Dear TBZ community:
Our Passover Holiday celebrating the exodus and liberation from Egypt, ends with the crossing of the sea. That moment of crossing is not a moment of pure joy, rather it holds fear and danger. It holds doubt - will we make it across? Will we survive? - as the Egyptians are closing in behind and the sea’s depths lie in front of them. They must enter the waters and believe that it is possible to cross. They step forward, and as they do, the waters open for them. Behind them, the same water closes upon the Egyptians, who are drowned. As our ancestors emerge, safely on the other side, they erupt in dancing and singing, joyfully feeling a sense of relief, of safety and of gratitude.
There is a well-known teaching from the Gemara about that moment after the crossing of the Sea:
“At that time the ministering angels desired to recite a song before the Holy One. The Holy One, said to them: My handiwork, are drowning in the sea, and you are reciting a song before Me? (Sanhedrin 39b)
באותה שעה בקשו מלאכי השרת לומר שירה לפני הקב"ה אמר להן הקב"ה מעשה ידי טובעין בים ואתם אומרים שירה לפני
(סנהדרין 39ב)
We learn from this midrash, that at the moment of the salvation of the people of Israel, as the angels also want to erupt in singing, God does not rejoice at the suffering of the Egyptians. We are called to remember this during our Seder when we remove ten drops of wine, one for each plague, from our full cups, thus diminishing our joy. This profound teachings reminds us that even our enemy is to be recognized as a creation of God. We are reminded that all human beings, even those who make us suffer are created in God’s image. We are taught to recognize that our salvation comes at the expense of someone else. This is not an easy teaching to hold and live by, but can be an aspiration for each of us.
And yet, the Torah has many faces and many forms to understand its teachings. Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, also known as the Titz Eliezer, who was born in Jerusalem in 1915 and welcomed Jews coming to Palestine after the Shoah wrote a drasha (a sermon, a teaching) where he suggested a very different understanding to the words: “מעשה ידי טובעין בים” ( My handiwork, are drowning in the sea).
At that time people were arriving to Israel, newly freed from the nightmare of Nazi death camps and the suffering of the Shoah. There was no room for rachmanut, for compassion to the enemy. Based on another story in which the singing of the angels helped kill the enemy quickly, with less suffering, Rabbi Waldenberg explains that God’s reproval to the angels was that God did not want the enemy to die without suffering; that the Egyptians did not deserve a light death and that evil should feel torment. (You can find the Hebrew text of this drasha here).
When we read such a teaching, we have to stop for a minute. We have here, a text that seems to radically and powerfully state that compassion for all human beings, even those whom we hate, even those with whom we disagree, are also and equally at the center of God’s consciousness and compassion. Then why would Rabbi Waldenberg read this so differently?
When we place this interpretation in its context of time and place, then we can see that Torah comes with many faces, and that God appears and reveals God’s presence in many ways. Rabbi Waldenberg said these words in Netanya during Simchat Torah as he welcomed the Ma’apilim (Jewish illegal immigrants fleeing Europe and entering the British mandate). The people hearing this drasha, at this time, would not be able to see nor accept a God that had compassion for the enemy, for the Nazis.
So, what do we do when we encounter such opposite teachings in our tradition, realizing that both are true and real?
God appeared at the Red Sea as a hero waging war,
and at Mount Sinai, as an elder full of mercy
לפי שנגלה על הים כגבור עושה מלחמות
נגלה על הר סיני כזקן מלא רחמים
This midrash comes to teach us that God reveals Godself to us in different forms.
Many times we are stuck, or cling to only one understanding and one reality, only being willing to see our own experience in our own time. Torah, God, reveals itself in different ways -- sometimes as a hero waging war and sometimes as an elder full of Mercy. One is not the right God or the right Torah. They become the right Torah in the context of its teachings.
My blessing is that we can encounter God’s presence in the different ways that God reveals Godself to us, holding the suffering and the compassion.
May we cross the sea of suffering and find ourselves on the other side, a side where we can joyfully dance and celebrate our salvation as well as compassionately care for every human being in this world.
Next Thursday is Yom Hashoah, Holoacust Remembrance Day. We will commemorate it together as part of our daily Boker Tov service and join the Boston Jewish Community on Sunday April 11. See below for more information.
May this Shabbat and Holiday bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing.
May we have a joyful and restful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom & Chag Sameach,
