Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Temple Institute Parsha class.
My name is Gedalia Meyer with the podcast from Maale Adumim in Israel.
Complaining.
What would life be without complaining?
We complain about everything imaginable.
We complain about the weather.
We complain about food.
We complain about everybody around us.
We complain about ourselves.
We even complain about complaining.
It seems like there is always something else to complain about.
If its not something important like health or where we are going in life, its something
trivial like the latest bit of news or the car not running all that well.
It could be something as ridiculous as the Internet not working as fast as it should,
even though it probably is working the way it is for a very good reason.
We tend to voice our complaints when we are around others who, for one reason or another,
like listening to our complaints or happen to be in the right place at the right time
to be the sounding board we were looking for.
But most of us have absolutely no problem complaining even when there is nobody else
around to hang our troubles on.
Complaints don t necessarily need an audience, or at least the audience needn t be anyone
other than the complainer.
It is an interesting question whether this practice has always been part of the human
condition.
Did people complain when they were living in caves?
Did the ancient Greeks complain?
What about people back in the Middle Ages, when things were really tough and there was
a heck of a lot more to complain about?
But did they just accept things as they were and realize that there is no point in complaining
if there was nothing that could be done to fix the problem?
Maybe complaining is a fairly modern phenomenon, arising from the relatively recent situation
of thinking that we can solve our problems.
Maybe it all has to do with the feeling that things should be different, and why aren t
they?
If we lived in a time when that feeling was so absurd that it just didn t arise, maybe
we wouldn t spend so much time complaining.
We all suspect that this is not the case at all.
If anything is universal among human beings, it is this.
We complain because we get something out of complaining, even if it does nothing to solve
whatever it is we are complaining about.
This has probably been the way things have been forever.
We complain because it is what we do.
It may not accomplish anything, but it sure gets stuff off of our chest.
This week s Parsha is called Beshallach.
That word means in sending , or something along those lines.
It is the opening to a sentence that describes when Pharaoh sent the Isrealites off to their
freedom with the Exodus.
Surprisingly, things didn t exactly get off on the right foot.
In fact, right from the start there were issues.
This opening sentence describes how when Pharaoh first sent them off, God did not lead them
by the way of the land of the Philistines , but by a more circuitous route through the
interior of the Sinai desert.
The way of the land of the Philistines was the straight route from Egypt to the ancient
land of Canaan.
This would have taken them to their ultimate destination in the shortest time possible.
Instead, they were divinely directed to head right into the wilderness, thus initiating
the famous 40 years of wandering.
This Parsha, probably more than any other, really zeros in on that period of wandering
through the wilderness.
Right off the bat we are taken to the banks of the Sea of Reeds , classically known as
the Red Sea, but probably something around the bitter lakes region of what is now the
Suez Canal.
This watery area was the setting for the monumental escape from the pursuing Egyptians and the
Crossing of the Sea.
It is hard to imagine a more Biblical setting than this, complete with miracles and chariots
and a beautiful song of praise to God.
This was where it seemed that everything that had happened so far in the Exodus was coming
crashing down almost before it even got started.
The Israelites were trapped against the waters with nowhere to go.
The Egyptians had the chariots and the weapons, even if they were completely outnumbered.
It looking like they would simply round up the deparate Israelites and bring them back
to Egypt.
What did the Israelites do under these pressing circumstances?
Did they attempt to fight back?
Did they pray?
DId they encourage each other to stick it out and hope for the best?
Not at all.
They complained.
This was the first of no less than four incidents of classic Biblical complaints that come up
in this single Parsha.
They tend to focus on what a mistake it was to ever venture out on this wild ride into
destiny.
They should have stayed in Egypt, with their predictable if miserable lives.
At least then they wouldn t be dead out in the middle of nowhere.
As things turned out, they made it out of the drama at the Sea in flying colors.
The miraculous salvation was more than anybody could have asked for.
The Egyptians were drowned in the chariots, mired in the muddy waters of the shallow sea,
while the Isrealites simply walked across the dry bed of the sea.
How things worked out in this way is left a little vague in the text.
It appears to have been a matter of timing.
The Isrealites crossed while the sea had split for some reason, and by the time the Egyptians
crossed it was already filling up again.
This was the way things were to go all the way through the wanderings.
After the celebratory song of praise things took another downturn.
The next problem was that the oasis they found had bitter waters.
This produced more complaints along the same lines.
It seems that even the miracles they experienced at the crossing of the sea were not enough
to wean them of this amazing tendency to look for something to complain about.
It s not that having to face bitter waters in the middle of the desert isn t something
to be concerned about.
It s more a matter of how to deal with it.
Do you look for a solution or do you simply gripe about the problem?
This problem also had a solution.
It was casting a piece of wood into the waters to make them sweeter.
This more hidden miracle was meant to teach them a lesson.
No matter what situation they found themselves in, there would always be a way out.
It was just a matter of dealing with the problem and waiting for the answer to reveal itself.
It was really a lesson in recognizing their dependence on God in everything.
If there was any ture lesson in this Parsha and the wanderings in general it was this
- trust in God to make things work out.
This simple answer was no easier for them 3000 years ago than it is for us today.
But the alternative has been there just as long as the solution.
The alternative was to complain.
The next round of complaining is due to a lack of food.
This was definitely a problem out in the wilderness and it seemed to be insurmountable.
But like all problems it had a solution.
It was again a matter of looking to see what God had in store for them.
Before that was revealed the complaints came out.
It was the same story being repeated - why did we leave Egypt to starve out in the desert?
The solution this time was in the form of the Manna.
This miraculous source of nutrition would be their daily food for most of those 40 years.
But it came with certain rules and conditions, otherwise it wouldn t work out the way it
was supposed to.
Abiding by these rules was easier said than done, so even with the solution right in front
of them they had more reason for complaining.
Sometimes that s just the way things are.
When this was resolved there was another incident of lack of water.
This would be the classic wilderness problem that neer really left them.
Again the complaints came up and again the solution was right there waiting for them.
In this case God told Moshe to take his staff that had done so much to initiate the plagues
in Egypt and to hit a rock.
The water came forth and once again they were out of a jam.
But it only happened after the obligatory complaints brought everything to a head.
There is something interesting that is stated after this fourth round of complaints.
The Torah hardly describes things after the resolution other than to say that the name
of the place was Massa and Meriva . These are not accidental names, for it says that
they were called by these names in commemoration of the contention the Israelites brought out
and on their challenging of God, asking is God amongst us or not . This incident ends
with this mysterious conclusion.
It is difficult to avoid the question of why this particular expression was used to sum
up this particular situation.
What was it about this one that provoked this highly theological problem?
This complaint was really no different than the others.
It was a lack of something - either food or water or safety - and they didn t see a way
out.
Why specifically here was the question of is God amongst us or not raised?
For that matter, what does any of this have to do with God being among them or not?
It seems like the real problem was a lack of water.
When the solution presented itself the problem was solved.
Who brought up anything about God being among them or not?
This is such an obvious problem that it just screams for an answer.
This dramatic line comes out of thin air and we are left with it hanging there.
What does it mean?
Perhaps the answer is that this lies at the root of all complaints.
There was nothing different in this situation that provoked this question, other than the
simple fact that it was the final one in this sequence of complaints.
After having gone through three of these already, and after having seen the solutions present
themselves and the complaints solving nothing, perhaps there was a pattern that was finally
revealed.
All complaints are of this nature.
Whenever we complain about anything, even if it is something that really is worth complaining
over, we are really asking this question to ourselves.
Is God there or not?
>>We go through this time after time in the course of our lives.
We complain, it does nothing, and somehow things work out one way or another.
Then the same thing happens again.
At some point we should wake up and realize that the complaints do not do anything at
all.
By complaining , we are voicing a very personal message to ourselves - we don t really think
that God is there in our lives.
Otherwise, wouldn t things be different?
This, to some degree, is the story of our lives.
Things don t go perfect, we complain, and they get resolved somehow or another.
But that complaint says more than we believed at the time.
It says something about us - that we don t truly believe things are being run in a manner
that admits to the presence of God in our lives.
A complaint is really a way of asking ourselves that uncomfortable question.
Is God among us or not?
Perhaps this should alert us the next time we find ourselves griping away about things.
We are really wondering how real God is to us.
Maybe the solution to whatever we are complaining about lies in this question.
Shabbat Shalom!