Beshalach: miracles and trials

 In the first verse of the parsha, the word נָחָם   is used twice, with with  meanings "lead"  and "regret"  Neither of these are the common usage " comfort" How can that word mean all of those things?  

There is a great comfort in being led down a path.  In times of grief and stress, it can be too hard to figure out which path to go down.  It is easier to follow the instructions ( get in the cattle car, shnell!). The instructions are a comfort. 

The Comfort  of the mourner is following a path away from the grief.  It is changing the apprach to the memory from loss to gain.  

Thus, Comfort and regret are similar, they are both  negations of the past,  redirections in life. 
Perhaps the core meaning of  נָחָם  is redirect. 

The parsha ends with Moshe erecting an alter to the the idea "Hashem Nisi,"  Onkelos  translate this as: Gd  did  miracles for me. This could also be translated "Gd tested me"  In the course of the parsha, we see that the two ideas are related.

This parsha contains most of the most famous miracles in the Torah: the splitting of the sea, the sweetening of the waters of Marah, the Manna, water from the rock, prevailing over Amalek when the arms of Moshe are raised.  Each of these miracles comes with a trial.

At the splitting of the sea, the instructions are to go forward.  But the forward alternative is absurd, it is into the sea.  But there is no other alternative, so  the course should have been obvious. 

Sometimes, there is no choice but to rely upon the miracle for salvation. 

When my father was chased after the Treblinka uprising, he went forward into the river, unable to swim,  and relied on a miracle. The miracle happened and I  am here today. 
And I rely on miracles in my work every day.

All my trials, Lrd, soon be over

Bo:negotiation

An agreement was so close! But the plagues continued.  Locusts, darkness, death... 

At the beginning  of the parsha we are told that the purpose of these plagues was to  generate the story , the tradition.  And at the end of the parsha, the plague of the firstborn, with the associated   sanctification of the  Israelite firstborn,  and the prohibition  of leaven on the 7 days of Passover, is retold twice.  And it is suggested that this core story be placed in (opposite)  the heart and between the eyes. Thus we have two of the paragraphs in tfillin. A story enshrined

This is the core story.  Gd spared us. We celebrate the sanctity of the spared.  We could have been victims.  Our birth testifies to the sparing of our ancestors. In the parsha, we are spared relative to the Egyptians.  In the last generation, we were spared, in various ways, relative to our kindred - who called out another paragraph of the tfillin: Shema Yisroel when they were about to succumb.

How many lives  is the story worth?

Va'erah: Miracles and Science

Va'erah:  Miracles and Science

There is an  evolution of the plagues.  The first two, blood and frogs, are within the  capabilities of the Egyptians. There is a  technique to turn water into blood and to cause a proliferation of out-of-control frogs.  We would call such a situation, an established human technique, science.  Note that the scientists could add to the problem, but could not take it away. 

What we call science, what we call miracle usually depends upon who is doing the calling. Most people take most science on faith.  There is no pretense of understanding how plugging a lamp into a wall socket allows the creation of a burning bush that is not consumed. 

The third plague,  creation of lice, evokes the admission: this is beyond our capabilities,  this is beyond science. That seems to be the point of the these outlandish plagues:  so that they will know that  there is a force beyond understanding and science.

The illusion of understanding ( and it is  always an illusion, one can always ask questions back to the unanswerable) is arrogant.  It rejects the idea of the unknowable.

Raishith chachmah yirath .... The most fundamental wisdom is fear of ( in the face of) the unknowable.

I admit: I have trouble accepting this postulated knowledge void.  But looking for it is very informative. 

Shemoth: Identity

Shemoth: Identity

In mathematics identity means: "the exact same as" But nothing can be the same as something else.  Two things generally cannot occupy the same space at the same time,  Even a thing itself changes between its  time of  observation and  the description.  There is some slack in mathematical identity;  it is not really exactly the same.  It is more a matter of no deviation from the definition.   The definition places the object in a set and distinguishes it from all other members of the set. The identity is in  the name. 

When we talk about a person's identity, we mean a concept that a person grows into.  Part of that is belonging to a group and part of it is distinguishing that person from all other members of the group. 

The crucial identity in this week's parsha (on identity) is Gd, the revelation at the (quai)burning bush. The salvation is announced and Moshe needs to identify the savior. The first statement is, "I will be what I will be."  Does this mean that everything is by this entity's will? Or does it mean that the entity is unpredictable? Perhaps the key point is that the entity has existence and can be a source of consequences.

When Pharaoh says that he never heard of this Gd (not a member of the set of gods as Pharaoh understands the term), it allows him to act without fear of the consequences.  It allows him to make the work more burdensome and to have the kapos beaten.  But this entity is not like the familiar deities, all things are part of Gd's realm.

When Moshe appeals to Gd at the end of the parsha, saying that the revelation has only made matters worse, Gd tells him to watch as things unfold.  The world is unpredictable to our limited understanding.

Gd is our source of hope.  Hope is a wisp, its identity is insubstantial.

Vaychi: delayed blessings

The parsha is called life, but much of it deals with deaths and burials. 

Jacob's death occasions his blessing the sons of Joseph and the twelve tribes. Jacob's single request is that he be buried in the ancestral tomb, in Hevron. Jacob reminds Joseph and (perhaps) the brothers  of the Promised Land. 

Joseph's death ends the parsha, and the book of Genesis, with a promise of redemption form Egypt, a request for re-burial in Canaan, and a report of the birth of great grandchildren - with a name (Machir) identified with the conquest of the land. 

This week, my son Jack (Yitzchok) got married. The wedding occurred on my mother's birthday.  The parsha reminds me of my mother's posthumous  request, the same as the request of Jacob and Joseph: "bury me in Israel." Fulfilled!

All of these dreams that become blessing are imbued with the realization that the big dreams need not occur in the lifetime of the dreamer.  The big dream carries on from generation to generation. The acts of continuity, marriage and  burial, are the visible  manifestations of the dream in action. 

And so, we continue to continue.