Turning to God in Celebration, Not Distress

Jan 26, 2002 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Beshallah | Pesah

Last winter, I visited the Ukraine with a number of other American rabbis. Our purpose was learn about the revival of Judaism in the former Soviet Union, and also to do some teaching in places where teachers don’t come that often.The day after arriving in Kiev, we made our way to Zvenogorodka, a town that used to be a shtetl but now has no Jewish neighborhood.

Balancing Emotional and Rational Approaches

Jan 30, 1999 By Morton M. Leifman <em>z”l</em> | Commentary | Beshallah

This Shabbat celebrates music. Some communities have developed the lovely custom on Shabbat Shira of distributing special food for the birds, those providers of musical gifts to humanity. The Beshalah Torah reading contains the passionate hymn which our ancestors chanted after crossing the Sea of Reeds in safety and witnessing the destruction of their pursuing enemies. Our tradition is to stand during the reading of the hymn, for the leader to use special musical tropes during the chanting and for the congregation to join in the singing of a number of the verses. It is intended to be a dramatic performance. In some Hassidic communities the chanting was followed by a ritual dance to reenact symbolically the jumping into the waters of the sea and the emerging in safety. Thus, music and drama are used as an integral part of the emotional components of the religious experience.

Individual and Collective Formation of Nationhood

Jan 22, 2000 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Beshallah

At the heart of Parashat Beshalah lies the triumphant poem, Shirat HaYam, the Song of the Sea. Having successfully crossed the Reed Sea and witnessed the downfall of Pharaoh’s horsemen, Moses and the children of Israel burst out into an outpouring of praise for the God who freed them from the bonds of slavery. This biblical poem provides the historical transition from Pharaoh’s oppressive rule to God’s glorious kingship. In its biblical context, this song marks the emergence of a nation — from the mixed multitude that leaves Egypt to the people who encounter God at Sinai.

The Folly of Faith in Military Strength

Feb 10, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beshallah

Though separated by centuries, this week’s parasha and haftara overlap thematically. In each case, ancient Israel, aided by the forces of nature, prevails over a mighty enemy equipped with the most fearsome weapon of the day, the chariot. Pharaoh pursues the horde of Israelites departing Egypt with every chariot at his command, including his elite corps of 600. Drawn by two horses, each one of these swift vehicles was manned by a driver, warrior and officer. Clearly, Pharaoh intended to cow his just freed slaves into returning to Egypt without a struggle (Exodus 14:6-7).

Torah and Jewish Survival

Jan 18, 2003 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beshallah

We tend to think of revelation as a highly restrictive term. The fate of a revealed text is to be immutable. We humans have no right to alter what God has given. But in Judaism precisely because the Torah is revered as divine, it becomes susceptible to unending interpretation. It would be a denigration of God’s word to saddle it with just a single meaning. In contrast to human speech, which carries a finite range of meanings, the language of God was deemed to be endowed with an infinity of meanings. This theology freed the Rabbis to do midrash, creating the anomaly of a canon without closure. The vessels kept changing their contents. New challenges elicited new insights into a text inviolable only on the surface.

Accounting for God’s Silence

Jan 22, 2005 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beshallah

In his utterly engrossing autobiography, A Tale of Love and Darkness, which came out in Hebrew in 2002, Amos Oz describes the elderly maidservant in the home of his maternal grandparents in Ukraine as being stone deaf.

Inheritance and Tradition As Sources of Stability

Feb 7, 2004 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Beshallah

I cherish the books of my father that are scattered throughout my library. Long gone, he and I still meet on the pages of books he once pored over. Many an interest of mine has been piqued by a rare book from his collection. An heirloom is often a catalyst. He lived in the world of his books as do I, surely a trait I internalized through exposure. When forced to leave Germany afterKristallnacht at age thirty-nine, he was able to take his books with him. They anchored his psyche during the disorienting transition to a new language, culture and society. Though stripped of all foliage, he enjoyed the benefit of deep roots.