SUMMARY: 

• The Children of Israel escape across the Sea of Reeds from Pharaoh and his army, who drown when God drives back the sea. (13:17-14:31)
• Moses and the Israelites sing a song praising Adonai. (15:1-21)
• In the wilderness, God provides the grumbling Israelites with quails and manna. God instructs the Israelites to gather and prepare on the sixth day food needed for Shabbat. (15:22-16:36)
• The people complain about the lack of water. Moses hits a rock with his rod and brings forth water. (17:1-7)
• Israel defeats Amalek, Israel's eternal enemy. God vows to blot out the memory of Amalek from the world. (17:8-16)

D'var Torah
by Jennifer Twitchell

From my heart I write this commentary.  I don’t claim to be a Judaic scholar in any way.  I simply wanted to share my thoughts on this Shabbat Shira, (Shabbat of Song), Exodus 13:17-17:16.

Music touches the lives of many people in different ways.  I’m a firm believer that music surrounds us everyday in all types of mediums, and it offers us a variety of ways to enhance our lives.

Shabbat Shira is a special Shabbat, one that should be celebrated with more song, music, and dance than in our usual service.

We need to raise our voices and let Hashem know that we are faithful and we do believe in his holiness.  Some people can express this in words, others, in dance, but I feel it most through song.  This Shabbat is about song and how these songs have changed me.

What amazes me when reading this passage is that when the Israelites were set free and told to go, Miriam had the forethought that there would be a time for exultation.  So, the women took timbrels and other instruments from their homes, and brought them with as they traveled through the desert toward the Sea of Reeds.  

Who does that?  You are finally told to leave and in haste, you think oh, let me get my timbrel? Why would that be an item you take?  You are free, so you grab the unleavened bread, your sandals, the kids and Go!  But Miriam did feel that the sound of her timbrel would be heard upon their escape from Egypt.

I’m sure you’ve played the game of “if you are stranded on a deserted island and you can only have 3 things, what would you take?”  Let’s go back in history and see what Miriam would take?  She brings an instrument and why?  In my opinion, she knows that her hope and faith in Hashem, would allow Moses to lead them out of Egypt, and they would no longer be enslaved, and that would be cause for celebration.

As it happened, the Israelites crossed the sea on dry land, “and Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dances.”  (Exodus 15:20)

Many of you I’m sure are familiar with the works of the beloved Debbie Friedman.  She wrote “Miriam’s Song,” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZdSEsZ8bMo) and the moment I heard it my life changed.  

“Miriam’s Song” is inspiring, uplifting, and just what I needed as I struggled with the challenges I was facing in my life.  My issues seemed petty compared to what Miriam went through, but I felt Miriam’s faith, hope, courage, and strength were in that music that Friedman sang.  Miriam believed there was light in the darkness, and I knew I needed to do the same.  Music can be quite powerful.  Miriam truly transformed who I am today.

Now, Miriam wasn’t the only one who sang of Hashem’s glory.  Moses sang:

“Who is like You among the powerful, O Lord? Who is like You, powerful in the holy place? Too awesome for praises, performing wonders!”

Mi-chamocha ba'elim Adonay mi kamocha ne'edar bakodesh noratehilot oseh-fele.

“Mi Chamocha” is a staple in our services.  It is a song of redemption, and our faith in Hashem.  The words give praise to the Lord that has brought us out of Egyptian bondage.

During the exodus, the Israelites questioned many times the validity of whether or not Moses (and Hashem) were truly leading them to their salvation or would it be to their deaths in the desert. Nevertheless, Hashem showed the Israelites in many ways that they would be free, never leaving them during this journey, showing them that his power was strong enough to overcome an army of Egyptians.  I say, “Todah to Hashem!”

This song has a true life of its own.  I Googled it and found so many hits on You Tube and other social media.  “Mi Chamocha” doesn’t just go with our Jewish services, there are hundreds of versions of “Mi Chamocha” that people are singing around the world.  I found a few favorites that just lit me up inside.  See what you think,

http://www.rickrecht.com/album/shabbat-alive-live/ (Rick Recht)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr7JZ36FTUY (Debbie Freidman)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Y-J6Ea3TI (A capella version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tknPYGGrQq8 (Prince of Egypt)

Music is a huge part of my faith. I feel it.  These are not just words to sing-along to; these are the words of my ancestors.  The very people who were faced with tragedy throughout history, but were triumphant in the end.  I am a Jew because they paved that road for me.  When I sing, I feel my ancestors, their pains and their victories. I hope that my voice will be heard and that Hashem will be listening.  Shabbat Shira reminds us each year to sing out the glory of Hashem.

I encourage you to listen with a different ear the next time you are at services.  See if you can feel the redemption and listen it not as a required part of our liturgy, but rather a song to remind us that our ancestors paved the road we now take.  Close your eyes and inhale the sounds of the song.  

Music will always be a strong part of my faith.  As I sit here now, I’m still hearing the sounds of the cello that I hear during Kol Nidre.  Again, the music doesn’t just go away when I break the fast, it is a part of me until I hear it again.  May you all enjoy Shabbat Shira and I thank you for allowing me an opportunity to share my thoughts.

Shabbat Shalom

 

SUMMARY: 

• God sends the plagues of locusts and darkness upon Egypt and forewarns Moses about the final plague, the death of every Egyptian firstborn. Pharaoh still does not let the Israelites leave Egypt. (10:1-11:10)
• God commands Moses and Aaron regarding the Passover festival. (12:1-27)
• God enacts the final plague, striking down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt except those of the House of Israel. Pharaoh now allows the Israelites to leave. (12:29-42)
• Speaking to Moses and Aaron, God repeats the commandments about Passover. (12:43-13:16)

D'var Torah
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

To gain insight into the unique leadership lesson of this week’s parsha, I often ask an audience to perform a thought-experiment. Imagine you are the leader of a people that has suffered exile for more than two centuries, and has been enslaved and oppressed. Now, after a series of miracles, it is about to go free. You assemble them and rise to address them. They are waiting expectantly for your words. This is a defining moment they will never forget. What will you speak about?

Most people answer: freedom. That was Abraham Lincoln’s decision in the Gettysburg Address when he invoked the memory of “a new nation, conceived in liberty,” and looked forward to “a new birth of freedom.” Some suggest that they would inspire the people by talking about the destination that lay ahead, the “land flowing with milk and honey.” Yet others say they would warn the people of the dangers and challenges that they would encounter on what Nelson Mandela called “the long walk to freedom.”

Any of these would have been the great speech of a great leader. Guided by God, Moses did none of these things. That is what made him a unique leader. If you examine the text in parshat Bo you will see that three times he reverted to the same theme: children, education and the distant future.

And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this rite?” you shall say, “It is the passover sacrifice to the Lord, because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.” (Ex. 12: 26-27)

And you shall explain to your child on that day, “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I went free from Egypt.” (Ex. 13:8)

And when, in time to come, your child asks you, saying, “What does this mean?” you shall say to him, “It was with a mighty hand that the Lord brought us out from Egypt, the house of bondage.” (Ex. 13: 14)

It is one of the most counter-intuitive acts in the history of leadership. Moses did not speak about today or tomorrow. He spoke about the distant future and the duty of parents to educate their children. He even hinted – as Jewish tradition understood – that we should encourage our children to ask questions, so that the handing on of the Jewish heritage would be not a matter of rote learning but of active dialogue between parents and children.

So Jews became the only people in history to predicate their very survival on education. The most sacred duty of parents was to teach their children. Pesach itself became an ongoing seminar in the handing on of memory. Judaism became the religion whose heroes were teachers and whose passion was study and the life of the mind. The Mesopotamians built ziggurats. The Egyptians built pyramids. The Greeks built the Parthenon. The Romans built the Coliseum. Jews built schools. That is why they alone, of all the civilizations of the ancient world are still alive and strong, still continuing their ancestors’ vocation, their heritage intact and undiminished.

Moses’ insight was profound. He knew that you cannot change the world by externalities alone, by monumental architecture, or armies and empires, or the use of force and power. How many empires have come and gone while the human condition remains untransformed and unredeemed?

There is only one way to change the world, and that is by education. You have to teach children the importance of justice, righteousness, kindness and compassion. You have to teach them that freedom can only be sustained by the laws and habits of self-restraint. You have continually to remind them of the lessons of history, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt,” because those who forget the bitterness of slavery eventually lose the commitment and courage to fight for freedom. And you have to empower children to ask, challenge and argue. You have to respect them if they are to respect the values you wish them to embrace.

This is a lesson most cultures still have not learned after more than three thousand years. Revolutions, protests and civil wars still take place, encouraging people to think that removing a tyrant or having a democratic election will end corruption, create freedom, and lead to justice and the rule of law – and still people are surprised and disappointed when it does not happen. All that happens is a change of faces in the corridors of power.

In one of the great speeches of the twentieth century, a distinguished American justice, Judge Learned Hand, said:

I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.

What God taught Moses was that the real challenge does not lie in gaining freedom; it lies in sustaining it, keeping the spirit of liberty alive in the hearts of successive generations. That can only be done through a sustained process of education. Nor is this something that can be delegated away to teachers and schools. Some of it has to take place within the family, at home, and with the sacred obligation that comes from religious duty. No one ever saw this more clearly than Moses, and only because of his teachings have Jews and Judaism survived.

What makes leaders great is that they think ahead, worrying not about tomorrow but about next year, or the next decade, or the next generation. In one of his finest speeches Robert F. Kennedy spoke of the power of leaders to transform the world when they have a clear vision of a possible future:

Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills — against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. ‘Give me a place to stand,’ said Archimedes, ‘and I will move the world.’ These men moved the world, and so can we all.”

Visionary leadership forms the text and texture of Judaism. It was the book of Proverbs that said, “Without a vision [chazon] the people perish.” (Prov. 29: 18). That vision in the minds of the prophets was always of a long term future. God told Ezekiel that a prophet is a watchman, one who climbs to a high vantage-point and so can see the danger in the distance, before anyone else is aware of it at ground level (Ezek. 33: 1-6). The sages said, “Who is wise? One who sees the long-term consequences [ha-nolad].” Two of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century, Churchill and Ben Gurion, were also distinguished historians. Knowing the past, they could anticipate the future. They were like chess masters who, because they have studied thousands of games, recognise almost immediately the dangers and possibilities in any configuration of the pieces on the board. They know what will happen if you make this move or that.

If you want to be a great leader in any field, from Prime Minister to parent, it is essential to think long-term. Never choose the easy option because it is simple or fast or yields immediate satisfaction. You will pay a high price in the end.

Moses was the greatest leader because he thought further ahead than anyone else. He knew that real change in human behaviour is the work of many generations. Therefore we must place as our highest priority educating our children in our ideals so that what we begin they will continue until the world changes because we have changed. He knew that if you plan for a year, plant rice. If you plan for a decade, plant a tree. If you plan for posterity, educate a child. Moses’ lesson, thirty-three centuries old, is still compelling today.

SUMMARY:

• Despite God's message that they will be redeemed from slavery, the Israelites' spirits remain crushed. God instructs Moses and Aaron to deliver the Israelites from the land of Egypt. (6:2-13)
• The genealogy of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and their descendants is recorded. (6:14-25)
• Moses and Aaron perform a miracle with a snake and relate to Pharaoh God's message to let the Israelites leave Egypt. (7:8-13)
• The first seven plagues occur. God hardens Pharaoh's heart, and Pharaoh rescinds each offer to let the Israelites go. (7:14-9:35)

D'var Torah
Mark Kaplan

I saw the new Ridley Scott version of “Exodus” a few weeks back.  I didn’t realize that watching the movie was going to tie into my D’var Torah.  Mind you, I didn’t hear a lisp, slur or other speech impediment come forth out of Christian Bale’s mouth, but that’s Hollywood.

As you look at the stories in the Torah, there is a reason that the story of Moses and Israelites has been put on celluloid a few times.  It truly is spectacular.  Here we have Moses, being directed by 
G-d to help free the Israelites and lead them to the promised land.  It’s an extra-large bucket of popcorn epic.  

What I had never realized before, digging deep into this parsha, is how crucial Aaron is in the whole story.  Not only does he speak for Moses; he actually is the one who helps to bring forth the first three plagues that G-d strikes against Pharaoh and the Egyptians.  I don’t remember big brother Aaron being such a big part of Cecil B. DeMille’s film of films, nor did I see it presented in that way in Ridley Scott’s newest creation.  There wasn’t even a TNT television film amongst all their old testament films 20 or so years ago.  Let’s face it, big brother Aaron has been slighted by the Hollywood elite.

I wonder what would of happened if big brother Aaron wasn’t around?  Would Moses have been able to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and to the Promised Land?  Would the plagues not have been initiated with such command without big brother helping to get it going?  

In some ways, the relationship between Moses and Aaron is almost as if G-d was trying to do a re-direct on brotherly relationships.  I mean, the first brotherly relationship in the Torah, that of Cain and Able, didn’t fare too well...and Moses’ grandfather was one of the brother’s who threw Joseph down a well and left him for dead.  In the madras and most movie versions, Moses and Ramses II grew up as “brothers” themselves and we know where that went.  Good times. 

There is a humbleness to Aaron.  He does what he does not for any great bravura or excitement, but out of true necessity.  Without Aaron, there is no departing Egypt.  He’s the unsung hero of the story.

SUMMARY: 

• The new king of Egypt makes slaves of the Hebrews and orders their male children to be drowned in the Nile River. (1:1-22)
• A Levite woman places her son, Moses, in a basket on the Nile, where he is found by the daughter of Pharaoh and raised in Pharaoh's house. (2:1-10)
• Moses flees to Midian after killing an Egyptian. (2:11-15)
• Moses marries the priest of Midian's daughter, Zipporah. They have a son named Gershom. (2:16-22)
• God calls Moses from a burning bush and commissions him to free the Israelites from Egypt. (3:1-4:17)
• Moses and Aaron request permission from Pharaoh for the Israelites to celebrate a festival in the wilderness. Pharaoh refuses and makes life even harder for the Israelites. (5:1-23)

D'var Torah
Erika Schwartz

For a mother, the prospect of sending your child away . . . knowing that you may never again lay eyes on that child . . . is horrifying.  Particularly if the act is to save the child’s life, the question must still linger “Would my child be safer with me or is there a better chance for survival if I give up my baby?”  What an awful choice!

During the Holocaust when the Germans were rapidly applying their final solution to the Jews of Hungary, my grandmother had to face just such a choice.  Her daughter, my mother, had been living with her ever since my mother became pregnant with me.  My father was in a labor camp so my mother left their Budapest apartment to be with her mother many hundreds of miles away while she awaited my birth.

Rumors had been circulating about Auschwitz and what might be happening there but the Hungarian Jews weren’t sure that these rumors were true.  They couldn’t fathom that these rumors could possibly be true.  It was too awful to imagine.

In the early Spring of 1944 the ghettos were established in Hungary.  The neighborhood in which my grandmother lived was ghettoized.  They were trapped but no one knew for certain what was going to happen.  I was born in that ghetto in April of 1944.

Although many Hungarian Jews didn’t believe the rumors, some did.  In particular, many of the men in the labor camps were beginning to believe that the stories were true and that Hungary’s Jews were in imminent mortal danger.  My father heard of my birth, somehow escaped from the labor camp and made his way to the small town in which we lived.  He brought with him papers to show to the authorities that proved our “official” address was in Budapest.  The Germans were very organized and wanted all Jews ghettoized according to their “official address”.  For some reason, my father believed that my mother and I would be safer in Budapest.  (His assumption was miraculous because pretty much the only Hungarian Jews who survived were the ones in Budapest.)

He did eventually get what he wanted and was granted papers to allow the three of us to take the train to Budapest.  My mother balked.  Knowing that my father had already made the decision to go back to the labor camp after he secured us safely in Budapest, my mother was extremely reluctant to be left alone with a new baby during these awful times.  She wanted to stay with her mother.

My grandmother trusted my father’s instincts and literally shoved my mother out the door.  She firmly told her that it was my mother’s obligation to take her baby and to go with her husband.  My grandmother would NOT allow my mother to stay.

What a horror that must have been for my grandmother.  Did she know that she would never see her daughter or baby granddaughter again? 

When Moses’ mother, Jochebed, placed him in the basket and left her baby among the reeds by the bank of the Nile, she didn’t know if he would live or die.  There must have been other choices available to her.  Just as during the Holocaust there were righteous gentiles, perhaps she could have searched for a righteous Egyptian woman to take her baby and save him.  She may have even considered the possibility of keeping him hidden so that she herself could protect him.  Did she so trust in G-d that she was certain her baby would be saved?  Did G-d instruct her to do this in order to save the life of Moses?  After all, consider the destiny that awaited him.  Would there even be a Jewish people today had Moses not lived?

There are some scholars that believe that Jochebed, knowing the role that Moses would play in the future of the Jewish people, “cast” him into the water in order to fulfill the prophecy of the Pharoah’s astrologers.  They had predicted that water would be the downfall of the one who would save the Jews and Jochebed hoped that, by casting Moses into the water, the astrologers would consider the prophecy fulfilled and the decree against the Jewish boys would be annulled.

We don’t know the answer to any of these questions.  We can only assume that Jochebed didn’t know if her baby would live or die.  She was making a decision that she believed would give him the best chance at life.

My grandmother didn’t know what lay ahead.  When she pushed my mother, carrying her one week old baby, out the door and firmly closed that door, she couldn’t have known that it was forever.

Jochebed was blessed with the knowledge that her baby survived and was even able to participate in his upbringing for a number of years.  My grandmother died in the gas chamber at Auschwitz with her other three grandchildren three weeks after casting out her daughter and infant granddaughter.  I wish she had known that the daughter and baby granddaughter she cast out did survive (and were the only survivors, as the entire family eventually perished).  From these two lone survivors, my grandmother now has three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild and two great-great-great-grandchildren. We’re a close and loving family and I know that my grandmother is kvelling.