponry.)

*
God splits the Sea and God sends the Children of Israel through the Sea, and Pharaoh and his chariots chase the Children of Israel through the Sea.

*
God removed the wheels of the chariots of Pharaoh's army.

It is then that the Egyptians say: Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for Israel against Egypt.

ii
The Children Israel pass through the Sea.

God makes the Sea whole again.

The Egyptians, with their un-wheeled chariots, are drowned.

*
Then Moses and the Children of Israel sang a song to the Lord.

iii
When the battle ends, it is prayer—a song to the Lord—and not chariots, and not sophisticated weaponry, not technology—not tanks or warplanes or long-range missiles or motorcars or smartphones or the Internet—that is victorious.

~~~~~

This thought was inspired by Jay Michaelson's reading of Shelley's "Ozymandias"


~~~~~

God in Battle

i
The Children of Israel go up from Egypt armed. Yet even so God led them not through… the land of the Pelishtim:… lest they see war and return to Egypt.

*
Though the Children of Israel are soldiers, they do not fight.

ii
Then Egypt threatens to drown the Children of Israel in the sea. Israel cries out to God and God saves them, splitting the sea.

*
Then Israel is thirsty, saying: What shall we drink? God gives them drinkable water.

*
Then Israel is hungry, telling Moses: You have brought us… into this wilderness, to kill this whole congregation with hunger. And God gives Israel the mann: food from heaven.

*
Then Israel is thirsty again. It demands water for us and our children and our cattle. And again God gives Israel water.

*
Then Amalek comes to do war.

And Israel finally goes out to war, beating Amalek back.

ii
The Children of Israel learn that that they want to live; that they have thirst; that they are hungry; that they want to protect their children and their wealth.

They learn what is at stake in their life.

They learn, then, what it is to be human.

*
They learn, too, that it is God who provides for all their needs.

iii
They learn what they need. They learn that it is God Who provides for these needs.

It is only then that they are ready for their encounters with the world.

It is only then that are they battle-ready.

~~~~~