Hello friends! Welcome to Torah Thoughts from Adas Israel the Jewish Congregation of Northern Iowa and based in Mason city. Glad you are here. A reminder that we'll hold services on Friday the 10th at 7:00PM and then our Midrash on Shabbat the 11th at 10:00AM. Both at the shul. The Torah Portion we'll be studying will be Parsha Yisro...or Jethro, Ex. 18:1. This week we are in Parsha Beshalach (Ex. 13:17 - 17:18)
Beshalach
This Parsha (Portion) is called Beshalach the second Hebrew word in the reading which means "sent out". As we read, "It happened when Pharaoh sent out the people..." He caused them to travel into the wilderness rather than take a straight shot to Israel because He feared that if they right away went into battle against the Philistines they would lose heart and wish to return to Egypt. As we read on, G-d, only too well knew they lacked both courage and faith.
Pursuit
The Jewish people leave Egypt. Pharaoh regrets letting them go and pursues them leading his chosen chariot corps and a huge army. The Jews rebel and cry out to Moses, “Weren’t there enough graves in Egypt? Why did you bring us out here to die in the desert?” The Yam Soof (the Sea of Reeds – usually mistranslated as the Red Sea) splits, the Jews cross over, the Egyptians pursue and the sea returns and drowns the Egyptians. Moses with the men and Miriam with the women – each separately – sing praises of thanks to the Almighty. It is a song we still sing each Shabbat.
Water
They arrive at Marah and rebel over the bitter water. Moses throws a certain tree in the water to make it drinkable. The Almighty then tells the Israelites, “If you obey G-d your Lord and do what is upright in His eyes, carefully heeding all His commandments and keeping all His decrees, then I will not strike you with any of the sicknesses that I brought on Egypt. I am G-d who heals you.” (This is why the Hagaddah strives to prove there were more than 10 plagues in Egypt – the greater the number of afflictions, the greater number from which we were protected.
Manna
Later, the Israelites rebel over lack of food; G-d provides quail and manna (a double portion was given on the sixth day to last through Shabbat; we have two challahs for each meal on Shabbat to commemorate the double portion of manna). Moses then instructs them concerning the laws of Shabbat. At Rephidim, they rebel again over water. G-d tells Moses to strike a stone (later in the Torah G-d tells Moses to speak to the stone but Moses strikes it...the punishment is he can not enter Israel.), which then gave forth water. Finally, the portion concludes with the war against Amalek and the command to “obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.”
Digging Deeper
There is an interesting story about manna from several commentators. Generally the word "manna" is thought to mean "food" that came from the heavens. But one commentator has another thought. The word "man" actually means "what". As in "What is this?" Think of that for a moment. The Jews are in the wilderness and all of a sudden this substance appears. They don't really know that it is food. For all they know it could be poison. They look at each other and say, "What in the world is this?" They are shocked, surprised and in wonderment of what this might be...so they call it..."What".
Why?
The rabbis say that we are reminded about everything G-d gives us when we consider manna... They say we should look at everything G-d provides for us from our homes to our family, friends, income...in the same wonderment and thankfulness as those early Jews did when they found...manna. Be grateful and thankful.
Shabbat Shalom and thank you for reading!
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