This week’s parsha (Torah portion) was made for all the musicians in the audience.   In it we find Miriam striking up the band as we sing the song of freedom after crossing through the Yam Soof (Sea of Reeds).  However, I am getting a little ahead of myself.  First, we’ve got to get there, and then we can sing, and then continue on our merry (?) journey to a date with the divine itself.

Our parsha starts out by reminding us that Pharaoh sends us out, and then it tells us that god does not take the people through the land of the Philistines, instead leading them through the wilderness of the Yam Soof.  We are, at this point, told that the people are well armed, and that Moshe (Moses) took Yoseph’s (Joseph) bones out of Egypt.  God led the people with a pillar of cloud/fire.  God then tells Moshe to tell the people of the final plan to destroy Egypt’s army by making Pharaoh think they are confused by having them return to a place called, “Mouth of freedom,” which is between, “Growth” and the sea, before the, “Master of mysteries,” and camping there.  Pharaoh’s army comes after them and they become very afraid/awed and cry out to haShem (god).  They also ask Moshe why he brought them out there to die.  Moshe’s response is for them to stand strong and see the salvation of haShem, and the end of the Egyptians.  He tells them to be silent, and then haShem says, “Why are you crying to me?  Tell the people to get moving!”  Moshe stretches his hand out and haShem causes the sea to split and the people cross.  The Egyptians pursue and the water comes down on them and they drown.  The people see all this and are in awe/fear of haShem and they have faith in haShem and Moshe.  Then Moshe leads the people in the song of the sea, and Miriam leads the women who are all playing drums and cymbals.

After this, the people walk three days in the wilderness without finding water.  They come to a place called Maratah and cannot drink the water for it is bitter.  The people complain to Moshe who cries out to haShem who shows him a tree which he throws into the water and the water becomes sweet.  The people are given some laws and are told if they follow them, the plagues that hit Egypt will not hit them.  They then arrive at Aylemah with its twelve wells and 70 palm trees where they camp, and then on to the wilderness of Syn where they complain to Moshe and Aharon about a lack of meat and bread.  HaShem then tells Moshe about the manna and Moshe and Aharon tell the people they will have meat that night and bread the next morning, for, “God hears your complaints against him.”  They (Moshe and Aharon) then ask, “But why do you complain against us?  What are we?”

That night, quail show up and the next day the people are introduced to the manna.  On the sixth day of manna, Moshe tells the people about Shabbat and that they can gather a double portion of manna and it will last because there will be none to gather on Shabbat for it is a day of rest for god and the people.  We are informed here that the people ate the manna for 40 years, until they entered the land of Canaan.

Again the folks are on the move and they camp at R’phidim where there is no water to drink.  The people argue with Moshe who says, “Why are you arguing with me?”  The people say they are dying from a lack of water and Moshe, afraid for his life calls out the haShem for direction.  God tells Moshe how to find water.  After the people get water, Amelek comes to fight the people.  Moshe tells Y’hoshua (Joshua) to pick men and go out to fight, while Moshe, Aharon and Hur go up on a hilltop.  The people win as Moshe, with help from Hur and Aharon, holds the, “Staff of god,” in his upraised hands.  We end with haShem telling Moshe to write in the book and put in Y’hoshua’s ear that, “I will certainly wipe out the memory of Amelek from under the heavens.”   Moshe builds an alter and he says that haShem will wage war against Amelek from generation to generation.

Wow!  What a roller-coaster ride we/these people are on.  As I said last year, there is so much to talk about.  And as I said last year, I will do my best to limit it.  I have noticed, in this second year of sharing my thoughts on each parsha, that what jumps out at me this year is very different from what I saw last year.  I guess it goes to show that we really do see the Torah with new eyes each year.  In fact, I often get surprised at what I wrote last year, at the ideas I had that I didn’t see this year.

This year, what really struck me about the parsha was two things that are related.  The first is a subset of the second.  What I first noticed was the wording used when the people came to the place of bitter waters (called Maratah).  Mar is the Hebrew word for bitter, and the verb marah means to rebel.  If we conjugate the verb in the past tense, feminine singular, we get the word martah (or maratah if we change the vowels a little).  As I read this, (and given my penchant for looking at the meanings of the names of places) and another word in the verse (mareem which is present tense plural for rebelling and also is the adjective for many things being bitter – by the way, I am looking in the book of Shmot (Exodus) verse 15:23), I get, “They came to, ‘She rebelled,’ and could not drink water from her bitterness because they are rebelling – on this they called her name Marah (bitter).  Verse 24 says that they complained to Moshe saying, “What do we drink?”

What I see here is that the place, and the water in particular, was affected by their inner state.  What I see is that the place was bitter for it had rebelled, and now the people were rebelling, so to them, everything was bitter.  Now, why they were bitter and rebellious three days after the episode at the sea of reeds is beyond me.  Anyone with ideas, leave a comment below.   I am all ears!

What I do see from this though are two very important teachings:  1) that the energy of a place will affect people (what ‘she’ – the place – rebelled against I don’t know.  That isn’t important to understand this lesson), and 2) the space we are in influences a place.  I realize I am now talking chicken and the egg, but the only reason the water tasted bitter was because the people were in a rebellious/bitter state, and hence they were looking for a reason to rebel, and that made the water taste bitter to them.  This is a very important lesson to learn:  that what we feel inside is going to not only color our perception of the outside, it will actually influence what is around us.  The water was bitter!

The second thing I saw, the bigger picture so to speak, is also a very important lesson.  We see, before the crossing of the Yam Soof, that the people shout out to haShem and then haShem tells Moshe to act.  Later we see the people complain to Moshe and he cries out to haShem for help in what to do ( at the bitter waters).  Then, we see the people complain to Moshe again, and he starts arguing back at them, “Why complain to me?  Who am I?  Take this up with haShem!”  And he only calls to haShem when he feels his life is in danger.  What do I see in all of these three things?

Now, I don’t have children, but I get a sense that this is how one would teach a child how to talk and interact with god.  You see, the people are being birthed into a new life at the Yam Soof, and we see at that time they know to call out to god, and Moshe is merely a tool for god to use to answer them.  After they come through these birthing waters, they forget this and start to think of Moshe as their savior.  Moshe, at first accepts this, for it is easy to see how the people might not separate him (the midwife/mother) from god.  But as this keeps up, Moshe starts telling the people, that he is not in fact needed, that the people can, and must, go directly to haShem.  The people need to start taking responsibility for themselves and stop relying on him, much like, as a child grows, it needs to learn to take care of itself and not always run to mom with every problem.

Sometimes as I write these, I feel that I am a clear channel for the ideas to come out in words.  Other times I don’t feel that what is coming through is clear and sharp.  However, all I can do is trust and have faith that these words are finding the people they need to touch in the manner that the message can be understood.

I wish everybody a good week, with clear channels to the divine and I hope you use these channels.  For relying on another to talk for you only sets you up to be a dependent and a victim, while going straight to the head honcho is the most empowering thing one can do.  And let me tell you, that as I write this to you all, I am writing it to myself most of all.  Shavuah tov everybody! 🙂

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.