>> Torah portion
Why Wait
For A
Miracle?
"I love it here. I tell my
children there isn't any
place I'd rather be."
Parshat Beshalach (Shabbat Shirah):
Exodus 13:17-17:16; Judges 4:4-5:31.
I
t was a watershed moment. Moses
and the Israelites were standing on
the banks of the Sea of Reeds when
they saw the Egyptians bearing down on
them. The Israelites feared they would
be annihilated. They cried out to God
and then said to Moses, "Were there not
enough graves in Egypt that you took us
out to die in the wilderness?"
Moses responded, "Do not fear, gather
and see the salvation of the Lord, that He
will do for you today ... God will fight
for you and you will be quieted"
The casual reader of the Torah text
would expect God's salva-
tion to appear in the next
verse. However, that is not
what happens. Instead, God
responds to Moshe's declara-
tion by saying, "Why do you
cry out to Me? Speak to the
Children of Israel, that they
should travel."
The journey toward the
Exodus had been the story of
God hearing the cries of the
Israelites and sending Moses
to lead them out. The Divine
guidance offered seems out
of character for the whole plot. Were not
the Israelites supposed to rely upon the
Almighty to save them?
There is an apocryphal story about
Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel, who served as
the Sephardic chief rabbi of Mandatory
Palestine during the 1920s. At the
time, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
Haj Amin al-Husseini, instigated Arab
attacks against the Jewish population
in Palestine. In 1921, a group of Arabs
threatened to attack Jewish homes
between Jaffa and Tel Aviv, and Jewish
defenders went forth to meet them. An
exchange of fire ensued, which threat-
ened to escalate into a full-scale battle
replete with casualties and collateral
damage.
In the middle of the escalating vio-
lence, Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel intervened.
He donned his magisterial Chief Rabbi
robes and turban and went straight onto
the battlefield.
He asked the Jewish fighters to hold
their fire and proceeded alone toward
the Arab positions, calling out to them
to hold their fire. To the Jews' surprise,
the Arabs stopped firing and listened to
Rabbi Uziel.
Rabbi Uziel delivered an impassioned
appeal to the Arab fighters. "We candidly
stretch out our hand to you with true
peace in our hearts and say: We have
the entire land in front of us, let us work
shoulder-to-shoulder to cultivate her,
uncover her treasures and live together
in brotherhood. Make your peace with
us and we shall make peace with you,
and together we shall enjoy God's bless-
ings on this holy land:'
Seeing that he was still alive, Rabbi
Uziel continued, "Our dear cousins!
When our common father Abraham, the
father of Isaac and of Ishmael, saw that
the shepherds of his nephew
Lot were causing trouble,
claiming there was not
enough room for both Lot's
flocks and Abraham's flocks
to live together, Abraham
said to Lot: let there be no
quarrel between me and you,
and between your shepherds
and my shepherds, for we are
people like brothers.'
"We also say to you, this
land can sustain all of us and
provide for us in plenty. Let
us, then, stop fighting each
other, for we, too, are people like broth-
ers:'
The Arabs dispersed quietly.
Midrashic literature relates that after
God responded to Moses at the Sea of
Reeds, ending with the word "travel;
Nachshon ben Aminadav, the head of
the tribe of Judah, jumped into the water.
As he submerged, the waters parted and
the Israelites passed through the sea to
safety. Like Nachshon, Rabbi Uziel did
not wait for a divine miracle. Both stories
teach us that sometimes, even a miracle
requires a leap of faith.
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Conversations
• Did you ever take a leap of
faith?
• Are there situations that
require us to trust in God and
jump right in, instead of waiting
for God to save us?
• Why do you think God doesn't
want us to depend on miracles?
January 24 • 2013
31