D'var Torah

“And so it was, when Pharoah let the people go, that God did not lead them by [the nearer way] … God led them in a round-about way [lit. God turned them around and around], by way of the wilderness.” (Exodus 13:17-18)

These are the opening lines of this week’s Torah portion, B’shalach – and they feel like a fitting introduction not only to the portion, but also to a lot of life. As much as we might so wish progress were linear, either personally or societally (wouldn’t that be so nice?!), actual life can often feel as winding as the people’s journey through the desert in Exodus. Sometimes we navigate life’s twists and turns with equanimity, and other times, they can be very overwhelming.

In our Torah portion, as the people move from physical place to place, they also travel vast (and circular) distances spiritually, and emotionally, going through enormous highs and lows. Like this:

They narrowly escape Pharaoh’s clutches as they flee Egypt across the miraculously parted Red Sea, and then they sing and dance for joy on the other side (a moment that gives us the Mi Chamochah we sing in morning and evening services, an excerpt of their song). 

• They become hungry and thirsty, and lose faith in God and in their journey. 

• They get food and water, and their faith is restored … until the next time they run out of water, and then the cycle repeats. 

• They end up in a battle with a group called the Amalekites, who attack them from behind, and they manage to survive only by relying on each other and working together. 

• They continue to explore what it might mean to them to observe Shabbat, and some of them trust that if they stop working once a week, things will be okay, but others are more skeptical.

Every year, this Torah portion (which has so much in it) strikes me as very connected to our lives – and every year, in a slightly different way. This year, I am most struck by the poignancy of walking the “round-about way” towards freedom, which certainly seems fitting for this moment in time. For so many of us, for so many reasons, these past few weeks where the Torah has been taking us through the Passover story have been a very challenging, very winding road indeed – and that will probably continue. Where, then, are our sources of hope?

I think one thing we can take from our Torah portion this week might be something like this: sometimes, when the promised land feels very far away, it can be easy to want to give up. It can be easy to want to cry out, as the People in our Torah portion do, that we wish we had never left the narrow place and tried for freedom at all, that we don’t know how to go forward. In these moments, as the People in our Torah portion learn, our greatest strength is each other: we can lean on each other, and work together, we can embrace courage not alone but as a collective. 

In last week’s Torah portion, (in Chapter 12 of the book of Exodus), the Torah described the group of people leaving Egypt as an erev rav, a “mixed multitude,” which Jewish tradition has commonly taken to mean this: it wasn’t just the Israelites who left Egypt, it was lots of other people too, people from all backgrounds and all walks of life who were together committed to freedom and to building a just society together. 

In moments like this, it can be easy to begin to fear other people, and to worry about our connections, to cut off relationships or tread with care before starting new ones. 

And B’shalach would say: it is exactly when we are most fearful that we most need to show up for each other, believe in each other, and reach out to one another. This week and beyond, may we find many opportunities to do just that.