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Topics in this digest: Bo
5764 Bitachon
Then the Lord
said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the
hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among
them, and that you may recount in the hearing of your sons and of your
son’s sons how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My
signs among them—in order that you may know that I am the Lord.”
The opening of
this week’s parsha is telling us that God did all this stuff in Egypt—all
the plagues, including killing the first born sons—just so that the
Hebrews would know that God’s God.
This is a
hugely challenging and troubling text. On the face of it, it sounds
unjust and unfair. Not only did God do all these signs—but it seems
to be saying that He intentionally made Pharaoh recalcitrant so that He
would have an opportunity to use the big guns of his signs. A very
troubling concept indeed. There must be some other explanation.
And there are
other explanations. But we’re going to leave those other
explanations of how and why God did this for another time. Today I
want to focus on a different question. Did God’s strategy work?
It says that God did these signs “in order that you may know that I am the
Lord.” Did it work? Did the generation that left Egypt come
out of the experience knowing God—having faith in God?
The record in
the Torah would suggest that God’s plan did not exactly work the way it’s
described in the Torah. The Hebrews barely had time to get out of
town, the Egyptians couldn’t have been finished burying their dead, when
the Hebrews started complaining. In next week’s parsha (Exodus
14:11) we read “And they said to Moses, There weren’t any graves in Egypt?
You had to take us away to die out here in the wilderness? Why did
you do this, taking us out of Egypt. Isn’t this what we told you in
Egypt, to let us be, because it’s better to serve Pharaoh than to die in
the wilderness!”
OK, the people were scared. The
Egyptians were chasing them. Maybe this caused them not to think
straight. Shortly after the Hebrews lodged this complaint, God parts
the Red Sea, and drowns Pharaoh and his army. What could be more
miraculous than that? Right after the drowning of the Egyptian army,
the people break into a song, Shirat Hayam, the Song of the Sea, praising
God “Ahshira l’Adonai ki gaoh ga’ah,” I will sing to the Lord, for He has
triumphed gloriously. Miriam breaks out the timbrels and all the
women went out after her dancing.
NOW maybe God’s plan finally worked. The
people really seemed to “know God.” They sang and praised God’s
wondrous performance. Just like God said he wanted at the beginning
of this week’s parsha. He did these things “in order that you may
know that I am the Lord.”
So how long did that last? How long did
this great burst of faith and knowing God endure? THREE DAYS.
That’s it. Three days. The very next verse after Miriam’s song
tells us “Then Moses caused Israel to set out from the Sea of Reeds.
They went on into the wilderness of Shur; they traveled three days in the
wilderness and found no water. The came to Marah, but they could not
drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; that was why it was called
Marah, And the people grumbled against Moses, saying “what shall we
drink?” God purifies the water for them, yet a little while later
the people are complaining yet again…”If only we had died by the hand of
the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate
our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness
to starve this whole congregation to death.”
It does not look like God’s great plan worked
quite the way He thought it would! All of those miracles…from
turning water into blood, hail, darkness, killing the first born, parting
the Red Sea, making bitter waters sweet, none of it was enough. The
people still didn’t “know God” in the sense of having faith in God.
To know God is to know God is with you, God will support you, God will
take care of you. The Hebrews did not know God despite having
witnessed all of those miracles. They did not have bitachon, trust
in God.
This proves something about human nature.
Bitachon does not come from seeing something miraculous. Bitachon,
trust in God, does not come from something that happens in the outside
world. Bitachon comes from something internal. Bitachon is a
character trait we can develop, just as we can develop other traits such
as patience, compassion, or humility.
Why is it important to develop this character
trait? Isn’t it enough to believe that God exists, why should we
also want to develop this sense of trust in God?
Having bitachon is something that benefits
us—it’s not for the sake of God. If the generation of the desert had
greater bitachon, they would not have been so stressed out by the
challenges they were facing. They would not have been such whiners
and complainers. Perhaps God would not have felt it necessary for
that generation to die off in the desert rather enter the land of Israel.
Wilfred Cantwell Smith, in his book Faith and
Belief writes: “Faith, then is a quality of human living. At its
best it has taken the form of serenity and courage and loyalty and
service: a quiet confidence and joy which enable one to feel at home in
the universe and to find meaning in the world and in one’s own life…”
Trusting in God, having faith in God, can make
it much easier to take the challenges and problems that life throws our
way with equanimity. This is shown in a legend told about R. Akiva.
R. Akiva taught that a person should accustom himself to say “Kol ha’avid
rachmana l’tov,” “whatever the All-Merciful does is for good.” One
time as R. Akiba was traveling, he looked for lodging, but was refused
everywhere he went. He said, “Kol ha’avid rachmana l’tov,” “whatever
the All-Merciful does is for good,” and he spent the night in an open
field. He had with him a rooster, a donkey, and a lamp. A gust
of wind came and blew out the lamp, a weasel came and ate the rooster, and
a lion came and ate his donkey. He said “Kol ha’avid rachmana
l’tov,” “whatever the All-Merciful does is for good.” The same
night, brigands came and carried off the inhabitants of the town. He
told his students, “didn’t I tell you, ‘whatever the All-Merciful does is
all for good?’”
When confronted with a seeming disaster, R.
Akiba didn’t freak out, he didn’t fall out, he relied on believing that
somehow it would work out, that somehow things were unfolding according to
God’s plan—whatever God does is for the best.
We don’t always get such a clear message that
things are in fact unfolding according to a plan. Sometimes the lamp
gets broken and the donkey runs away and we never find out that there were
troops in the woods. But having faith, trusting in God that this too
will work out somehow, can spare us from much unneeded anguish.
Having faith does NOT mean we are exempt from
making efforts on our own. Bitachon, trust in God, in the Jewish
tradition is not like the faith of the Christian Scientists who refuse
medical treatment on the grounds that if God wants to heal you, God will
heal you. Much to the contrary. In the Jewish tradition, we
view the physician as the agent of God. In the Talmud, in tractate
Brachot, an argument is recorded. One rabbi says when you go to a
doctor you should say a prayer which says among other things, “God heal
me, for you are a faithful healing God, and your healing is sure, since
men have no power to heal.” Abaye rejected this prayer, and said a
man should not speak like that, because it was taught that permission has
been given to the physician to heal.
Similarly, we told not to act foolishly
because we rely on God to save us. Rambam brings an example, that
the proper way to do things is first establish yourself in a career, then
build a house, and only after that marry a wife. He tells us that it
is improper to do things in the reverse order, and to simply trust that
God will make it work out. Rambam brings a verse which says that
“David was wise in all of his ways, and the Lord was with him.” We
have to do our part. We have to try to be wise in our ways.
So if we are wise, and want to cultivate
bitachon, how do we do it? There is no simple answer, but a starting
point is to look for evidence that supports having trust in God.
Despite whatever challenges have come your way, you are here. God
has sustained you and kept you alive. We find what we are looking
for. If you are convinced there is no God, and you look for evidence
to prove it, you will find lots of evidence. If you want to believe
that God is there, and that you can trust God, you will also find lots of
evidence. We do have some ability to choose how we want to examine
the evidence that life throws our way. It’s like looking at a garden
overgrown with weeds. Some people will focus on the flowers, and say
“what a lovely garden, there must be a gardener.” Others will look
at the weeds and say “look at all those weeds. There must not be a
gardener.”
Regular prayer is also a path toward faith and
trust in God. Prayer is a long series of affirmations. If you
recite those affirmations, really meaning them, eventually they sink into
your soul.
One of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 146, is about
putting your faith in God, not in people. The Psalm says:
2. While I
live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I
have my being.
3. Do not
put your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no
help.
4. His
breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish.
5. Happy
is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord
his God;
Shabbat
Shalom
______________________________________________________________
It is a great
mitzah to serve God with great joy, always...R. Nachman of Breslav
Rabbi Barry
Leff
Beth Tikvah
Congregation
9711 Geal Road
Richmond, BC
V7E 1R4
phone: (604)
271-6262
fax: (604)
271-6270
email:
rebbarry@yeladim.org
It is a great mitzvah to serve God with
great joy, always...R. Nachman of Breslov
Rabbi Barry Leff
Beth Tikvah Congregation
9711 Geal Road
Richmond, BC V7E 1R4
phone: (604) 271-6262
fax: (604) 271-6270
web: www.btikvah.ca
email: rebbarry@yeladim.org
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