Beshalach – Once Upon a Week

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yehuda Bachana.

This Torah Portion marks the beginning of the actual Exodus from Egypt - the most significant event in our nation’s history. From this Torah Portion we start our journey through the wilderness, the entire journey will be a filled with miracles and wonders.

This Torah Portion marks the beginning of the actual Exodus from Egypt - the most significant event in our nation’s history.

From this Torah Portion we start our journey through the wilderness; the entire journey will be filled with miracles and wonders. We will find refuge in the shade of the pillar of cloud, will be led by the light of the pillar of fire, we’ll walk through the parted Red Sea, drink water from the rock, and gather with excitement, the heavenly bread of manna.

At the beginning of this portion, we are told that we are not yet ready. That we are still a gang of scarred slaves, not yet united by common experiences. We haven’t yet tested our abilities and limitations, so we are not yet capable of facing challenges, not capable to fight a war.

 So, it is written, that God does not want us to face a war, and instead of going straight to the Promised Land, He is taking us for a time of adaptation in the wilderness. 

In our Torah Portion, God will harden Pharaoh’s heart again.

After hearing that Israel had escaped, Pharaoh and his councilors regret losing their slaves. Pharaoh wishes to set an example and impose fear, so such an escape will never happen in the future. He wants to show the Israelites the full force of the Egyptian power, so he is sending after them, his best troops, soldiers and chariots, armed from head to toe.

The Egyptian army moves fast and soon they catch up with the rogue slaves… they can already see them on the horizon.

What will happen now?

This Shabbat, we will read about one of the greatest and the most famous miracles:

the “Parting of the Red Sea”.

Before the miracle, the Children of Israel are trapped between the sea and the desert. The Egyptian army is getting closer, everything seems lost and no hope is left. When reading the text, we can feel their panic, and see the nation paralyzed with fear.

We can imagine how the Egyptian army is getting closer and we are scared; Egypt will surely punish us for the escape, will punish our children…Shall we go back to the Egyptian slavery, or maybe we should illustrate an early lesson, as the defenders of Masada, who bravely fought the Roman army, and jumped to their death?

Maybe it is better to jump into the sea and die, rather than let our wives and our children become an easy prey in the hands of the Egyptian army?What will happen to us? Are we going back to Egypt, even more broken than before, without a shred of hope, without a future, for us or our children?

We can only begin to understand what was going through the mind of those in the Exodus and at Masada. And in the midst of these suicidal thoughts, when panic and despair are overwhelming and there is no way out… suddenly God is parting the sea before them and the children of Israel are crossing it on dry land.

The Egyptian army continues their pursuit into the Red Sea and..

After we were rescued from the Egyptian army, we sing the Song of the Sea. From it, this Sabbath gets its name “Shabbat Shira” – the Sabbath of the song. We sing or read the “Song of the Sea”, and in the Haftara, we read the Song of Deborah. 

This is the first time a song of praise to God appears in the Scriptures, but from now on, worshipping and praising God will become a common practice among all people.  

Today, most of the Messianic congregations have a worship team, and we start our meetings with worshiping and praising God, with songs and music.We do it to glorify God and Yeshua the Messiah, and at the same time to prepare the audience, in order to create a spiritual atmosphere. Because song and music influence us, every song has a message that will leave an impact on us. 

The excavations in the city of David revealed the ancient streets of Jerusalem, which led pilgrims to the Temple. All through the street we can see small podiums that served the priests, who would recite and sing the Psalms of Ascent, in order to encourage and spiritually prepare the pilgrims for the holiness of the Temple.There are 15 Psalms of Ascent starting at psalm 120.

It is so exciting to stand there and imagine how it was. Pilgrims began their journey from the low point of the city, from the pool of Siloam, the pool where Jesus healed the blind. From there, they would slowly ascend along the street, a distance of 600 meters, towards the footsteps of the Temple. Along the street, on lifted podiums stood priests, singing the Psalms of Ascent, lifting the spirits of the tens of thousands of pilgrims.

The goal of these priests was to prepare the audience to the holiness of the Temple.

 Prayers in the Synagogue also begin with psalms and praise, which we often recite or sing. Songs uplift our spirit and music effects our feelings. It can bring us down or get us out of depression; it can make us happy or sad. Songs with certain rhythm can give us energy, that’s why people listen to them when working out.

The music-effect is especially noticeable in the movies. A movie without sound or music will influence us less, a thriller without the music, that builds the tension, will not be nearly as effective. We need the music! In the New Testament, in the book of Revelation, we read about the Song of Moses,

The Song of the Sea is one of the 3 poems, found in the Torah – the 5 books of Moses. They are: “Song of the Sea”, “Song of the Well’, and “Listen to me”, which appears towards the end of Deuteronomy.

So, which among them is the Song of Moses, mentioned in the book of Revelation?

In my opinion, it is the Song of the Sea that is more fitting to the atmosphere in Revelation. Those who sing it have just been redeemed, they are standing by the sea of glass, on the sea shore, and they sing glory to God for His redemption. In Israel, the Song of the Sea is recited every day, as part of our traditional morning prayers, at the end of Psukei De-zimrah (the Praise Poems), and we all know it well.

It is sung as a result of a great miracle, may be the greatest of them all. In one miracle, God moved the entire nation through the open sea, which parted before them, and then closed it upon the entire Egyptian army.As believers, we tend to point at Biblical miracles, as a foundation for our faith. A miracle is seen as a proof of God’s existence, proof that our faith is real.

Prophets performed signs and miracles.

How do we accept someone as a Prophet, how do we know that he was sent by God? He performs miracles to prove that he is God’s messenger, and we have to listen to him, listen to his voice.

 Thomas was Yeshua’s disciple, and still, it was hard for him to believe that Yeshua raised from the dead after the crucifixion.

He believed only after meeting Yeshua and seeing the holes in his hands, the wounds from the cross. I think that such an experience would impact us all. If we could see with our own eyes, the holes in Yeshua’s hands, we would all believe and have no doubts.

This reminds me of Yeshua’s parable – “the Rich Man and Lazarus”, from Luke 16. 

Yeshua tells us about a rich-man who all his life was well dressed and well-fed. Not far from him lived a very poor person, named Lazarus, who was gathering crumbs form the rich-man’s table. Their days came to an end, and they both passed away.According to Yeshua’s parable, angels took Lazarus to heaven, to the bosom of Abraham.

And the rich man?

He went to a very bad place, to hell. While suffering there, from afar, he saw Lazarus, and started to beg Abraham, saying

“I have 5 more brothers, please send Lazarus, to warn them, that they may change their ways, so that they will not end at the same terrible place as me.”

Abraham answers him, or more correctly, Yeshua answers, saying

“They have Moses and the Prophets; they have the Torah. If they would live according to it, they would not go to hell.” 

The rich-man says, that although his brothers know the Torah, but they don’t believe it, but if the dead will come back to life, and tell them about this place, they would believe him and would change their lives.

 Yeshua says,” that if you do not believe Moses and Torah, even if someone will raise from the dead, it will not change anything, it will not change their life or their faith.” This is the parable.

 The truth is, that for a long time, I did not understand what Yeshua meant, when he said that even if someone will come back from the dead, meaning that even if we see a real miracle, it will not change us.Because I thought that if I would see a miracle, it would influence my life and would strengthen my faith.

So, I did not understand Yeshua’s words, that a miracle wouldn’t strengthen their faith, that they have the Torah, and whoever does not believe in the Torah, will not believe in the miracle either. 

How it is possible?

This week we read about one of the greatest and most famous miracles in human history. In this miracle, Israel is trapped between the sea and the desert, the Egyptian army is approaching, all hope is lost… and suddenly God opens the sea, the Israelites pass through it, on the dry ground in the center of the sea.

The Egyptian army continues its pursuit into the Red Sea, and

Immediately after the story of the Red Sea crossing, comes the following verse:

They believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.

Why did they believe? Because they saw the mighty hand of God.

Why did the children of Israel believe? Because they saw and experienced the miracle.

However, it held up for just a few weeks. Afterwards we, the nation that experienced the great miracle, which, so to speak, caused us to believe in God and in Moses, are falling into the sin of the golden calf. How is it even possible, that the nation, which experienced God’s redemption of such a scale, as parting of the sea, are falling into such a sin?

The miracle of parting the Red Sea, along with all others miracles of that time,manna from heaven, water from the rock, shoes and clothes that did not tear or wear out, the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire… all these miracles could not save that generation from sins, which caused them all to die in the wilderness.

Our sages said:

At the end of the day, a person will always find a rational explanation to any miracle, or with time, it’s impression will fade out and the miracle will be forgotten.This is why, Yeshua concludes the parable of the rich-man and Lazarus, saying that the complete faith in God requires a lifetime dedication.

True faith is obtained by years of studying the Scriptures, following God’s Word, and daily work on ourself. Such faith can-not come from a miraculous experience, such as seeing a resurrected person, for example. Because, we can always find a sufficient rational explanation to it. 

Faith begins with the Word of God.