Torah
Consistency
By: Malka Garber, Melissa Goldsmith, and Rachaeli Weintraub
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this Shiur In this week’s parsha, Parshat Beshalach, Bnei Yisrael are taken out of Egypt. After witnessing God's miracle of קריעת ים סוף , Bnei Yisrael finally recognize God, which is depicted through the words, "זה קלי ואנויהו ", "this is my God and I will glorify Him", in אז ישיר . At this point, one would think that this is the peak of the nation’s relationship with God, but as we read on, it becomes clear to us that this isn't the case.
Rabbi Shalom Noach Brezovski chooses to focus on the words "וה׳ הולך לפניהם יומם ועמוד ענן לנחותם הדרך ולילה בעמוד אש ", "Hashem was going before them by day in a pillar of cloud and fire by night", to further explain this relationship. He interprets the words "by day" as the good times and "by night" as all the difficulties they are faced with. The Pasuk continues "ללכת יומם ולילה ", "to go by day and by night", which comes to teach that we should be with God in either situation.
Later in the parsha, after they passed through the Yam Suf, Bnei Yisrael complained inappropriately to God since the water was bitter. God responds "אם שמוע תשמעו לקול ה׳ אלוקוך...אני ה׳ רפאך ", meaning if we do what God commands, he will protect us. From here we see that when things are bad, instead of panicking, we should keep going. Similarly, with the מן , Bnei Yisrael constantly worried about not having food. Hashem is again testing them in order to show that if they follows the laws given to them, like don't leave the מן overnight and don't collect it on Shabbat, they'll continue to get what they need.
Rashi brings an analogy of a son on his father’s shoulders. The father constantly gives everything to his son with no question. But, when a man passes by, the son asks where his father is and immediately after the father hears this, he removes him from his shoulders and he gets bitten by a dog. Here, Hashem is the father and Bnei Yisrael is the son who is getting everything he needs. “Where is my father?” is not the right question to ask when you’re practically on His shoulders.
The lesson we should take from this is that it is not about how close we can get at the greatest times, rather how consistent we are in all situations. It is best to have faith in God "by day and by night", through the good and the bad, in order to build the strongest relationship we can.
Rabbi Shalom Noach Brezovski chooses to focus on the words "וה׳ הולך לפניהם יומם ועמוד ענן לנחותם הדרך ולילה בעמוד אש ", "Hashem was going before them by day in a pillar of cloud and fire by night", to further explain this relationship. He interprets the words "by day" as the good times and "by night" as all the difficulties they are faced with. The Pasuk continues "ללכת יומם ולילה ", "to go by day and by night", which comes to teach that we should be with God in either situation.
Later in the parsha, after they passed through the Yam Suf, Bnei Yisrael complained inappropriately to God since the water was bitter. God responds "אם שמוע תשמעו לקול ה׳ אלוקוך...אני ה׳ רפאך ", meaning if we do what God commands, he will protect us. From here we see that when things are bad, instead of panicking, we should keep going. Similarly, with the מן , Bnei Yisrael constantly worried about not having food. Hashem is again testing them in order to show that if they follows the laws given to them, like don't leave the מן overnight and don't collect it on Shabbat, they'll continue to get what they need.
Rashi brings an analogy of a son on his father’s shoulders. The father constantly gives everything to his son with no question. But, when a man passes by, the son asks where his father is and immediately after the father hears this, he removes him from his shoulders and he gets bitten by a dog. Here, Hashem is the father and Bnei Yisrael is the son who is getting everything he needs. “Where is my father?” is not the right question to ask when you’re practically on His shoulders.
The lesson we should take from this is that it is not about how close we can get at the greatest times, rather how consistent we are in all situations. It is best to have faith in God "by day and by night", through the good and the bad, in order to build the strongest relationship we can.
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| Uploaded: | Thursday, January 9, 2014 |