Parashat Beshalach, Exodus 13:17-17:16

This week's parasha has been sponsored by Susan Kitchell in loving memory of her mother Dora Kitchell.
Kolel appreciates its weekly sponsors.
To sponsor a parasha, click here.

 

Packing to remember the past-
and planning for the future.

Study with Baruch Sienna


This Shabbat is very special; it is always the Shabbat closest to Tu BiShevat, the new year of the trees, which has developed into a Jewish 'Earth Day' in recent years. A revived mystical tradition to hold a 'TuBiShevat Seder' has become popular. Two years ago, I wrote about a special tree in our portion. See also our holiday Tu BiShevat section, with a wonderful original story by Noam Sienna.

This Shabbat is also given a special name: Shabbat Shirah, in honour of this week's Torah portion Beshalach that contains the Song of the Sea, Shirat Hayam. This special poem is one of two portions in the Torah written distinctively. The Torah verses are laid out- some suggest to represent the waves of the sea- perhaps you'll be able to see it when the Torah is lifted after the reading on Shabbat morning. The haftarah chosen to match the Torah portion is fittingly the song of Deborah.

Things have been pretty exciting. Last week, we read of the final tenth plague, and the actual exodus from Egypt, and now this week the Israelites are redeemed with the climactic splitting of the sea, and the drowning of the Egyptian army.

The Israelites didn't have much time to pack. What would they need for the journey? What did they want to remember? They took from their neighbours gold and silver and clothing. What use would gold be in the wilderness? Was this restitution for the many years of unpaid labour? The Israelites were in such a rush, that they took their dough while it was still in their kneading bowls (Ex. 12:34). We quote Exodus in the Passover Haggadah: "Neither had they prepared any provisions for themselves" (Ex.12:39).

So it surprising that they did take two things, that would not occur to most of us: Joseph's bones and tambourines. In the midst of this chaos, the preparations for the celebration of Passover (this is while we are still in Egypt) and packing for the imminent redemption, there is the unexpected notice that Moses took Joseph's bones with him (Ex. 13:19). This fulfills (verbatim) the promise Joseph extracted from his brothers in the book of Genesis' penultimate verse, "When God has taken notice of you, you shall carry up my bones from here" (Gen. 50:25). Because the root of the word for 'bones' in Hebrew (etzem) also means 'essence' and 'independence' (atzma'ut), we can understand that Moses was taken the 'essence of Joseph's leadership and this idea has been explored in a previous archived parasha study.

According to the midrash, the Israelites couldn't leave Egypt without taking the bones of Joseph with them, so the Egyptians hid the coffin in the Nile. Only Serach bat Asher, a niece of Joseph, and a survivor from that generation knew where the coffin was. The bones of Joseph were so important, that they were carried in an 'aron' the same word used for the ark for Ten Commandments. The Rabbis connect the two and say that two 'arks' journeyed with the Israelites in the wilderness: one with Joseph's bones and with the Tablets.

The image of carrying our ancestor's bones is a symbol of carrying the past with us. What can we safely jettison, and what should we hold on to? Remembering the past is valuable, but no one wants to travel with excess baggage. I wonder if the Jewish immigrants from Europe saw themselves like the Israelites, crossing a body of water into freedom. I don't know if it is only an urban legend, but a number of people have described our great-grandfathers literally 'kissing their tefillin goodbye' and hurling their ritual objects into the ocean as they approached the new 'goldeneh medinah.' Religious observance was for another time and place. In Dara Horn's book, "In the Image," one of the characters is asked to become a scuba diver to dredge up those tefillin that lie in the harbour of New York in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

But Judaism has to be more than just remembering and holding on to the past, so there is something else to put on our packing list. After the Israelites have crossed the Sea of Reeds into safety, we read that Miriam (again, by the water's edge) took a tof (timbrel) in her hand, and led the women in dancing and singing. In modern Hebrew, this is a simply a drum, but here it refers to a hand-drum, like a tambourine. The timbrel is mentioned several times in Psalms and is often listed with other instruments, such as the stringed lyre or kinor (Gen. 31:27, Is. 5:12). Why should you pack a drum?

This time, Miriam is identified as Aaron's sister (her oldest brother), and as a prophet[ess]. (This is the first mention of the word nevi'ah; the masculine word prophet appears before (Gen. 20:7) to describe Abraham and (Ex. 7:11) the role of Aaron.) Why is Miriam identified as Aaron's brother (and not the more famous, Moses)? And how is Miriam a prophet, Rashi asks. Killing two birds with one stone, he suggests that Miriam prophesied Moses' birth- so she was a prophet when she was sister only to Aaron. But Rashi continues with this theme of women's prophesy in the next verse of the women dancing with timbrels. "Where did the tambourines come from? Why were they brought? The righteous women brought them from Egypt because they knew for sure that the Blessed Holy One would perform miracles in order to enable their escape, and songs and dances of praise would be their proper response."

Tambourines are usually not on anyone's packing list, so we might ask the same question as Rashi. Gifted Jewish educator Joel Grishaver, asked this question to some students when he was a visiting guest teacher. One boy suggested that it was in fact the Egyptian war drums that floated to the surface. One group of girls gave a carefully rehearsed collective story to answer: "They didn't actually have drums with them. It was such an emotional experience and their hearts were beating so loudly, that their heartbeats sounded like drums." Both answers are wonderful midrashim. But if the women had taken actual tambourines, it meant that they had a sense of the future, and what their needs would be. It is not enough to carry our past. We also have to take with us what we need for tomorrow.

In the seventies, every Jewish educator had a book on their shelf called 'Values Clarification.' One of the exercises was the "what would you pack if you had to leave your house?" For most of us, it is simply a hypothetical exercise: what are the most important things that you would want to keep, but with the catastrophes of floods, fires and war around the world, for many, it is unfortunately all too real. What's on your list? What would you choose to take with you?

Bones and tambourines? We might not want those things, but we should take two items. One to remember the past, and one to prepare for the future journey. That's a good way to travel.

 

Shabbat Shalom.

BDS