Weekly Reading Insights: Beshalach 5783

Overview of the Torah Reading

To be read on Shabbat Beshalach, Shabbat Shira, 13 Shvat 5783/Feb. 4

Torah: Exodus 13:17-17:16; Haftorah: Judges 4:4-5:31 (Song of Devorah / Song by the Sea)

Beshalach is the 4th Reading out of 11 in Exodus and it contains 6423 letters, in 1681 words, in 116 verses

Beshalach opens with the Jews taking Yosef's remains with them upon leaving Egypt. G-d split the Red Sea for the Jews to pass through, but the waters fell on the Egyptians drowning them. Moshe and the Jews sang a song of praise to G-d for this miracle. Also, Miriam and the women sang and played music. In the desert, the Jews reached a place where the waters were too bitter to drink. G-d showed Moshe a tree which sweetened the water. The Jews complained that they didn't have meat to eat. G-d gave the Jews quail and manna to eat. The manna could not last overnight and on Shabbat it did not fall; instead Friday's portion for each Jew was double. An urn was filled with manna which would last for all generations. Again, the Jews complained about lack of water. G-d told Moshe to hit a certain rock with his staff, and it would bring forth water. The Amalekite nation attacked the Jews. Yehoshua fought them, and as long as Moshe's arms were raised, the Jews victory was assured. With G-d's help, the Jews are required to obliterate Amalek.

An Essay from
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter, Director of Ascent

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In general, the nature of the laws of the holy Shabbat are not clearly understood. The prohibitions are perceived simply as forbidden actions. On Shabbat we are commanded not to write, light a fire, build, wash clothes or cook food for example. A day of NOs. While it is true that these activities are forbidden on Shabbat, the chasidic kabbalists (see the Alter Rebbe's siddur [prayer book]) emphasize they should serve as a reflection of where we are, not about what we can or cannot do. On Shabbat, the Jewish people are so elevated. We are standing in front of the King of Kings, the Holy One Blessed be He. Everyone would agree that when you stand in front of a king, it is inappropriate to smoke a cigarette, sew a button, cook an omelet, and all the more so, to engage in other mundane weekday activities like plowing, planting or painting. When you are in front of a king you pay him your full attention, wear your best clothes - no distractions whatsoever. This is the essence of Shabbat and all of its preparations.

There is one particular law of Shabbat that makes this point more clearly than the rest. In this week's Torah portion, Beshalach, the verse says, "A person should not go out from his place on the day of Shabbat" (Shemot/Exodus 17:29). Rashi explains that this is the 2000 amot (approximately 3000 foot) circumference that is the limit that a person is allowed to walk from the edge of the town or city (specifically from the last house) on Shabbat. Why should just walking, that is not any kind of creative labor, also be forbidden on Shabbat? This seems extreme.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe describes how we can understand this Shabbat law in the context of our service to G-d.
The Torah teaches, "Six days you should work and do all of your labors" (Shemot 20:9). The Torah is telling us that specifically weekdays, Sunday through Friday, are the times when we are expected to do weekday things, labor connected with making a living, community and family that are not connected in any overt way to the study of Torah and the fulfillment of the commandments. Nevertheless, even for this there are limits. King David wrote, "Through the efforts of your hands shall you eat" (Tehillim/Psalms 128:4). Our involvement in the world must be with ourhands only, a fraction of the body, which are connected to our ability to act. For the Jew, even during weekdays, our brain and the great majority of our physical body should be connected with our spiritual lives. When possible, even if our hands are involved in the mundane, we should still be immersed in the actions of our Jewishness - study of Torah and its commandments.

On the other hand, Shabbat is the time when not only are we supposed to be totally focused on the spiritual, even our feet shouldn't leave our allotted territory. On Shabbat, not only are our hands, head, intellect and the rest of our body totally involved in divine actions, but even our feet are also meant to be completely immersed in the spiritual focus of Shabbat.
This is what the Talmud (Eruvin 54a) teaches on the verse (Shmuel II 23:5), "All set up and secured…". The Talmud says if you are "all set up" with the 248 organs of your body, then you are "secure" and what you do will be long lasting. If, G-d forbid, you are not invested 100% with all of our bodily organs involved, you are not secured and the results of our efforts will not be long lasting. This is what it means, (Tehillim 35:10, and in Nishmat from the Shabbat morning prayers) "All of my bones [can also be read, "all my essence"] will call out!" This means that all the organs of the body should be dedicated to the holy Torah on the holy day of Shabbat.

[Likrat Shabbat]

Shabbat Shalom, Shaul

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For last year's essay by Rabbi Leiter on this week's Reading, see the archive.

FROM THE SAGES OF KABBALAH ON KabbalaOnline.org

Specifically, for an overview of the recommended articles in the columns:
Holy Zohar, Holy Ari, Mystic Classics, Chasidic Masters, Contemporary Kabbalists, and more, click to Beshalach

one sample:

Mystical Classics

Hands in the Heavens

From the teachings of Rabbi Bachya ben Asher

Rebbeinu Bachya teaches that when Moses raised his hands in the battle against Amalek, he did something similar to what the priests do when they raise their hands in the priestly blessing. By concentrating on the number ten [the number of fingers] he concentrated on the ten sefirot and the source of blessing that flows from that region to disembodied spirits..

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