Rabbi's Message

In this week’s Parsha Beshalach, the Israelites are fleeing Egypt, Pharaoh chases, and the Israelites are trapped between Pharaoh and his armies and the sea. Moses then raises his staff, splitting the sea, and the Israelites cross. The Egyptians pursue and the sea crashes atop them.

A classic question is: why does Moses need to raise his staff in order for G-d to provide a miracle? I have a radical interpretation of this: Moses did not need to raise his staff; G-d needs not his symbolic gesture to perform miracles. My interpretation is that our life IS the symbolic gesture of G-d’s miracle. All of creation, including us, is powered by the creative force of G-d; existence is miraculous. From my own mystical point of view the choices we make in our lives, the way we choose to express ourselves in the world, is a manifestation of G-d’s creativity, a miracle, if you will, from what we call the ordinary to the extraordinary!

Rabbi Tatz, whom I study, frames it this way: after the Israelites cross the sea, Moses raises his staff for the sea to collapse back into its initial form. His question is: why does Moses need to do this? Why wouldn’t the sea go back to its natural position? His answer is that it is all the same for G-d. Whether the sea is raised out of the air creating a path or at rest makes no difference, all created things in G-d’s universe require his power. So the sea at rest is as much a miracle as a wall of sea. The point is, we take for granted the ultimate mystery that is existence, the cosmos, the universe, love, pain and redemption. We often only count the things that don’t fit our mind’s categories as miracles, failing to see that the fact that there are categories at all is an ultimate mystery - as big a miracle as we can attempt to comprehend. Even from a scientific point of view the universe doesn’t follow the natural laws; quantum mechanics has shown us that the deeper we dig the deeper the mystery. I am privileged to be the father of two beautiful daughters. The root of their existence is a complete and utter mystery to me. Of course I know what happened… however when I look at them in a clear and simple way I realize I am constantly witnessing a miracle, G-d’s creative power and some poetic expression of my wife’s and my love.

Let’s be present to the miracles all around us, “radically amazed” at G-d’s creative potential and our own. Let’s do our part, “raise our staff” in harmony with the miracles that dance in and around us.

Shabbat Shalom,

Yeshaia Blakeney