A Quick Torah Thought

In this week's parshah, there is a totally new concept - that of the test, or in more modern lingo, the challenge. God for the first time seeks and opts to test a nation, not an individual but rather a whole people, and at that, a people, who seem least opportune for being tested, on the one hand, exalted, but on the other, their nerves frayed, positive stress - eustress - and negative stress, distress, melding into one.  My brother-in-law just finished a tour of duty in Gaza of 110 days, having had fewer than 5 days off during the whole period. They are given a week to return to civilian life, to reframe and assimilate what they experienced; our forefathers, in Egypt, had been ripped from slavery, only to witness the greatest miracles ever performed at the splitting of the sea, and then, ever so ironically, after God showed omipotent power over water, transforming it and freezing it, from the bottom up and in the middle of the ocean, two irregularities that fly in the face of natu...

What shapes our family's memory more than anything are the messages we choose to impart upon them. A stark example of this can be found in the differences between the historic, one-time paschal offering in Egypt, one of dramatic intent aimed to pique the ire of Egyptian lords and galvanize the Jewish masses, and the more mundane yearly offering brought by each and every head of household.  The larger question here is how do we create historic intent or lasting value for perpetuity when our children, granchildren, and even great-grandchildren don't feel the same resonances, or meaning that we do? This phenomenon is well-known, perhaps most pronounced among Holocaust survivors, immigrants, and others who experience life-changing events that they want to be part of the family narrative, something not forgotten. The same would certainly be true about something that's part of the collective consciousness, or historical identity, which is why one's stance on the foundation of...

I felt ironically touched by a rhetorical passage in this past week's parsha, but not because of the impact it had, but rather, its failure to move, inspire, touch or make any indent whatsoever on the party who heard it.  Imagine, for starters, a situation where people in the multitudes heard King's "I have a dream speech," shrugged, uninspired, and went on with their business. Or, after Churchill exhorted and galvanized the nation, "..we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches..," the people hit the streets calling for an immediate ceasefire, or even worse, sighed a sigh of despair, evoking no trust in their theretofore fearless leader.  Nobody would have understood them more than Moshe Rabeinu, Moshe, our leader, who after offering the most inspiring national speech ever made, was shrugged off, and ignored.  Could there have been a more inspiring speech for slaves who had never known freedom? "I will free you ...

Kohelet used these words to signify the staticness of life, but in this week's parshah the passing of one generation and the coming of the next likewise represents a different way employed by Hashem in relating to the Jewish people.  Heretofore, there seemed to be perfect divine providence; our fathers and mothers couldn't be hampered by anyone without reason - everything could be explained by the lessons God sought to teach them. This is so even to the extent that some say the test of Isaac's binding was to punish Avraham for making a covenant with Avimelech and his general, Pichol.  The passing of a generation, an age, percolated into the very mindset of the Jewish people in Egypt. They no longer felt the same providence, and rhyme and reason, behind God's actions. Never before - that is from the mindset of the Jewish people - had they seen a time when God sought to act in a way that was seemingly indiscriminate. It could be that they knew of the tradition that they w...