Beshallach
Exodus 13:17-17:16
Judges 4:4-5:31
This week’s Torah portion has always been a very powerful and spiritual section of Exodus for me because I am a cantor.
It stands out because of the special poetic writing of the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1-19) and the beautiful melody that is assigned to it, which is different from the melody of the regular Shabbat Torah chant.
However, when recently reading the text, the reality of the world around me also became clear and disheartening.
In Exodus, we find a Pharaoh who has enslaved the Jewish people and uses them for manual labor to build his cities. He cares not about their pain and sadness. He is totally narcissistic, wrapped up in his own desires.
He is angered by Moses and the plagues, and does not care about the suffering this has caused his people. The Torah states that “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (14:4 and 8) so that he would not let the Israelites go.
He refused to let them go even at the cost of all the first-born males of Egypt, including Pharaoh’s son.
This portion reminds me of the war that Israel recently had with the Palestinians in Gaza. Khaled Mashal, the exiled leader of the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas, cannot see anything besides his own greed and blind hatred.
It is as if he has hardened his heart, and, like Pharaoh, he cannot see reason. He has caused suffering and death for his people, like Pharaoh did.
We remember
Just like Pharaoh, the Palestinians’ leaders have been given many chances to change their minds and accept peace. How many times have Israelis and Jews around the world felt hope that there would be peace in the Middle East and Israel would finally be accepted?
We remember the handshake between Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993 and the Camp David peace talks that Arafat walked out of in 2000.
We remember how Israeli soldiers forcibly removed Israeli residents from their homes in Gaza in 2005 in the hopes of attaining peace. They even left greenhouses that could have been used to help feed the Palestinian people, but those were destroyed when the Palestinian Authority took over the area.
Just like the Egyptians who were not able to protest to Pharaoh, the Palestinian people have been used as shields and suicide bombers for these terrorists who have no concern for human life.
After his son dies, the Pharaoh finally agrees to let the Israelites leave Egypt (Exodus 12:31). As they approach the Sea of Reeds, they see Pharaoh’s army following them. Even now, Pharaoh cannot give up his hatred and need for power.
The Egyptians see the miracle of the sea splitting and they follow after the Israelites, and as we know, the sea closed up and swallowed the Egyptians and they drowned. Now we sing this wonderful song of victory because the Israelites were saved.
But our victory song is tempered by a sobering story from the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 39b. It says that while the Egyptians were drowning in the sea, the Heavenly Hosts sang in jubilation. God silenced them and said, “My creatures are perishing, and you sing praises?”
This explains to us that all of us are God’s children and that we should sanctify all life.
We were all saddened these past weeks to see the innocent life taken and the pain and suffering that the Palestinian people are going through.
Unfortunately what much of the world does not understand that it is the actions of Hamas — firing rockets deliberately against civilians from positions next to schools, homes and mosques; teaching hate; and refusing to compromise — that underlies Palestinian suffering.
Like Pharaoh, who was treated as a god, Hamas claims to be carrying out the desire of God, and that victory will be theirs. What victory can come out of hatred for another religion or people?
How much longer will the hearts of these terrorist leaders be hardened? How much longer before there is peace in the land?
May God “soften” their hearts and help the people of the land find a way to obtain peace. May we all then sing a song of praise to God proclaiming that people can indeed live side by side in peace.
Cantor Deborah Martin serves Temple Beth El in Madison.
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