Rabbi Melanie Aron
This week’s Torah portion is Beshalach: Exodus 13:17 – 17:16
The college I attended has a book group where each year a different faculty member chooses books for the alumnae to read and discuss. Last month we read “The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant,” which covers his time in the U.S. military, and particularly his leadership during the Civil War. What struck me as I read his recollections was the importance of supply lines. I had heard the expression, often attributed to Napoleon, that “an army marches on its stomach,” but had not fully appreciated how difficult it could be to feed and clothe one’s soldiers, particularly if a war is fought on enemy turf.
I thought of Grant’s reflections as I looked at this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Beshalach. We associate this portion with Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song, the name coming from the “Song of the Sea” in the Torah reading and Deborah’s poem in the Haftarah. The image of Miriam and the women dancing with their timbrels conveys the excitement of victory they felt as the Israelites crossed in safety and then witnessed their oppressors drowning in the sea.
The portion doesn’t end there. In fact, the second half of the parashah is longer, although we often focus on the first half. No sooner had the Israelites witnessed this miraculous redemption, than they become mired in the practical details of sustaining a community in the desert.
At Marah, the water is bitter, and they need God’s help to make it drinkable. In the Wilderness of Sin, they lack food, and though God provides, “lechem min hashamayim,” bread from the heavens — manna and quail — food issues will be a source of complaint throughout the wanderings. Finally, at Refidim, the people thirst, and Moses is commanded to strike the rock, which he does to bring forth water. This incident will come to haunt Moses. Forty years later, he will not listen to the new instructions he receives and will be barred from the promised land, at least according to some, as punishment for striking the rock.
I am not the first to note how these matters of practical necessity overwhelmed the memories of deliverance.
In the Talmud, Masechet Pesachim, 118a, it is taught:
“Rabbi Yohanan said: The task of providing a person’s food is more difficult than the redemption.” The Talmud explains that redemption can be achieved by a mere angel, (Genesis 48:16), while to provide sustenance requires God’s intervention (Genesis 48:15).
The daf goes on to say:
“Rav Sheizvi said, citing Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya: The task of providing a person’s food is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea.” Here, the Psalms provide the proof text that makes praising God for food (Psalm 136:25) equivalent to praise for the splitting of the Red Sea (Psalm 136:13). We often focus on the dramatic, on the exciting, but the parashah reminds us of the enduring significance of the more mundane tasks of everyday life. As Moses will later argue to God, what value would the 10 plagues and the deliverance at the sea have, if one could not sustain the people through the wilderness.
In our families, a trip to Disneyland may be exciting, but family life is sustained by the day to day, the preparation of school lunches, the tucking into bed, all the daily interactions that create the fabric of our lives. One could say the same about our political life: attaining a high position may turn out to be meaningless if one cannot manage the task of governing effectively.
As we read Parashat Beshalach and celebrate this peak moment in the life of our people, let us remember that it is the quotidian tasks of normal life that combine to truly sustain us.
Rabbi Melanie Aron is rabbi emerita of Congregation Shir Hadash, an adjunct professor at George Washington University and co-chair of the Jewish Earth Alliance.
