Rabbis’ Message: February 4, 2025
In the introduction for this month’s Book Club book, Judaism Is About Love, Rabbi Shai Held writes: “The world is a complicated place, suffused with both beauty and barbarism. Any given day can make us dance with joy and recoil in horror. We shudder at the depths of human depravity and marvel at the signs of human goodness…. We as individuals are also excruciatingly complicated. We are capable of unbridled cruelty and selfishness; and also of great kindness and immense generosity…. We are capable of murderous hate, and also of prodigious love.
…In the face of all of this, Judaism tradition makes an audacious claim:... we are capable of choosing the good.”
The events of the Torah portion for this week, Beshalach, highlights this particularly. It opens with the Song of the Sea; considered by academics to be one of the oldest parts of our Torah and the reason that this upcoming Shabbat is colloquially known as “Shabbat Shirah” - the Sabbath of Song - the Song of the Sea praises the divine and highlights our gratitude for the work that it took to free our people from Pharoah’s forces. However, later in the portion, the Torah shows the Israelites’ drastic shift in attitude. The Israelites’ ingratitude surfaces quickly and severely; they complain so profusely about God and their wanderings, even down to the food that they eat that God loses patience and loosens a plague of quail upon them.
In both situations, the Israelites are beyond the narrow boundaries of Egypt; they are out in the open wilderness. The reason for their change in attitude - from deep gratitude of the Song of the Sea to the dramatic complaints about their present situation - isn’t necessarily about their physical location; it is about their emotional and mental attitude.
Rabbi Shai Held argues that this is part of the work of our people’s wisdom in every generation. We have the power to choose hesed, care and acts of loving-kindness. In our world today, this lesson feels particularly pertinent. Throughout this week - and maybe even at our online Torah study on Thursday! - begin to notice: is this about a physical difference or a mental and emotional one? If it is internal, are you choosing love? Are you choosing gratitude? If not, how is that quail plague going?
