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