Shabbat-B'Shabbato – Parshat Beshalach

No 1560: 11 Shevat 5775 (31 January 2015)

AS SHABBAT APPROACHES

Lest the Nation Change its Mind - by Rabbi Mordechai Greenberg, Rosh Yeshiva, Kerem B'Yavne

"... For G-d said, lest the nation changes its mind when the people see war and they will return to Egypt" [Shemot 13:17]. And in fact they did complain later on, on more than one occasion: "Isn't that what we said to you in Egypt – leave us alone and we will work for Egypt" [14:11] ... "Why can't we die in the hands of G-d... while sitting at the pot of meat" [16:3] ... And they even asked to return to Egypt after they had left: "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt" [Bamidbar 14:4].

This also appears explicitly in the words of the prophet: "I said to them: Let every man throw away the despicable idols of his eyes... However, they rebelled against me and nobody threw away the despicable idols from his eyes" [Yechezkel 20:7].

But we can only feel perplexed. How could they even consider returning to exile, how could they not be excited by the prospect of freedom?

When we look at the attitudes in recent generations, we will see that the problem is not only with respect to simple idols but is also a difficulty of freeing ourselves from cultural behavior which is foreign to Judaism. Here are some examples of this phenomenon: The Zionist movement rose up after two thousand years of exile. There was opposition for this idea from all sides – Chareidim, nonreligious, and "enlightened" Jews of the Haskalah movement. The rabbi of a prominent community in Hungary wrote: "Political Zionism, which wants to establish a Jewish State in Eretz Yisrael, appears to me to be a dangerous spiritual illness... The Zionist movement, which wants to transform Judaism from a religious force to a nation, has no chance of ever succeeding in Hungary. We are Hungarians whose religion is Judaism. There is no such thing as Jewish nationalism. Everybody agrees that this is so, both those who have new ideas and the Orthodox Jews."

And the head of the Orthodox rabbis indeed followed his lead: "With respect to their opinion of the Zionist movement, the Orthodox rabbis agree with the innovators. We object to this foolish movement. The Hungarians of the Jewish religion want to find their happiness in Hungary, they have no thoughts at all of establishing a country in Eretz Yisrael."

Some people enlisted the holy writing in their cause. The association of rabbis in Germany declared that "the desires of those who are called Zionists, to establish a national Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, is directly opposed to the messianic goals of Judaism as they appear in the holy texts and in religious sources from later periods."

Philosopher Hermann Cohen wrote that the ideas of Theodor Herzl are a distortion of true Jewish messianism and an insult to the patriotism of the Jews, who are comfortable in their homeland. "We draw a feeling of religious partnership from the existing compatibility between Jewish messianism and German humanism... This almost goes so far as to have the seal of approval of a religious statement."

History continually repeats itself, again and again. "We remember the fish which we ate for free in Egypt... the melons..." [Bamidbar 11:5]. The same is still true today, except that the subject matter has changed, and instead of free fish and watermelons in Egypt, the people talk about a "Milky" dairy desert that is sold in Germany for half price.

How do the Jews reach such a low point in their thoughts? It is written, "And they did not listen to Moshe, because of impatience and because of the harsh labor" [Shemot 6:9]. In the Torah portion of Shemot it is written that "the people believed" [4:31] about the announcement of the redemption, but now they were told, "I will take you as a nation for Me, and I will be your G-d" [6:7]. And this is a very frightening prospect, especially "from the point of view that they were not Torah scholars. And this is what is called impatience, since the Torah broadens the outlook of people" [Orach Chaim].

POINT OF VIEW

Searching for Quotes from the Archives - by Rabbi Yisrael Rozen, Dean of the Zomet Institute

Tweets

And now you have it – a new trend has appeared in the realm of the "election wars." Heavy artillery is engaged in the media battles, the weapons of a new elite genre called "memchatz" – an acronym for "Searching for Faults in quotes in the Archives." Researchers in google, facebook, and youtube are in full search mode for embarrassing quotes and shameful clips which were produced by candidates running for office who were anonymous at the time. There is a professor who loves the Arabs ("The Nakba = Yom Haatzmaut") and some female student doesn't like the odor of the Arabs ("They smell"); one person wants El Aksa to be destroyed and another wants the same for Amonah; Some woman is against women serving in the army ("sheirut") and some man is against the women singing ("shira"). And best of all, the discovery that takes First Prize, as Knight of the Search – finding a candidate's position with respect to homosexuality. These pearls are brought out in interviews and shot directly at the heads of the candidate for crucifixion, with a ricochet aimed straight at the head of the team leader, the head of the party. And as befits a true media war, counter-clips are produced, while the public relations experts and the copywriters have a ball all the way to the bank...

These election games are fodder for the multitudes, who so enjoy the goring and the provocations in the arena made up of lions and bulls. It is all so good and (not very) attractive. It might even be legitimate, but in any case for me it awakens a few thoughts that I would like to share with my readers.

A "Fishhook" for Every MK

This new fashion is without any doubt an absolute result of the fact that so many of the candidates are relative unknowns who do not have a recognizable public profile. Many of them are there in order to glorify the slate or were chosen as part of a bid to fill positions with attractive candidates. In the "old" system, before the "post-" era, (almost) all the candidates were well-known public figures, either prominent in public institutions or figures with a known background on the national scene. Their calling cards were more or less familiar to the voters, and it was not easy to catch them with quotes that were very far from the platforms of the parties which they represented. But in the current "open skies" era, when every apprentice is a worthy candidate for the Knesset, it is only natural that the reprinting of past quotes will gain in importance. Every MK ("Chak" in Hebrew) should anticipate being impaled on poisonous fishhooks ("chakah") in an attempt to catch him or her within the media and "fry him" for the taking...

And we conclude with some friendly advice for everybody who is somewhat important (no matter in what realm) – such as a popular broadcaster, a performer, a driver, or just everybody's pal – who has any thoughts of one day achieving greatness and is waiting for some existing or future party to throw him a fishhook. It is recommended that you guard your tongue and protect your soul from trouble (see Mishlei 21:23). As an alternative, you might voice lukewarm opinions, or speak only in ambiguous language. One last resort would be to embed any provocative statements in declarations on such subjects as "housing costs, the Crusades, or negative economic yield," and so on, so that it will always be possible to claim that the quote was taken "out of context."

The Thinking Man

So much for my criticism of the trend of putting anonymous candidates on election slates. However, this system of culling the archives threatens us all, in all walks of life, with no connection to membership in the Knesset. Anybody who has ever expressed himself or herself in writing, in the farthest reaches of the globe, should be aware that his words have been archived forever and can be retrieved from the "cloud" in a millisecond by an internet search engine. If anybody ever spoke and used his barbed tongue to shoot out or put on a "Purim" mask at a public affair, or took part in an event that was secret or meant for "internal" purposes only but may have been illegally filmed – he should be aware that his words and his image are engraved in stone, and they will probably be displayed one day in public.

Does this mean that we must all live in fear of future investigations? My answer is that this is not necessary at all! A person is not a programmed robot. He is absolutely allowed (and it is sometimes a good idea) to rethink his positions now and then, and to change his opinions. "For that is all there is to man" [Kohellet 12:13]. Man is called "mehalech" – one who is on the move – as opposed to an angel, who maintains his position, frozen and standing in one place ("I have given you movement among all these standing here" [Zecharia 3:7]). A person is definitely allowed to change his outlook, for better or for worse, and woe is to him if before sending any text message he will start to worry about the question of "just how did I relate to this in the past, and who is waiting in the sidelines to trap me?"

In the end, this privilege of quoting past declarations of any kind is most relevant only for the Holy One, Blessed be He, in the heavenly court. It is written, "He tells a man what he has said" [Amos 4:13]. The sages taught us: "Even an idle conversation between a man and his wife is repeated to him at the time of his death" [Chagiga 5:2]. In the Talmud this situation of a Divine quote is seen in a sharp and powerful light: "A slave whose master tells him all that he said – does he have any recourse?" As is well known, the option of repentance is the best defense in the heavenly court. Can this also be true for the earthly media?

We can come to the following conclusion: There is no concrete meaning to this process of gleaning old quotes from the archives, especially if we are referring to short quotes that are not part of a well-defined thesis. The real question is where I stand today and not what I was or what I happened to be once, a long time ago. Perpetuation of a momentary statement, and pulling it out as a stumbling-block as a career continues, is not a morally acceptable practice. We can also conclude that this process of bringing up old quotes is not an effective strategy in election propaganda, and really does no more than to provide entertainment to a bored electorate.

A WOMAN'S ANGLE

From Suckling to Maturity - by Terza Frankael, a teacher in "Tehilla" – Evilena de Rothschild, Jerusalem

There is a subject that is minor yet important that is modestly hidden in this week's Torah portion – the story of the manna. "And Bnei Yisrael called it manna, it was like a white seed, with the taste of being fried in honey" [Shemot 16:31]. From my earliest days I imagined the taste of the manna as similar to a mother's milk. None of us can remember its taste, but we all know how nutritious and life-giving it was when we were suckling children. As opposed to every other food in the world, which is loved and desired by some people and tastes bad to others, a mother's milk is good for everybody. Adults who choose to eat salty food loved their mother's milk as a child, and those who today eat only sweet foods also enthusiastically drank their mother's milk. This life-giving fluid corresponded to the desire of each and every one of us, and gave us all life. Just like the manna. The manna served the purpose of a mother's milk for Bnei Yisrael during the period of their suckling, when they were being formed into a nation, and it kept everybody alive when they were in the desert.

The total dependence of Bnei Yisrael in the desert on the kindness of the Holy One, Blessed be He, can also be compared to the total dependence of a baby on its parents, whom he slowly leaves behind while he develops, until reaching full maturity. If Bnei Yisrael in the desert were in a stage of suckling, then perhaps today, when we no longer have direct Divine revelation and prophecy, we can be compared to adults who must cope with life experiences on our own, even if our parents are looking at us from above and see how we act as a society and as a people. At times they look down with love and pride, and at other times they are disappointed and sad.

However, this dependence of Bnei Yisrael on the Holy One, Blessed be He, who sent down the manna, the total lack of independence together with the strong spiritual demand to believe in G-d and His servant Moshe, is also what caused them later on to rise up against G-d and Moshe, as what took place at "Kivrot Hata'avah." The totally dependent state, where man is expected to be completely passive and not do anything in order to obtain even the most basic needs such as food, while at the same time he is expected to achieve an adult moral level based on a spiritual and faithful outlook, as an independent person should do, is a very difficult demand in both spiritual and physical terms.

This situation reminds me of another stage in our life cycle – the period of adolescence, which I have been privileged to witness many times both with my own daughters and with my students. The adolescents stand between childhood and adulthood. On one hand they are expected to remain completely tied to the adults in their lives in terms of all their physical needs, while on the other hand we want them to display spiritual and intellectual responsibility in their studies, in their faith, in their service of G-d, and in their obligations as students and young people. This gap between the dependent realm of the child and the independent world of adulthood which appear at the same time in the lives of the adolescents makes life very difficult for them. Perhaps in a way it can be compared to the difficulties of Bnei Yisrael in the desert.