We welcome Shabbat this week at a time anti-Semitic words and physical violence are again on the rise, and as a Hamas leader in a public statement threatens Israel. We are also living through a transition time, some parts of our country and the world are opening up more, traffic unfortunately is increasing around the DMV, and still we’re not completely past the Covid 19 yet. The level of uncertainty is still high, requiring a Plan A, a Plan B, even a Plan C.
And in our Torah portion Behalotcha this week, our ancestors are on the verge of a major shift in their lives. After 430 years of slavery in Egypt, after nearly a year at Mount Sinai, our ancestors are finally going to start their journey toward the Holy Land. And let’s keep in mind, at this point the journey was going to be a short and direct one. God had not condemned the people yet to 40 years of wandering. Still, Sinai was, compared to Egypt, a peaceful place to live, and the desert was a barren and lawless place.
So we can imagine our ancestors felt then like we do now as we begin to think about readjusting our lives, as some of us return to public transit, or to offices for work, as students look ahead to full time in person school in the fall, as houses of worship open up and welcome us in person after more than a year of connecting remotely. They and we feel ready, excited, hopeful and also a sobering dose of reality that putting ourselves out there again, whether in the street today or the desert back then, means we’re exposed to all the messiness, chaos, and vulnerability of life that we may have been shielded from for a long time.
And our Torah portion compels us to think about these forward-looking steps as we compare them top when our ancestors’ previously marched forward into the unknown.
In this week’s reading, the Torah explains in the 2nd month, on the 20th day of the month, the Israelites started their trek, and this trek proceeded al pi Adonai, when God say to walk, the people walked, when God signaled them to stop and wait for however long, they camped and waited.
They followed God’s command, depended on God to lead them.
Earlier, at the Sea, they were looking out and wondering how they would cross the Sea of Reeds, when God said to Moses, “Stop praying, and encourage the people to walk forward…”
In other words, at the Sea God told them to take the initiative. God would only create the miracle enabling them to cross after they took the first steps on their own.
And my question to us for reflection is, in which situation is the will to move forward more difficult to summon up? Is it more difficult to seize the day, take the initiative with the reassurance of a miracle in short order? Or, is it more difficult to pick up after a long time of peaceful camping at the holy mountain, and begin a long trek through the wilderness?
Please think this over – we don’t have time for a discussion tonight, but I’d like to know your thoughts…
For the moment, here are my 2 shekels…I think it’s easier in the excitement of the miraculous moment to leap forward. It’s kind of like what I imagine skydiving to be, something I do want to do one day. I imagine it’s more exhilarating being up there on the plane and getting ready to jump, knowing in our heart that the jump is soon to be inevitable and that it’s scarier and more intimidating on the ground, gearing up, and seeing ourselves up there on the plane because when we’re on the ground the jump itself is still not a sure thing.
For this reason, for our ancestors and for us, picking up and restarting parts of our lives that have been quieter, less interactive, even dormant over this past year can feel disorienting, even overwhelming.
And that is why God insists we carry the Torah with us in the desert, because the Torah is our anchor, our comfort. And allow me to suggest that on whatever day soon, when we find ourselves returning to an activity or a place that we haven’t done or where we haven’t been in a while, let’s help ourselves through those moments with a little bit of Torah. Try to think of a story, a sentence, an idea from our Torah that we can repeat to ourselves, or write down on a card and place in our car or wallet.
Mine will be the line from Genesis that Jacob says, God was in this place and I didn’t know it. This means the places where I know I’ll be, the things I will be doing, may be different or feel different but one thing remains the same, no matter how different they may seem, one thing is constant, there is holiness there, there is blessing, there are opportunities to do a mitzvah…even if this requires us first to sit in soul-crushing Beltway traffic.
