January 30, 2012

Parshat: Beshalach

Dear friends,

Our Torah portion this week is Beshalach, the story of the crossing of the Sea and the liberation from Egypt — the cornerstone of the Jewish experience, or is it? What is most striking about this parshah is not the miracles, but how quickly the Israelite slaves forget about their extraordinary redemption. Barely did they cross to freedom when the people began complaining to Moshe and to G!d about a lack of water, a lack of food, and about no longer being surrounded by familiar–if hostile–Egypt.

Perhaps miracles are not an effective way of creating a consciousness of G!d. In fact, much of the Bible shows the consistent inability of G!d’s miracles to teach the Israelites a sense of gratefulness. G!d tries an idyllic garden, but that doesn’t work; G!d send a flood, but that fails also — people continue to act violently. G!d then enslaves the Jews, sends a liberator, and redeems them from Egypt. Ten miraculous plagues and a split sea didn’t work either. G!d gives a Torah, the Jews ignore it; G!d sends prophets, the Jews rebel against them. The Bible seems quite clear that miracles don’t work. People may marvel at them while they are in process, but they then forget about them the moment they end.

Reforming human character takes much more than “special effects,” no matter how Divine their origin. As any parent knows, transforming human behavior requires not grandiose drama, but rather constant and gradual education, reinforcement, discipline and community.

The shift from biblical to modern Judaism reflects the insight that the way to mold a sacred people lies not through external miracles, but through inner transformation, accomplished through tiny steps. This sort of transformation is more difficult than splitting a sea. It involves passion and openness that must be cultivated continually. But the reward of such a transformation is precisely what G!d sought more than 3,000 years ago at the shores of the Red Sea–a strong Jewish community.

This past weekend, we took one of those small steps toward spiritual growth, and the result was a very sweet weekend. On Friday evening, Rev. Jody McDevitt, minister of First Presbyterian Church, taught us from our own Torah and passover texts that — even as we were leaving Egypt — there were among our people the erev rav, the mixed multitude, and that prior to the ghettoization of Judaism in Europe in the late middle ages, gentiles were always at the table with us. And I got to teach the Presbyterians from their own text, the gospel of Mark, how Jews at the time would have understood the concept of messiah. Most important, we both used each other’s texts to show that we have enormously more in common than we don’t and how we can celebrate our joint passion for social justice, learning, and hope for a better future.

Yet, not everyone was entirely comfortable with this interfaith reaching out, and I deeply understand this. There is a long history of justified mistrust, and old habits do not — and sometimes should not — die easy. Yet, I am especially proud of those who were not completely comfortable with the concept, but came anyway, taking a small step to their own spiritual transformation and to our community’s spiritual transformation.

The small, baby step, opportunities for spiritual transformation continue this week. Our shabbat service this week will be this Saturday, February 4, at 9:00 a.m. (no Friday night service this week).  We will gather on Saturday morning at 9:30, as usual, for Torah study, full of great discussion, and great goodies, thanks to Lisa Mueller.

Tuesday evening will feature a special evening of music and dining with Jeni Fleming at Starky’s. 

Our interfaith work continues on Wednesday, February 1, at 11:30 a.m., with our Interfaith Panel at the Temple, featuring religious leaders from various traditions on the subject of how our respective religions help us find spirituality and meaning in everyday life.  On Wednesday evening, at 6 pm, our Temple adult ed class studying the works of the great philosopher Levinas will continue.

Our new winter adult ed offering begins this week, through Wonderlust. The class will be Judaism 101, suited to those curious about Judaism, but also to those of us who learned it as children and might want an adult understanding of its ideas and culture.  It will begin on Wednesday, February 1 at 2:30 pm and meet for six consecutive weeks in this time slot. Those interested in attending should sign up via Wonderlust.

May we each be blessed with some small personal growth this week, the week where we read about great miracles.

Blessings for a great week,
Rabbi Ed