BESHALACH 1985

In the Torah portion Beshalach we learn how the Jewish people reached the heights of faith, how it says "Veeameenu Badoshem Uv Moshe Avdo" "and they believed in G-d and Moshe, His servant."  In the same Torah portion, after a series of complaints, we find that the Jewish people are questioning if there is even a G-d Who is concerned about them.  "Hayaish Adoshem Beer Kubeinu Eem Oyen"  "Is G-d among us or not?"  How could it possibly be that in a very short time, not even a month, the Jewish people could swing from the heights of faith to the depths of despair, from the heights of belief to the depths of agnosticism, how they could doubt whether G-d even existed.  This generation, which had seen so many miracles, now at the end of this Torah portion doubts whether there is even a G-d Who cares.  How can we understand this?  We all know that there are certain people called manic depressives who swing from the heights of ecstasy to the depths of despair.  They do this very quickly.  Of course, these people are suffering from a mental problem, but all of us have swings in feelings.  There is nobody in this room who cannot say at certain times they not only love their spouses and children and parents but have also hated them.  If hate is too strong a word, at least disliked them.  

We all suffer from swings of feelings.  A sick person cannot handle them.  A healthy person should be able to.  It is difficult, though, to handle your feelings.  The Jewish people had just left Egypt and they had a real high on the Red Sea, but they had no experience in handling their feelings.  When all these other troubles hit them they could not maintain this height of faith, and instead they were overwhelmed with doubt.  If they would have had more experience in life they would have realized that life has its ups and downs, and you have to maintain an even keel even though sometimes your feelings are fluctuating down.  That's why when we hire someone for a job we want experience, not just knowledge.  Knowledge is fine, but when a person hits a problem, a problem he has never seen before he has to have the confidence that he can draw on his knowledge and overcome the problem.  A person who is new to the job may not be able to pull together all the knowledge that he has in order to solve the problem.  He may panic.  If you solve the problem or have solved it before it is easier.  You do not panic.  Our feelings are sometimes a very poor guide on how to conduct ourselves in life.  We all know of the person who becomes super religious, and the next thing you know he becomes completely non-religious.  He swings from one thing to another.  Our feelings do swing, but our actions and beliefs should not.  In this Torah portion we learn about the manna.  We learn something very interesting about the manna, that it was not to be collected on the Sabbath, and the rabbis learn from the repetition of the word "day" three times in the sentence which Moshe said, "Eat it today because Shabbos is a day to the Lord and today you will not find it in the field."  They learned that the repetition of the word "day" three times means that we are supposed to eat three meals on Shabbos, and that it also stands for the three different middle parts of the Amidah which say "on Shabbos."  Usually the middle part of the Amidah, whether it is Mincha or Maariv or Shacharis, is the same, but not so on Shabbos.  On Shabbos on Maariv the middle part of the Amidah speaks about G-d the Creator.  On Shacharis it speaks about the joy of observing the Torah.  The third Amidah Mincha speaks about the future and our part in bringing about a better world.  Moshe was telling the people here one of the purposes of the Shabbos which is to allow us to step back from our feelings and to judge them in a correct way.

We are supposed to look at our feelings and see first or all:  do they make us impotent; do they allow us still to create; or do they destroy us, making us completely passive?  Do they bring us joy or do they fill us with guilt and fear?  Thirdly, do they benefit the world and the family and help us build a better future?  This is what we must do to all our feelings.  We must judge them by these standards.  First of all, we must not make rash statements or do rash things when we are in the height of our feelings.  We must step back a bit.  That's what Shabbos is about.  Sometimes people do terrible things that they later regret because they did not step back from their feelings.  After we step back from our feelings, then we must judge them.  Do our feelings paralyze us?  Do they take away our capacity to act?  If they do, they are bad feelings.  The youngsters who join cults have lost the capacity to act.  They may think it is the right thing to do, but these feelings destroy them.  We also must look whether our feelings bring us joy.  There are some people who are so filled with inferiority feelings and feelings of unhappiness with themselves that these feelings destroy them and others.  Finally, do our feelings look to the future?  Do they allow us to contribute to the world, or do these feelings only look backward to insults or slights, etc.?  They do not benefit our children.  They do not help build a better future.  They only lead to hatred and rancor.  It is important that we learn how to deal with our feelings.  The Jewish people, when they came out of Egypt, could not deal with their feelings.  They did not have a Shabbos.  They did not step back from them.  They did not know how to judge them.  We all must deal with our feelings.  We have to know what is just a passing feeling, and what is a true feeling which lasts.  It is important that we always step back a little and see whether our feelings allow us to act, bring us joy, and look to the future.  If they do not our feelings are probably misleading us.  

This reminds me of the story about a young sailor in the Israeli Navy who always wanted to be a captain.  One day he was given the job of berthing a torpedo ship alongside a mother ship on which the Israeli brass were standing.  He brought the ship in to the mother ship, but made a mistake.  He rammed the mother ship and damaged the torpedo ship.  The captain looked at him and said, "Seaman, what do you intend do now?"  He answered, "Join a kibbutz."  We should not let our rash feelings mislead us.