This week's parsha is Parshas Beshalach. It is an exalted parsha that captures some of the most important moments in the formation of the Jewish nation - specifically, the crossing of the Yam Suf (Sea of Reeds) and the singing of the great Shira (song). And yet, interestingly enough, it is also a parsha full of downfall and disappointment. All too often the Israelites balk at challenges both simple and exaggerated.
One might think that when Hashem set down the Torah, He would have separated these events, and yet no sooner is it recorded in the Torah that Miriam lead the women in song then it is written how Bnei Yisrael travelled three days and were unable to find water. These two events are side by side in Shemos 15, verses 20 - 22. The rest of the parsha - two more perakim - follow a similar pattern: great wonder, discomfort and worry, distress, Divine resolution with great wonder, and repeat.
If we are really honest with ourselves, much of what we read about inParshas Beshalach is beyond our understanding. Seas parting, water spurting from a rock hit by a stick, and manna from heaven all sound quite supernatural (as, indeed, they were in the purest meaning of the term). Nevertheless, many of us read the reactions of Bnei Yisrael with a "holier than thou" attitude of "Well, if I saw such miracles, I wouldn't complain like they did!"
The oft quoted "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it," is a deep truth. The face is, sadly, that even those who know history well fall into familiar traps. The Torah in general, and Parshas Beshalach in particular, does not hold back in reminding us how easily we err - how almost natural it is for us to trip over our own feet. But it does this by also being completely open about the fact that the topography of life is hills and valleys, that life can be challenging.
From singing for joy at their miraculous salvation, it only took 3 days for an undertone of complaint to begin. The Midrash says this was the Erev Rav, the add-ons who joined Bnei Yisrael as they left Mitzrayim. But even the most faithful must have been shaken when the war band of Amalik snuck up from the rear and attacked, when Bnei Yisrael survived because their leaders pushed themselves through the spiritual challenge.
There are seventy levels of learning the Torah. We read it as history, as parable, as a rule book, as a book of doctrine...We read it as our national story, as our family's story, and as our personal story. The Torah does not smooth the edges. It is a book that tells us an aweful lot (well, everything, really) about real life. and real life is bumpy. Life is miraculous salvations followed by unexpected disappointments and continual repetitions of variations of the same.
Perhaps the question is perspective. Do you perceive life as mostly bad with moments of good or mostly good with some moments of challenge? Perhaps it does not matter so long as when you are in those challenging moments you raise your hands upward and give Hashem the opportunity to lend you strength and at your height of joy you remember to raise your voice in praise and sing out those positive feelings.
This Dvar Torah is dedicated to a refuah shelaima for Rivka bas Golda and L'iluy nishmas Dovid Chaim ben Shmuel Yosef HaCohen.
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