BESHALACH 1995

In the Torah portion Beshalach we learn about faith.  We learn how the Jewish people had just been saved from the Egyptian army who was advancing upon them to return them to slavery in Egypt.  When the Jewish people saw that the Egyptian army was overturned in the Red Sea they burst forth in a great song of faith.  In fact, we say this Shira, this song, every day to remind us of the great faith that the Jewish people had after they saw the Egyptian army being swept away.  In fact, the Torah, itself, says it.  It says, And they believed in G‑d and in Moshe, His servant."  The rabbis say that the great faith that they had at the Red Sea was so great that even the lowliest maid had a greater apprehension of G‑d than did the prophets later on.  However, this faith did not turn out to be so permanent.  Just three days later the Jewish people were complaining.  They did not have water and it was difficult to go three days without water.  After that they were complaining about food.  They did not have adequate food.  In this week's Torah portion we learn how G‑d gave them the manna.  Also, once again they were without water and they even doubted whether G‑d was in their presence or not.  Faith is a really ephemeral thing.  Faith is not something which is permanent.  Faith has to be encased in other things if it is to endure.

That, of course, is what this Torah portion is teaching us, that faith, the feeling that G‑d is with you and G‑d will help you and that you have a role to play in the world based upon your faith in G‑d is something which can come and go depending upon the circumstances.  Therefore, it has to be based on solid things.  We know that the modern consciousness is formed by three different principles, according to most philosophers and has been put down by Charles Taylor.  These three principles have a way of impinging upon Jewish faith and making it difficult for Jews today to believe.

The first principle that is laid down is inwardness.  People today like to do what they feel like doing.  In other words, a person should not be compelled to do anything that he does not feel like doing.  Of course, we know that carried to an extreme this is a foolish concept.  If the baby is crying in the middle of the night and you do not feel like getting up, you still have to get up and take care of that baby if you are a responsible person.  If you do not feel like getting up and going to work but you know you have to go to work if you are going to make a paycheck and support your family.  You do not feel like acting like a responsible human being but you know that you have to do so.  Therefore, we cannot do everything that we feel like doing.  Many times people say and are very upset because their spouse does not feel like doing something and are only doing something because of you.  Well, that, of course, is not such a bad thing after while.  That is what marriage is based upon: compromise.  We know that many times we do not feel like taking our children to the doctor but we know we have to take them to the doctor even though it is going to be a dreadful experience because it is going to cause the baby or child pain, but it is for their own good.  Many times we have to do things that we do not feel like doing.  But this is a problem for modern man because modern man knows that there is many times a great distance between what you feel like doing and what you are compelled to do by circumstances.  When faith comes to people, if faith is just an outward mouthing of words then many times it does not affect one's inner being whatsoever.  Therefore, it is very difficult to do practices which do not have any meaning for a person.  That is why, of course, there has to be Jewish education.  Jewish education is crucial because it is Jewish learning which causes us to want to do certain things.  The purpose of Jewish learning is to make us want to do what we ought to do.  Therefore, there is no conflict between a morality which is outside of us and our feelings about what we want to do.  Sometimes we have to do things we really do not want to do if we believe in an outside morality.  However, if we have had Jewish learning then we know that we should do these things and we want to do those things which we ought to do.  That is why Jewish education is especially so crucial for young people because if they are grown up already with the attitude that what they ought to do is what they want to do, then there is no conflict.  We know that in Jewish law there is a concept of Teenah Sheneeshvah, which is, of course, why all Jews can cooperate and get along today even if they are far from Jewish observance because there is a concept in Jewish law which says that if a Jew was captured when he was young by gentiles and raised in a gentile environment and even when he is then brought back to the Jewish community, he is not held to the standards of observance of the regular Jewish community because it is so foreign to him.  It is so outside his experience.  It is so hard to make him want to do what he ought to do.  Therefore, he is free from many of the observances and he is not chastised or criticized because he cannot keep many of the Jewish observances.  This, of course, is the condition of Russian Jewry.  They were not allowed to keep any Jewish observances so now even though they are free and when they come to Israel or America and they could observe the Jewish observances since they are so foreign to them you cannot make them want to do what they ought to do because they just don't want to do it.  It is too far from them.  Of course, to tell you the truth this is the circumstance of most of American Jewry, too.  They have not had a good Jewish education.  They do not realize the beauty of the Jewish tradition.  It is hard for them psychologically as well as in some instances physically for them to actually do the Jewish practices because they are hard for them.  They do not feel the inner need to do them.  Therefore, the purpose of Jewish education is to make you want to do what you ought to do.  The truth of the matter is that if people just observed the rituals but they, themselves, are not engaged in Jewish learning they will lose the connection between wanting to and ought to.  Then they will stop doing them themselves.  Of course, many times you find families that are observant but none of their children are observant in any W2, and the reason, of course, was because these children had never been imbued with Jewish learning.  The truth of the matter is if adults will learn in their own homes then their children will most likely be observant but if adults in their own homes do not learn themselves then the chances are their children will not be observant.  So the Jewish learning is the key to inwardness that is so important to modern man.

The second concept that forms the consciousness of modern man is the positive affirmation of every day things.  For example, eating, drinking, talking, sex.  In the Middle Ages these things were thought to be abominations and man was supposed to live in some sort of mystical state.  Oh, yes, you had to do these things but they were things that were disgusting and should never really be dealt with in any positive way.  Judaism, of course, is life affirming.  We affirm drinking, talking, sex.  In fact, that is what Shabbat is all about.  Shabbat is a holy day.  Why do we dress up in such nice clothes?  Why do we eat such good food?  Why is a man friendly with his wife?  The reason for that is that these are important activities, but they cannot be all consuming.  They are meant to be done in a sanctified way, in a holy way.  That, of course, is the purpose of Shabbat to allow us to enjoy the material things of life in a holy way.  That, of course, constitutes the basis of Jewish spirituality.  Therefore, in order for us to have that inwardness of life we have to have Jewish learning and I am talking about adults learning, and we have to have Jewish spirituality, a Jewish Shabbat in order for us to make holy the material things otherwise they will end up to be material excesses which will not satisfy us or anybody else.

The third point which, of course, is very important to the modern consciousness and which gave Jewish people trouble, too, who wanted to be true to the Jewish tradition, and that is the question of expressiveness.  We are taught that modern man should express himself.  Ha should express all his talents.  He should express all those things within him that are important.  Judaism does not believe that.  Judaism believes that sometimes you have to be quiet.  When it says to walk modestly before the Lord your G‑d that means that sometimes you have to be quiet.  You do not always express yourself.  This is, of course, especially true today where we read about how people have given up on their families and gone to the South Seas and become great painters or we talk about other examples where a person has to be true to himself so that they have to desert their family.  That is the antithesis of Jewish expressionism.  Judaism says that there are limits.  Just as there are limits to material indulgence without any semblance of holiness, there are limits to expressiveness, too, and the limits have to do with family.  If they destroy family then this Is not a good type of expressiveness.  In fact, we can see this same concept expressed in the sentence which says that this is my G‑d and I will glorify Him.  The word Anvayhu the rabbis say has three meanings.  It means Aneevahu, which means I and he, which stands for the fact that G‑d is different than man and just because we want to do something does not make it holy, does not make it right.  There is such a thing as objective morality.  What we are supposed to do through Jewish learning is to make us want to do what we ought to do, to bring us close to G‑d's will.  This is a natural process if you learn Jewish subjects.  You, yourself, feel drawn to do what you ought to do.  The second meaning is beauty.  Therefore, we are supposed to beautify the physical world.  We are supposed to make a beautiful Shabbat, a nice lulav, a nice succah.  We are supposed to use the material things in order to make our mitzvahs nice.  We are supposed to dress up nice for Shabbat, have nice weddings.  Things are supposed to be done in a beautiful way which includes the sanctification of material things.  The third meaning of the word Anvayhu means home.  What we must do also is to make sure that when we express ourselves we do not destroy our home.  Of course, this is something which we see in our own community now where people who are married 30 and 40 years all of a sudden their marriages are breaking up and they are deserting their families and their wife of long standing in search of ways to better express themselves.  There is a limit then to the expressiveness of Judaism which is allowed to modern man.  Therefore, these three principles, the principle of inwardness and of positive attitude to material things and expressiveness, can also be found within Judaism, but they are not unbridled.  They are not limitless.  We must realize that in order to maintain the Jewish faith it is not enough just to mouth the Shma.  That is not enough.  In fact, you do not even have to mouth the Shma to be a Jew, but to be able to continue to be a Jew, to have your children have the faith of a Jew then you have to have these three basic things which will allow you to exist as a Jew in the modern world.  You have to have adult Jewish learning.  You must have the sanctification, the holiness, of material things, and you must also realize that in expressing yourself you must be limited to those things which will not harm your family.

I am reminded of the story they tell about a young girl who went with her father to the shul because there was a drought and they called for a special prayer session to pray for rain.  After she had participated in the prayers for a half hour or so she looked at her father and said, "Daddy, are we here to pray for rain?" He said, "Yes."  She said, "Do we really need it?" He said, "Yes."" She said, "Well, then where are the umbrellas?" Faith is not enough.  Faith must be encased in different things if it is to endure otherwise it will be ephemeral like the faith of the Jewish people at the Red Sea.  It must be encased (1) in Jewish learning; (2) in the sanctification of every day life, specifically the Shabbat; and (3) it must also be found in the family.  You can never sacrifice the family for the demands of faith.  Let us all hope and pray that we will all remember this.  This is actually mentioned in this Torah portion, too, when they came to a place that had bitter waters G‑d told Moshe Rabbeinu to throw a tree into the waters and there He gave them three things.  The rabbis ask what were they?  He gave them Shabbos, which allows us to spiritually sanctify the every day things of the world.  He gave us Dinim, Jewish laws so that we could study them and make sure that we would want to do what we ought to do, and He gave them the commandment of honoring one's parents, the commandment of making sure that we have adequate families.  Let us all hope that we will all have these things so that the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.