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Beshalach: Time to Sing!? · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a Thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: Of the Burning Bush. God told Mosha that he had
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  Speaker 1: heard the cries of the Jewish people and he is
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  Speaker 1: going to take the Jewish people out of Egypt and
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  Speaker 1: bring them to the land of Israel. God then tells
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  Speaker 1: Mosha very interestingly that he should go to Paroh and
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  Speaker 1: tell him that I want to take the people out
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt. Note that God doesn't tell him and bring
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  Speaker 1: them to the land of Israel for the simple reason,
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  Speaker 1: I think, because Mosha was not going to bring them
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  Speaker 1: to of Isiel in his sense of already a prophetic
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  Speaker 1: allusion to that thing. So God tells Mosha go tell
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  Speaker 1: Paro to take the Jews out of Egypt. God warns
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  Speaker 1: him it's not going to be easy, and Mosha of
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  Speaker 1: course instinctively understood it, and of course he argued the
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  Speaker 1: very long argument back and forth God in motion, and
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  Speaker 1: God basically gives Motion no choice and he orders him
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  Speaker 1: to go, and he gets mad at him, and he says,
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  Speaker 1: aren't going to help you. Okay, it'll work out. It'll
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  Speaker 1: be hard, but it's going to work out in the end.
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  Speaker 1: It would take ten plagues, and it would take the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish people having the courage to slaughter an Egyptian god
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  Speaker 1: and place the blood on their door post. Right the
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  Speaker 1: Jews are silent, you don't hear from them for the
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  Speaker 1: first nine plagues. But before they leave, they have to
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  Speaker 1: actively participate in their redemption, have to put the blood
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  Speaker 1: on the door post, and then they with follow Mosha
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  Speaker 1: and our own and mirry him to a barren desert.
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  Speaker 1: This should not be underestimated how amazing this is. That
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  Speaker 1: took a tremendous act of faith for the Jewish people
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  Speaker 1: to do so. It seems perhaps easy for us reading it,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and as we're taught it from you know, kindergarten.
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  Speaker 1: But this was an amazing act. And there was a
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  Speaker 1: reason that our rabbis say only twenty percent of the
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  Speaker 1: Jews actually left Egypt. It's very hard to leave Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: Wasn't as terrible as we presented at the say, there
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  Speaker 1: many come. The commentaries pointed out the yeah, it was
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  Speaker 1: hard work for many lots of people. It wasn't so
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  Speaker 1: terrible as we know, because the Jews kept saying, let's
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  Speaker 1: go back to Egypt, Let's go back to Egypt. So
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  Speaker 1: the twenty percent to left, they were amazing to follow
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  Speaker 1: some old man into a barren desert. And you know
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  Speaker 1: at that display of defiance to the Egyptian is a
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  Speaker 1: big deal. It's such a big deal that we invoke
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  Speaker 1: in on Russiashana. In Ziko, he asked God to remember
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  Speaker 1: us for good and to remember the great acts of
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people. We quote the verse in near Mi
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  Speaker 1: Yahoo Zahartila Hassen new Riyat, God remembers the kindness of
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  Speaker 1: our youth Habakula right baby Barbara ritz Lo Zerua. We
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  Speaker 1: followed God, We followed Mosha into a barren desert. And
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  Speaker 1: that's an amazing act that one throughout history resonates. And
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  Speaker 1: that's our claim on Russia Shana. Than we pray to
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  Speaker 1: God getting the Jews out of Egypt, as difficult as
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  Speaker 1: it was and not all wanted to go, that was
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  Speaker 1: the easy part. It's getting Egypt out of the jew
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  Speaker 1: that is understandably the much harder part. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: if we say that only twenty percent left, we know
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  Speaker 1: throughout immigration in history, who leaves. It's the people who
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  Speaker 1: it's difficult, they don't have good jobs. It's harder. The
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  Speaker 1: people who are well integrated, they don't leave. It's the
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  Speaker 1: lower class quote unquote of the people who tend to leave.
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  Speaker 1: So these were the people who left Egypt. They have
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  Speaker 1: a slave mentality, very understandably, and we would take forty
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  Speaker 1: years and generation. The death of the people who left
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  Speaker 1: wasn't so much a punishment. It would take a new
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  Speaker 1: generation to be able to turn a bunch of slaves
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  Speaker 1: into the beginning of free people take really hundreds of years.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe we're still working on it, but the process, the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the pross took a minimum of forty years. God,
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  Speaker 1: of course well understood this, and therefore the first verse
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  Speaker 1: in this week's Parsha and Bisha Luff tells us that
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  Speaker 1: God did not take us this simple route out of Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: the short route. He took us on a circuitous route,
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  Speaker 1: because had he taken us a direct route, it would
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  Speaker 1: have been much easier to go back to Egypt. That's
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  Speaker 1: what the Jews wanted to do. The Torah does tell
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  Speaker 1: us that the Jewish people left Egypt armed kamushim a
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  Speaker 1: lubine Israel. That's where the Metrish picks up to eight
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  Speaker 1: and one and five kambushin which means armed. Also as
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  Speaker 1: we're in Kamesh one in five of Egypt, be that
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  Speaker 1: as in May. But obviously we cannot expect the Jewish
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  Speaker 1: people to know how to fight, which is why when
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  Speaker 1: Parro decides to chase after them after letting them go
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  Speaker 1: in his moment of you know, okay, get out of here,
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  Speaker 1: and then he changes his mind very quickly. They are
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  Speaker 1: only six hundred chariots facing many, many, many many more Jews,
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  Speaker 1: and yet the Jews froze and the Jews were afraid,
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  Speaker 1: and even as we're explained to slave mentality, even if
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  Speaker 1: you know, we know throughout history, we know it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: take a lot of Unfortunately, it didn't take a lot
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  Speaker 1: of Nazi guards. And these are terrible things we see
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  Speaker 1: because people, it's hard, it's hard to fight. This could
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  Speaker 1: also explain the sort of what would be the insanity
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  Speaker 1: of Parro that why would he chase them? What is
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  Speaker 1: he crazy? He hasn't learned, but I guess he realized, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there are a bunch of slaves still and he could
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  Speaker 1: capture them. Of course, the Jews couldn't fight they didn't
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  Speaker 1: know how to fight, and like we saw it throughout
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  Speaker 1: the first nine plays, God would fight and they remained silent.
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  Speaker 1: The chevy la la m but tem talk rishum, God
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  Speaker 1: will fight for you, and you be quiet? When did
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  Speaker 1: you Jewish people across the sea and they saw the
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  Speaker 1: Egyptians had drowned. Then they sang out to God as
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  Speaker 1: yesher Moshev and a Israel. They sang out in the
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  Speaker 1: song of gratitude for their being saved. This idea of
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  Speaker 1: gratitude is so important that this the Aeshua is only
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  Speaker 1: one of two biblical complete texts that are included in
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  Speaker 1: the sitter that in the schmad that's a pretty good company,
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  Speaker 1: that's it. This is so important to sing songs of
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  Speaker 1: praise when God saves us, that we say, at three
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five days a year, what about I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure many of us have heard the idea. Masaya die
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  Speaker 1: Toobin Bayam, the measer says that the angels also were
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  Speaker 1: singing and song and God got angry at them. He said,
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  Speaker 1: my creatures are drowning in the sea. The Egyptians are
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  Speaker 1: also created in which of God and at te Momrimhian,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to sing. It cannot be, so what right
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  Speaker 1: the angels have no right to sing? Of course, But
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people who were saved, who say they had
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  Speaker 1: every right and every obligation to sing? What about us?
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  Speaker 1: What about us? We weren't in Egypt, So what right
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  Speaker 1: do we have to say it in the city three
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five days a year? So I would
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  Speaker 1: say in Afnomy that is correct. We don't have such
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  Speaker 1: a right. We are meant to feel for the suffering
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  Speaker 1: of the Egyptians. We know. I think it's well known
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  Speaker 1: that we dip the ten drops of wine, as we
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  Speaker 1: say the ten flags and the Drussia. Reason is because
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  Speaker 1: the Egyptians had to suffer. Yes, we had to be saved.
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  Speaker 1: That was great, But unfortunately the Egyptians didn't let us
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  Speaker 1: out in a nice way. They had to suffer too.
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  Speaker 1: So our joy is not complete. We do not say
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  Speaker 1: the complete hellel on the last day of Pessock, nor
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  Speaker 1: on the six days before or the five days for
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  Speaker 1: last six days of Pessock. We cannot say full hallel
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  Speaker 1: as the Egyptians are drowning in the sea. The Torah.
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  Speaker 1: Later on in the book at Varm tells us loa
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  Speaker 1: ted to ave me three. You're not allowed to hate
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  Speaker 1: an Egyptian to Gheraita part. So because you were a stranger,
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  Speaker 1: you lived in his land. It's interesting this command is
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  Speaker 1: said in the Book of forty years later to the
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  Speaker 1: next generation. Perhaps the generation that left cannot be expected
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  Speaker 1: that they went and hate Egyptians. But for the next
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  Speaker 1: generation and for us, for Jews of all time, we
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  Speaker 1: are not allowed to hate the Egyptian. As a matter
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  Speaker 1: of fact, we have to be thankful Ghara Haita part
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  Speaker 1: so well. We were strangers. That's where we became a nation.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Egypt. And the commentaries explained that
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  Speaker 1: the reason God commanded us to take gold and silver
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  Speaker 1: from the Egyptians before we left. We should have good memories. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: we suffered and things were bad, sometimes very bad, but
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  Speaker 1: we grew. That was our homeland and we learned a lot.
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  Speaker 1: Egyptians were the leaders of the world. They helped. We
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  Speaker 1: learned that a form a nation from seeing how the
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  Speaker 1: Egyptian did it. We were strangers in their land. They
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  Speaker 1: hosted us for hundreds of years. We cannot hate them.
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  Speaker 1: We have to feel compassion for them. We have to
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  Speaker 1: feel their suffering, even if there are enemies. That's a
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  Speaker 1: very Jewish idea that we often lose sight of that, yes,
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  Speaker 1: we have to defeat the enemy, but we also have
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  Speaker 1: to feel bad that we have to do it, and
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  Speaker 1: we have to feel for their suffering. So how can
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  Speaker 1: we say us yes, shair if that's a question, So
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  Speaker 1: you could say, I could say, well, you know, we
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  Speaker 1: say in the Hagada we have to see ourselves as
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  Speaker 1: if we have left Egypt. So it's like we left
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  Speaker 1: Egypt there was a pack on the whole Jewish people.
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  Speaker 1: You could say that, I don't know that. I like
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  Speaker 1: that answer so much. I think perhaps really we're just
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  Speaker 1: giving a historical message as they share Mosha. We're describing
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  Speaker 1: if you look in the context of the when we
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  Speaker 1: say it in the morning, if you like, it's clearly describing.
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  Speaker 1: It's a contextual idea. This is what the Jews did,
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  Speaker 1: And of course we have to learn to also have
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  Speaker 1: gratitude for things that are for us. But for us
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  Speaker 1: to sing and enjoy with the drowning of the Egyptian's
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  Speaker 1: not not so much for us, but it's very much
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  Speaker 1: for the Jews who left Egypt. Interestingly, we have another victory,
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  Speaker 1: another battle. The Jewish people faced in the Parsha. That's
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  Speaker 1: the story, the end of the Partia, story of Amalaik,
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  Speaker 1: the unprovoked tack of Amalaik on the weak on the back,
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  Speaker 1: and the woman and the children, the first terrorist, and
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  Speaker 1: Mosha tells Yoshiuwa go out to fight. They defeat on
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  Speaker 1: a Maalaik. And yet the Jewish people don't sing any songs.
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  Speaker 1: There's no praise, there's no thanksgiving, there's no joy. What happened?
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  Speaker 1: Why don't they burst out a song after the defeat
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  Speaker 1: of Amalek? So I think there's a fundamental difference. When
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people cross the sea and saw the drinning
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  Speaker 1: of the Egyptians, they knew that's it. Egypt has gone.
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  Speaker 1: Egyptians in their history, they've escaped. They'll take the good
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  Speaker 1: what they can take, and we move on. They don't
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  Speaker 1: have to worry about them ever. And the truth of
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  Speaker 1: the matter is Mosha tells them, as they're at the sea,
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  Speaker 1: you stay, you watch, God's gonna take care of you.
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  Speaker 1: You kikashery tim at Tramayom. You see the Egyptians now
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  Speaker 1: low Tostifu in the Rhodon li otam Oolam. You will
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  Speaker 1: you will not see them ever. Again, Egypt is past history.
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  Speaker 1: There was great Troy. We don't have to worry about
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  Speaker 1: the persecution of the Egyptians anymore. There was much to
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  Speaker 1: sing about. The Jewish people assumed that, Okay, now it's
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  Speaker 1: easy sailing. We got out of Egypt. God's gonna take us, Diesuel.
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  Speaker 1: Everything's going to be hunky. Door is going to be wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: And they soon discovered no, that was again, that was
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  Speaker 1: the easy part. Nation building is much harder. So first
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  Speaker 1: first of all to get there, they get this, there's
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  Speaker 1: not enough water, the food is no good, there's no water,
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  Speaker 1: and then a mall it comes and attacks them. This
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  Speaker 1: was a jewel, the depressing jewel to the Jewish people
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  Speaker 1: when they realized it would be a long journey. Nation
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  Speaker 1: building is never easy, and we've been doing it for
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  Speaker 1: a long time, not one hundred percent successfully. Moreover, the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish people could see no end to the battle with Amalik.
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  Speaker 1: The Torah tells us that's how the Parshi ends Milkamala
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  Speaker 1: Sambama Lake. There's a battle of God against Amalik midor
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  Speaker 1: Door for every generation. Egypt is over. What you're going
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  Speaker 1: to sing for? Yeah, we defeated the midtime, but there's
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  Speaker 1: going to be another war soon, and that we can
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  Speaker 1: think of many modern examples like this. You know it's
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  Speaker 1: yet you don't want to sing till the not just
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  Speaker 1: the battle, but the complete war quote unquote is one.
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  Speaker 1: And that would explain why the Jewish people didn't sing
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  Speaker 1: sing any song, and God doesn't appear to be upset
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  Speaker 1: at them. That that wasn't so much a lack of gratitude.
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  Speaker 1: The Tumblo tells us that we no longer have amalaik
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  Speaker 1: in this world biologically, that bus on Kyrieve that in
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  Speaker 1: the eighth century BCE san Kyriv Melakashure, the Assyrian king
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  Speaker 1: bill Bela to Mariri mixed all the pieces population transfer.
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  Speaker 1: He mixed this one and that one in order that
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  Speaker 1: people should lose their identity so that'd be easier to
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  Speaker 1: conquer and to go and subdue. So we no longer
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  Speaker 1: have Mobis Egyptians Ammanides. We don't know any of these
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  Speaker 1: people already more, and therefore the laws of the tour
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  Speaker 1: that are specified, but they're no longer plaied, so that
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  Speaker 1: we don't no longer bilogicalumba lake. Unfortunately, we still have
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  Speaker 1: immoral ama lakes. We have people that following the legacy
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  Speaker 1: of Alma Lake, and let us pray and hope that
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  Speaker 1: just like we no longer have the biological Glama Lake,
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  Speaker 1: that we should soon see the day that we no
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  Speaker 1: longer have any form of ammake in the world and
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  Speaker 1: we can really have a world where God's throne is
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  Speaker 1: complete and the Jewish people in the world at large
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  Speaker 1: is dwelling in peace. Tevetrilum, we hope you enjoyed a
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  Speaker 1: thought for the week a tour in Motion podcast. If
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  Speaker 1: thank you very much, looking forward to learning with you
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  Speaker 1: next week.