Exiodus Cycle Two BeShelach 13:17 to 17:16

BeShelach

Sometimes, we have to pack our bags and move out. Correction. There isn’t time to pack. It’s time to find the intimacy, the knowledge, the faith, the strength and forget our baggage. We have to be beshalch-ed. It’s a fast and shocking verb. It goes straight to the core of our existence. And as sweet as we want this exodus to be as we chant the Song of the Sea…the true power is concealed behind the sturdy wall of words in the format of the song …within the 18 repetitions of YHWH. That’s because the move is not just outer. It’s inner. It’s in the raw center where both worlds merge. It’s beyond the wall of our skin and our chest, somewhere beyond the wall of our mind, right at the heart. The question is, what could this process of exodus possibly look like? What’s the map?

While in BeShalach we aren’t given the absolute blueprint, we get a glance at the fertile beginnings. So there aren’t any answers here, just a flash.

First, let’s look at the catalyst. Well, here’s news. We’re not in charge. In fact, if we just go by this parasha, we are the passive recipients of an action on the part of the Pharoah. Of course, a lot has happened beforehand. Moses has demanded that the Israelite slaves be let go to serve YHWH. Pharoah repeatedly refuses and finally we have the devestating plague of the slaying of the first born. So, the Pharoah sends us out fast from within his own boundaries. V’yahi beshelach Pharoah et ha’am. We are sent out from the abyss. We don’t read that Pharoah allows the Israelites to leave after they had acted on their own. We read that the jump-start, the original break-free was an action of intent on the part of the very darkness victimizing us. Taking it to a heightened level, the radiance held in constriction by the bonds of darkness had been swelling beyond them. So finally, it’s this same darkness (the Pharoah) that is stretched beyond the ability to contain.

I think there’s a huge lesson here. First, it shows that the action of Pharoah is within the divine intent. We can’t know our freedom if we don’t know our captivity. And if, deep in our hearts, we are unconscious, unaware of our victimization by our own fears and cynicism, we will be catapulted anyway. All it will take is a yearning for something greater, for meaning. In short, we throw our souls into the wilderness, the most frightening place that exists, between Mitzrayim and The Promised Land. We force our soul to fly. The catalyst for redemption therefore needs to be seen as not just the beauty…it’s also the basic mundane instinct…the mud and the disgusting feeling we know when we’ve been in a stuck place too long.

Finally, the idea that there is human decision behind this original thrust of movement is absurd. It’s what leads us to idolatry…the cleaving to our egos and our bodies. Given those simple words in Torah it’s clear that such seismic events are natural, divine. The next question is, given that we are there, catapulted out of our secure and comfortable state of denial and desperation, what next?

We bring the bones of Joseph, the ancient structure of the tzaddick within us all. We see the light of YHWH spiraling around us even if that means taking a longer route. We don’t have regrets. We don’t look back. We hold to our oaths. We trust in both our divine confusion…and we will be hit by clouds of confusion on every new path… and in the fire of our knowledge. And if our own denial does sneak up after us we hold our course.

Finally, since we have become the reflection of both re-birth and transformation we will attract those we have left behind. But we must keep moving forward, using that energy to cross the boundary. Once again, there is no looking back. We run. We pull our friends. We carry our babies. We make a firm decision to open our hearts. We cross the current with the kinetic force given to us, ironically, by the very darkness that wants to enslave us once again. In the mundane world, we burn through doubt. With love for everyone, we recognize who will come with us…and who can’t. We have the faith to embrace the work placed before us. We take responsibility and we respond.

Is there a moment to forget the seriousness of all this…to be in the release and relief of our new found freedom? Yes. It can be an eternal moment of music and dancing, the embracing of that heady lightning bright intimacy with God. The true joy comes though when we can see that the place of joy and suffering is the same. Then, we can move on and stay in the intimacy. We can trust. If we don’t, that’s when the blueprint drops from our hands and we are once again slaves to the Pharoah in ourselves.

So, may we sing and dance in our new found freedom. May we serve YHWH each moment by showing compassion for others, taking responsibility, seeing, being seen, loving, being loved, holding hands as we lead each other to a place of redemption. May we be the radiance that is propelled from the darkness and connect with all forms of radiance at one central core. May we see beyond the concealment and be the name of the eternal one.