Parashat Beshalach
February 5, 2025
Geri Bloch, Former English Teacher
By July of 1948, there were 350,000 television sets in the U.S., with three-quarters of them in eastern network cities and half of them around New York City. My parents had one of those television sets, as did my grandparents. From a very young age, I watched a great deal of television, much of which was quite good. From some of the better anthology dramas, I learned a few of the basic themes of literature: man’s inhumanity to man, man vs. nature, courage and resilience, and man vs. society. When I attended Hebrew School, these themes were discussed using the Torah as the text. Of course, the Amalekites, whose senseless hatred of the Israelites caused God to declare that he would “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” made a huge impression on all of us. After all, Haman, the Persian arch-enemy of the Jews in Megilat Esther, was considered a descendant of Amalek.
This Shabbat is Shabbat Shira, the Shabbat of Song, the Shabbat that reveals God’s love of the Israelites. Shabbat Shira lets us know that Purim is coming, and about four weeks later we will recline at our Pesach tables knowing that Pharaoh has been vanquished. Within the next nine or ten weeks, we will read about courage, resilience, and faith. These are reminders about God’s covenant with the Jewish people and the gratitude we should have for all that God has done.
The circuitous road out of Egypt is necessary: “for God said, ‘The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.’” Of course, after the Israelites have left, the Egyptians do have a change of heart, and six hundred of the Pharaoh’s best chariots and warriors race after the Israelites. Of course, the Israelites complain, worried that they will die in the wilderness. But Moshe explains that God will deliver them from the Egyptians. Moshe will lift up his arm over the sea and split it “so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground.” Indeed, God does, for God wishes “to gain glory through Pharaoh and all his host. . . I will gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horseman.” The Israelites will learn to have faith that God is with them, that the “glory gained” will be reflected back with devotion to God. Moshe holds his arms up and the Israelites walk through “the dry land between the walls of seawater.” God sees the Egyptians and “locked the wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty.” God tells Moshe to raise his arm once again, and “the waters turned back and covered the chariots and horsemen. . . not one of them remained.” After seeing the death of the Egyptians, the Israelites recognize God’s power and fear God; “they had faith in the Lord and His servant Moshe.”
And the Israelites begin to sing their great song of praise to God: “Az yashir. . . I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.” First the men sing; then the women sing and dance with their timbrels in praise of God.
However, as the Israelites progress on their journey they complain once again about having enough food and water. They are at Rephidim and God tells Moshe to take the rod with which Moshe struck the Nile and “strike the rock and water will issue from it, and the people will drink.”
Shortly thereafter, Amalek comes and attacks the Israelites at Rephidim. Moshe tells Joshua to pick some men and “go out and do battle with Amalek.” Moshe, Aaron, and Hur walk up a hill. “Whenever Moshe holds up his hand, Israel prevails, but whenever he lets down his hand, Amalek prevails.” Moshe becomes fatigued, so Aaron and Hur put a stone under him and support his hands. As a result, Joshua conquers the Amalekites with the sword. After this battle, God says to Moshe, “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
At this point in the Torah, there does not seem to be a true reason as to why the Amalekites would attack the Israelites. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz z”l writes: “There was no clear motive behind Amalek’s attack on the Israelites. . . Amalek did not intend to wipe out the Israelites, as there were too many of them, but merely to damage them or drive them away. The Amalekites acted out of pointless, arbitrary hatred. That is why the memory of Amalek in the Jewish consciousness symbolizes hostility and opposition to the Jews as such. They are the archetype for anti-Semitism throughout the ages, which, even if it sometimes finds specific claims, real or imagined, against the Jews, is in truth rooted in baseless hatred of Israel itself.”
In the twentieth century, Stalin and Hitler were clearly descendants of Amalek. The baseless hatred of Israel continues into the twenty-first century, as we have seen with Hamas’s October 7th attacks on Israel. Other terrorist groups have this same hatred. I have been wondering why this antipathy toward Jews and Israel continues. Part of me knows that there are those who “stir the pot,” who make vaguely antisemitic statements and then allow their followers to create havoc. There are those who teach their children to hate because they need to think that there are people below them on the “pecking order.” Then there are those individuals who are negative about everything and just decide to hate people they consider the “other.”
Over the years, the only answer I have to this hatred is education. Somehow, we must educate others to see how hatred inflames neighbor-to-neighbor situations, community situations, and, maybe more obviously, global situations. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l stated: “Moses did it again at the end of his life, commanding: ‘You shall teach these things repeatedly to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.’ Why this obsession with education that has stayed with us from that day to this? Because to defend a country you need an army. But to defend a civilisation you need schools. You need education as the conversation between the generations.”
This Shabbat is Shabbat Shira, the Shabbat of Song, the Shabbat that reveals God’s love of the Israelites. Shabbat Shira lets us know that Purim is coming, and about four weeks later we will recline at our Pesach tables knowing that Pharaoh has been vanquished. Within the next nine or ten weeks, we will read about courage, resilience, and faith. These are reminders about God’s covenant with the Jewish people and the gratitude we should have for all that God has done.
The circuitous road out of Egypt is necessary: “for God said, ‘The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.’” Of course, after the Israelites have left, the Egyptians do have a change of heart, and six hundred of the Pharaoh’s best chariots and warriors race after the Israelites. Of course, the Israelites complain, worried that they will die in the wilderness. But Moshe explains that God will deliver them from the Egyptians. Moshe will lift up his arm over the sea and split it “so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground.” Indeed, God does, for God wishes “to gain glory through Pharaoh and all his host. . . I will gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horseman.” The Israelites will learn to have faith that God is with them, that the “glory gained” will be reflected back with devotion to God. Moshe holds his arms up and the Israelites walk through “the dry land between the walls of seawater.” God sees the Egyptians and “locked the wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty.” God tells Moshe to raise his arm once again, and “the waters turned back and covered the chariots and horsemen. . . not one of them remained.” After seeing the death of the Egyptians, the Israelites recognize God’s power and fear God; “they had faith in the Lord and His servant Moshe.”
And the Israelites begin to sing their great song of praise to God: “Az yashir. . . I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.” First the men sing; then the women sing and dance with their timbrels in praise of God.
However, as the Israelites progress on their journey they complain once again about having enough food and water. They are at Rephidim and God tells Moshe to take the rod with which Moshe struck the Nile and “strike the rock and water will issue from it, and the people will drink.”
Shortly thereafter, Amalek comes and attacks the Israelites at Rephidim. Moshe tells Joshua to pick some men and “go out and do battle with Amalek.” Moshe, Aaron, and Hur walk up a hill. “Whenever Moshe holds up his hand, Israel prevails, but whenever he lets down his hand, Amalek prevails.” Moshe becomes fatigued, so Aaron and Hur put a stone under him and support his hands. As a result, Joshua conquers the Amalekites with the sword. After this battle, God says to Moshe, “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
At this point in the Torah, there does not seem to be a true reason as to why the Amalekites would attack the Israelites. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz z”l writes: “There was no clear motive behind Amalek’s attack on the Israelites. . . Amalek did not intend to wipe out the Israelites, as there were too many of them, but merely to damage them or drive them away. The Amalekites acted out of pointless, arbitrary hatred. That is why the memory of Amalek in the Jewish consciousness symbolizes hostility and opposition to the Jews as such. They are the archetype for anti-Semitism throughout the ages, which, even if it sometimes finds specific claims, real or imagined, against the Jews, is in truth rooted in baseless hatred of Israel itself.”
In the twentieth century, Stalin and Hitler were clearly descendants of Amalek. The baseless hatred of Israel continues into the twenty-first century, as we have seen with Hamas’s October 7th attacks on Israel. Other terrorist groups have this same hatred. I have been wondering why this antipathy toward Jews and Israel continues. Part of me knows that there are those who “stir the pot,” who make vaguely antisemitic statements and then allow their followers to create havoc. There are those who teach their children to hate because they need to think that there are people below them on the “pecking order.” Then there are those individuals who are negative about everything and just decide to hate people they consider the “other.”
Over the years, the only answer I have to this hatred is education. Somehow, we must educate others to see how hatred inflames neighbor-to-neighbor situations, community situations, and, maybe more obviously, global situations. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l stated: “Moses did it again at the end of his life, commanding: ‘You shall teach these things repeatedly to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.’ Why this obsession with education that has stayed with us from that day to this? Because to defend a country you need an army. But to defend a civilisation you need schools. You need education as the conversation between the generations.”
Indeed, we are grateful for the education we have given, do give, and will continue to give our children at Leffell. Jewish education strengthens our people, and allows them to face the realities in today’s dangerous world.
Shabbat Shalom.
Shabbat Shalom.