Dear Friend,
Soon after allowing the Jewish people to depart from Egypt, Pharaoh chases after them to force their return, and the Jewish people find themselves trapped between Pharaoh’s armies and the sea.
The Jewish slavery in Egypt and the subsequent exodus, also serve as metaphor for limitations in our life. It is often the case that we find ourselves stuck, trapped, or influenced with no apparent ability to free ourselves of this impediment to our progress and growth.
We then work hard to free ourselves of this, and after much hard work and progress we finally feel free only to find out that Pharaoh has been following us all this time and is ready to pounce right back into our lives the moment we show any weakness.
Furthermore, when we try to run away, we may find that there is nowhere to run, for we have reached the sea and cannot go any further.
This is when a person can truly feel stuck!
To address this, we learn about the Jewish struggle as they were sandwiched between the sea and Pharaoh's army.
G-d told them, now is not the time for fighting with Egypt, or even praying to G-d, certainly surrender is not the answer.
Now is the time to move forward, continue, don’t stop, you have done well by escaping the trap and the slavery, now don’t stop, keep going, even if you feel like you have nowhere to go. Keep going and you will see that even the sea will split before you and you will progress tremendously, leaving your captors far behind.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Mendel & Elke Zaltzman
Directors
Shabbos Times
Friday, February 3 Candle Lighting: 4:58pm
Evening service: 5:00pm
Saturday, February 4 Morning service: 10:00am
Kiddush Brunch: 12:00pm Evening service: 5:00pm
Shabbos ends: 6:00pm
Kiddush Sponsored by our Community
in honor of the 90th birthday of
Ziggy Rudel
A Holocaust survivor and Israeli war veteran
Mazel Tov!
Daily Minyan Times
February 5- February 10
Sunday Morning: 8:00am
Monday- Friday Morning: 7:00am
Sunday- Thursday Evening: 5:00pm
A BISSELE HUMOR
It was the final examination for an introductory Biology course at the university. Like many such freshman courses, it was designed to weed out new students, having over 500 students in the class!
The examination was two hours long, and exam booklets were provided. The professor was extremely strict and told the class that any exam that was not on his desk in exactly two hours would not be accepted and the student would fail. Half an hour into the exam, a student came rushing in and asked the professor for an exam booklet.
"You're not going to have time to finish this," the professor stated sarcastically as he handed the student a booklet.
"Yes, I will," replied the student. He then took a seat and began writing. After two hours, the professor called for the exams, and the students filed up and handed them in. All except the late student, who continued writing. An hour later, the last student came up to the professor who was sitting at his desk preparing for his next class. He attempted to put his exam on the stack of exam booklets already there.
"No, I'm not going to accept that. It's late."
The student looked incredulous and angry.
"Do you know who I am?"
"No," replied the professor with an air of sarcasm in his voice.
"Do you know who I am?" the student asked again in a louder voice.
"No, and I don't care," replied the professor with hubris.
"Good," replied the student, who quickly lifted the stack of completed exams, stuffed his in the middle, and walked out of the room.
WEEKLY eTORAH
Is it possible to be spiritual and selfish at the same time? Let us have a look at the words of the Torah that shed important light on this question.
Vayasa Moshe et ha-am—“Moses made the people journey from the sea.” The great miracle had happened. The sea had split and the Egyptian army was no more. The word vayasa—“he made [them] journey”—implies that Moses had to force his people to move on. But why was this necessary? Why wouldn’t they move on their own?
According to Rashi, the enemy was so confident of victory against the Israelites that they bedecked their horses and chariots with gold, silver and precious jewels. These treasures were now being washed up on the seashore, and the Jews were collecting the riches. So they were in no mood to move on. But Moses said they had a date with G‑d at Mount Sinai. As the nation’s leader, he had to compel them to carry on their journey.
The Zohar gives a more spiritual explanation. We are taught that the divine revelation at the splitting of the sea was quite an extraordinary experience. In the words of our sages, “What a simple maidservant saw at the sea, even the great prophets were not privileged to see.” According to this mystical view, it was not the material wealth they were obsessed with, but rather the incredible spiritual delights they were experiencing.
Either way, it was up to Moses to move them along to their appointment with destiny. And the question is this: If it was gold and silver that was delaying their journey to Sinai, we can well understand the need for Moses to hurry them on. But if it was the spiritual experience of inspired revelation, why move on? Why not stay there as long as possible? Surely, the more G‑dly revelation the better!
The answer is that G‑d was calling. Sinai was beckoning. The entire purpose of the Exodus and all the miracles in Egypt and at the sea was nothing more than to receive the Torah at Sinai. That was the revelation that would give the Jewish people its unique way of life and its very raison d’être. Sinai represents our mission, our mandate. Sinai made us G‑d’s messengers on earth. However we may understand the concept of a chosen people, it was the Sinaitic experience that made us that. Any detours or distractions from the journey to Sinai are therefore out of the question—no matter how lofty or spiritual they might be.
It comes as no great shock to learn that gold and silver are not as important as Sinai. But that spirituality, too, must take second place to Sinai—this is indeed big news. And what exactly is Sinai? Torah. And what is Torah? The will of G‑d. In other words, the bottom line is: what does G‑d want? How does He want us to act, to live our lives? So, the big news story here is that even the most amazing spiritual experience, the most extraordinary revelation, is not as important as doing what G‑d wants us to do.
It is a very important message that emerges from this one word, vayasa. It’s not what we want that counts, but what G‑d wants. If we want money and diamonds, and He wants to give us His Torah, then we leave the loot and we go to Sinai. And even if it is a spiritual experience we seek, and G‑d says “Go to Sinai,” we still go to Sinai and we leave the spiritual inspiration for another time.
So, if you find yourself in a quandary or on the horns of a difficult dilemma, ask yourself this very question: What would G‑d want? Yes, sometimes it might be helping a horse out of a ditch. But if that is the call of the hour, then so be it. It might not be very spiritual, but it is the right thing to do.
And if it’s the right thing to do, that makes it very G‑dly.
-adapted from www.chabad.org
