This week’s Parsha, B’Shalach, coincides with Martin Luther King Jr weekend and Tu Bishvat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees, Rosh Hashanah La’Ilanot.
This week’s Parsha, B’Shalach, coincides with Martin Luther King Jr weekend and Tu Bishvat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees, Rosh Hashanah La’Ilanot.
B’Shalach describes in wonderful detail the final stage of the Israelites exodus from Egypt. They find themselves by the shore of the Sea of Reeds; the Sea is on the east, they can’t go south, they can’t go north, and the Egyptian army is bearing down on them from the west. They are stuck. Interestingly, the place is known as Pi Hachirot, which can also be translated as “the Mouth of Freedom”. They cry out to Moses. Moses cries out to God. God says to Moses “Ma Titzak Alay,” “Why do you cry out to me?…tell the people to MOVE forth!”
Lead by Nachshon Ben AmiNadav, a member of the tribe of Judah, they take the risk and enter the Sea of Reeds. You know the rest of the story. Well, we really don’t know the rest of the story since we are still living it today. Once free, they are again confronted with many challenges, food and water are issues. And then they are confronted with Amalek, a grandson of Esau, who has hate in his heart and battles the Israelites.
Just as God and Moses pointed the way for the Children of Israel, so did MLK Jr in our time. We are stuck once again. Will the Mouth of Freedom open for us? We learn that it doesn’t open unless we open it ourselves. The Torah teaches, each generation must see itself as if it came out of Mitzrayim, a place of narrowness and constriction.
This Shabbat, known as Shabbat Shira, the Sabbath of Song, because Miriam took timbrel in hand and led the people in song and dance, we recall these lessons, and we also sing Songs of Liberation. We dispel darkness by singing ancient songs of freedom and also freedom songs of today cherished by the Civil Rights movement.
In faithful solidarity,
Reb David