Beshalach
Rather than taking the direct route to the land of Israel, God leads the Israelites towards the sea, where the Egyptians catch up with them. God causes the sea to split, and while the Israelites walk safely across, the Egyptians following after them are all drowned. The Israelites sing a song of thanksgiving to God, but soon have new challenges to face of life in the desert, and complain for food and water, which God provides. The parsha ends with Amalek’s attack on the Israelites, and the instruction to blot out the memory of Amalek.
Shlomit Naor
Shlomit Naor is the Deputy Director of Melitz and the chairperson of the Israeli Batei-Midrash network. She holds a Masters degree in Hebrew Literature from Ben-Gurion University. She spent three years as a community Shlicha in Redbrige, north-east London. In addition to her Jewish-Zionist educational background, Shlomit is a published poet and translator. Shlomit volunteers for Limmud and assists in the establishment of Limmud Negev and Limmud Modi'in.
The Israelites have failed twice with the Manna. The first failure was about collecting too much manna and not eating all of it until the morning: "And Moses said unto them: 'Let no man leave of it until the morning.' Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and rotted; and Moses was wroth with them" (chapter 16). Although they were told the Manna must be consumed by the morning, some of the Israelites kept more for later.
The second failure was going out to collect manna on Shabbat, despite the clear instruction from Moses not to do so: "And Moses said: 'Eat that to-day; for to-day is a shabbath unto the LORD; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.' 27 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that there went out some of the people to gather, and they found none." (chapter 16)
In this second incident, they did not trust the words of Moses that there would be no new Manna on Shabbat. So on Friday, the Israelites were to collect for Friday and Saturday – and the extra portion would not go rotten (this is one of the reasons we have two Challot at a Shabbat meal).
The people complain to Moses that they are hungry; they miss the fleshpots of Egypt. In response Moses guarantees they will eat meat every evening and bread in the morning - and the miraculous manna appears. Why does it all go wrong then? Why did they find Moses' instructions so difficult to follow?
The explanation for this lies in the mental state of the Israelites. As slaves, all their food was given to them, and after three days of exercising freedom they began recognizing the economical comfort they had enjoyed as slaves and the security which they now lacked as refugees. They tasted responsibility that came together with freedom and immediately they also discover its bitter side.
The Manna has a key role in the transition from slavery to independence. They need to learn how to collect only the amount of Manna that they require. God requires them to have trust in him and not create stockpile for a rainy day. Only when they trust God to provide them with a sufficient amount of food for their needs, will they be able to enter the Holy Land, where there is no manna - but sufficient resources.
This connects us to the Hebrew date of this coming Shabbat, Tu Bishvat, where in Israel it is often celebrated as a green day - calling for more action to preserve the limited resources, and for reflection upon the place of nature in our lives, and how we use or sadly, abuse nature.
In the desert we over collected unlimited resources. Nowadays we over collect increasingly limited resources. Have we learnt enough from the desert? Are we slaves to our shopping habits; or independent consumers practicing freedom as we choose not to collect, eat or purchase unnecessary items?
Another Voice - Avram Mandell
Avram Mandell is the Director of Education at Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, CA. He is a stand-up comedian, improv actor, and a great chef. He has been involved with LimmudLA for the past three years since its beginnings and has performed his comedy and presented at Conference.
Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, "The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt." So God led the people roundabout, by way of the wilderness at the Sea of Reeds. (Exodus 13:17-18. This translation was taken from the JPS Tanach)
PROCEED TO HIGHLIGHTED ROUTE
Program your GPS to get you from Cairo to Jerusalem and you will get directions and an estimated mileage of about 264 miles or 425 kilometers. Not a bad family vacation, especially if you take the toll road. But I don’t think we would have gotten an eight day holiday with no bathroom breaks just because we took one long road trip. Did Moses and his family go on their great trek across the wilderness taking the easy way? No, they were Jewish ... God thought they might be scared back to Egypt by the ways of the Philistines. So God took them the long way. Today, that is like taking the freeway to avoid the dangerous LA neighborhoods that one might encounter if one took the more direct surface street route.
If we had gone the direct route, it probably would have taken us about 100 days, not 40 years. I mean I know they didn’t have Mapquest and we don’t know exactly where they started from, but just hypothesizing that if they started in Cairo and ended in Jerusalem, at 264 miles, walking an average of 8 miles a day (an typical day's hike on the Appalachian trail) and factoring in some breaks for civil wars, idol building, waiting for your leader to go up and down a mountain about 10 times or so, building a mishkan and more civil war, etc... OK, so let’s give them two years for that, but not 40 years!
These people were not lost. They had the latest GPFS, Godly Pillar of Fire System to guide them, but 40 years? Come on! How many times do you think Moses heard from his whiney Children of Israel, "Are we there yet?"
The point is that God did not want them to go the easy way to Israel. God's instructions were: "Whenever possible, make a legal U-turn." The lesson to be learned is that the easy way can be dangerous even if it seems easier or faster and the long way can be difficult even if it’s legal, but life growth journeys are experiences that do not bring benefits through shortcuts. Besides who wants to have a shortcut life. To quote Nehama Liebowitz, "Not all that seems right to man is right in the sight of the all-seeing, all-knowing God."
