Constant Miracles

Parshas Beshalach

Posted on February 7, 2025 (5785) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah| Level: Beginner

And Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea, and HASHEM led the sea with the strong east wind all night, and He made the sea into dry land and the waters split. (Shemos14:21)

 

The livelihood of a person is as difficult as the splitting of the sea. (Pesachim118.)

 

The matching of someone with a mate is as difficult as the splitting of the sea, (Sota 2:)

 

There is a classic and obvious question here crying out for an answer? “Is anything too wondrous for HASHEM!?” It’s a rhetorical question. Affirmatively stated, HASHEM can do anything! So, the question is about these two statements from the Talmud equating the difficulty of splitting the sea with earning livelihood and finding a marriage partner. Nothing is hard for HASHEM! There are many illuminating answers and approaches to this question. I would like to try two on for size.

 

People have often asked me, “Rabbi, do you really believe that HASHEM split the sea?” My answer is simple. “Yes!” However, the questioner needs an explanation that will first fit into his world view before stretching, challenging his assumptions and shattering his paradigm. What we call nature is really repeating miracles. If something happens one time, we call it miraculous.

 

If it happens repeatedly and predictably, then we call it nature. If a baby was born on the edge of a tree, the world would be astonished. If it is done over and over again on trees across the fruited plain, it would be a nuisance. All that changed was the regularity of the event.

 

Some events happen once in history, like the splitting of the sea. It was not hard for HASHEM to do. HASHEM can do anything. Other things happen once in a lifetime, like finding a life mate. It is no less miraculous than the splitting of the sea, and even though it happens with so many people, it should not be less astonishing to us. There are some events that happen every day, like making a living. Even though it is going on all the time, we are being told that it is not less wondrous in its enormity and individualized generosity than the splitting of the sea.

 

What was the reaction of the Jewish People when they were entering into the Land of Israel, at the end of forty years in the desert, and after having lived during that entire time on Mana from Heaven, and then they saw trees with colorful fruits hanging from the branches?! Since it was new to them, they considered it astonishingly miraculous, and more so than the Mana which had become commonplace. For us, trees don’t do it, but if Mana fell, we’d be amazed.

 

Approach number two is much different. My son told me in the name of the Sefas Emes that the Sefas Emes makes a keen observation about this question of things being KASHA–HARD for HASHEM, he says that there is another KASHA – mentioned in the Talmud and no one asks about this matter which is also described as being HARD for HASHEM. When it comes to the end of Sukkos, there is a separate, standalone Yom Tov called Shimini Atzeres. The sages describe the reason for this seeming extension of Sukkos. HASHEM says, “KASHA Alai Predaschem”–“What is hard for Me is your departing!” “I hate to see you go!”.

 

The Sefas Emes explains that that “KASHA” that it is difficult for HASHEM to have us depart, is the same KASHA in the statements from the sages regarding making a livelihood and finding a match. What makes it KASHA hard for HASHEM, so to speak, and that is that if HASHEM would grant us whatever we need most automatically and without worry and struggle and prayer then there is a concern that right after we get what we seek, we would assume it was natural and we might then abandon HASHEM. That’s the KASHA. HASHEM, like a loving parent desires to shower His children with all good, but too much good or too much of a good thing might spoil us and be the cause for us to forget HASHEM. Asks, the Sefas Emes, so what is the proper response when we are treated to that which we need and desire most? The Sefas Emes answers, the same as when the People of Israel experience the splitting of the sea, they sang in unison SHIRA to HASHEM. Song is the appropriate response for one who realizes that he is the blessing beneficiary of constant miracles.

 

The True Spice of Life

Parshas Beshalach

Posted on February 10, 2017 (5777) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah| Level: Beginner

The layer of dew ascended and behold – it was over the surface of the Wilderness, something thin, exposed- thin as frost on the earth. The Children of Israel saw and said to one another, “Is it Manna?!” for they did not know what it was. (Shemos 16:14-15)

 

You open your hand and satisfy every living thing with its desire. (Tehillim 145) He gives to each and every person what they quest. Each and every person tasted in the Manna what he wanted… Rabbi Abba stated that he did not even have to request it with his mouth but rather if he just thought in his heart that this is what he desires, the taste was the taste of what he wanted! (Midrash Rabba)

 

That heaven-sent bread known as Manna that the Jewish People ate for their duration in the desert functioned like a kind of culinary Rorschach test. It tasted just like one wanted it to. All they had to do is think of what wanted and that was the flavor. Someone once famously asked the Chofetz Chaim how the Manna tasted if someone did not think. Something to the effect that, “if a person does not think then how can a thing taste?!” was his spicy response. I often wondered what that might mean.

 

Years ago I went to visit a friend on a hot summer day. After climbing to his apartment on the top floor he invited me in and offered a cold drink. There he placed a cold can of apple juice. I looked curiously at the Hebrew lettering studying the brand of the drink. “Very odd” I thought as I put the word together…Somech- Feh- Reish- Yud- Nun- Gimel, “SUFFERING?” That name will entice a drinker to happily partake?!  Then I turned the can around and there in English was the name “SPRING”.  Then I recognized my mistake and I also realized that the difference between an experience of SUFFERING and SPRING can be a single point.

 

I remember vividly from more than thirty five years ago when walking down the long driveway of the Yeshiva one wintery evening I looked up and the sky was filled with huge snowflakes gently gliding to earth. The Street light high above accented the depth of this awesome scene. My visceral reaction, “OY What a huge inconvenience this is gonna be!”

 

As I continued on my way, coming in the other direction was a young fellow from South Africa, Ben Tzion. He had never seen a single snowflake in his lifetime, till now. He was marching with glee, looking up at the same street light and shouting with radical awe, “MANNA from HEAVEN, MANNA from HEAVEN!”

 

As we passed each other it occurred to me how snow had lost its innocence with me over time and how darkened my attitude had become. We were both responding to the exact same phenomenon and having completely different experiences.

The son of an old friend who is learning in a nearby Yeshiva came to our house recently on a Shabbos when plenty of snow fell. When I drove him home after Shabbos he was busy telling me how amazing it is that these fragile and individual snowflakes when added together created such a huge effect.

 

We spoke about how great accomplishments in learning can be achieved with small and steady steps.  I told him about the Penny Harvest we are having in Yeshiva and the statement from the sages, “Each and every penny adds up to a great sum!”

 

There is so much to learn from snow.  I was thinking this morning  that King David writes, “It is He Who gives snow like fleece (a sheep’s wool coat)  and He scatters frost like ashes” (Tehillim 147) HASHEM will only make is so cold to the degree that the wool coat of the sheep can sustain and protect him protect him from the cold. So too HASHEM gives us challenges in life only to the extent that we can endure them and not more.

 

King David also writes, “Taste and See HASHEM is good!” (Tehillim 34) Maybe it means that a person could either taste or see that HASHEM is good. Maybe “taste”- Taamu can mean to reason- contemplate and if one invests thought they can then see HASHEM is good!  We joke all the time in our house, “Whoever invented (for example) dates or garlic or cantaloupe or bee honey knew what they were doing!” Tasting HASHEM changes the way we experience everything in life and is it not the true spice of life!