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!”
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