TorahParsha

The Problem With Inspiration

for Parshat B'Shalach

 

 

i

Egypt chases Israel down at the Sea

and the people are terrified.

 

God rescues the people

at the miraculous Sea

and then they believed in HaShem

and in Moses, his servant.

 

So they sing of the salvation that God has brought

and of the salvation to come:

of God conquering the Land

of God settling the people in the Land

of establishing God’s Temple.

 

These people have seen the Hand of God.

They have moved from fear into faith.

They know that good will come.

 

ii

In the Desert

in their thirst for water

in their hunger for meat

in their fear of the kingdoms of the Land

the people doubt.

 

In their doubt,

nearly no one of that generation

who has passed through the Sea

may enter the Land.

 

iii

Can you come through the long journey

of days

of years

of thirst and heat

of the long trek

 

and remember to not forget

what you once learned,

what you once knew?

 

That is a great challenge of faith.

 

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

 

Please pray for Yechiel ben Michal

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What do you own?

for Parshat B'Shalach

 

i

God tells Pharaoh to send Israel from Egypt

but Pharaoh refuses.

God tells Moses:

Let Aaron cast a staff upon the river

and I will turn the river to blood.

*

The water becomes blood

and the river fish die

and the river goes rancid

and Egypt cannot drink from it.

 

ii

When Israel leaves Egypt

and comes to the desert

the people find water

but the water is bitter.

*

God shows Moses some wood

to cast into the water

and Moses casts the wood into the water

and the water becomes sweet.

 

iii

Egypt may have a good river

and Israel may have bitter water

but it is God Who decides

which water is drinkable

and which water is not.

*

Whatever we seem to have,

only God decides what it is worth.

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

TorahParsha.com

How to see

for Parshat BeShalach

i

Eve sees that the Fruit

is a pleasure to the eyes.

She and Adam eat of it,

discover their nakedness

(later God clothes them).

*

Sinning with their eyes,

Eve and Adam

look at what eyes see:

a world stripped

of the dignity of God.

They come up naked.

 

ii

Twelve men

spy out the Land;

ten return terrified.

These ten say:

we have seen a dangerous Land.

But two of them,

Caleb and Joshua,

tore their clothes;

as if to say:

you fear a cruel, naked world.

But there is no nakedness.

God covers us.

You deny that covering,

that protection,

like a man tearing his own shirt.

 

iii

God says: Place tzitzit—

things that peer out—

upon...your garments

and you shall see tzitit upon your garment; 

you shall remember all of HaShem’s commandments

and you will not wander

after your eyes.

*

Your garment peers out to the world;

you look to your garment,

and think of God.

You do not look through eyes

that see nakedness

and danger.

You look through dignity,

protection,

clothes:

knowing this covering (that eyes cannot see)

comes from God.

*

That is how to look,

to see.

 

 

______

Shabbat Shalom,
Abe

_______

My translation of tzitzit is based on the word l’hatzitz. See Song of Songs 2:8.
www.TorahParsha.com

 

 

 

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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