This Shabbos David Schlesinger led discussion. We discussed parsha Beshalach, including Rav Yeager’s commentary. We discussed what led up to the events in the parsha. Hashem freed us from slavery in Egypt, but we still had to rely on Hashem to a large degree. It was important that we do our part, and then have faith that Hashem would do his part.
We discussed how in the parsha we were instructed to do a “u-turn” and head back towards Egypt. This required a lot of faith in Hashem. We discussed how when we became trapped in between Egypt’s army and the Sea, Hashem did in fact intervene. We discussed how there was another episode when we did not believe in Hashem. This is when we went out looking for mana on Shabbos, and this caused Hashem to become angry that we did not believe in him. David talked about how his mom would recognize the birds who removed the excess bread.
This concept of having faith in Hashem was not only important in the Torah, but is important in our personal lives today. It is easy to lose faith when we see or go through personal crisis and tragedy. David talked about how sometimes it may be helpful to look at the big picture. There are many miracles going on today, such as the survival of the Jewish people.
We discussed how the redemption from Egypt was sudden, and how it was brought about completely through the intervention of Hashem. We compared this to our future redemption. Unlike our redemption from Egypt, our future redemption will come about gradually, and we will have to do our part. Brett brought up how we still had the mentality of slaves when we left Egypt. With the coming redemption, we gradually become free from this mentality.
Once we left Egypt we began to experience some freedom, but with this freedom came the responsibility to do our part. Hashem was the force that liberated us from Egypt, and we could still count on him, but we would have to do our part. At first, we did not want to do our part and simply wanted to take the path of least resistance. We wanted to take the easiest route to the promised land, which was not necessarily the best route. David pointed out how we were depressed as a people, and this is how depressed people sometimes behave.
The events in Exodus, are similar to what happens to people who are in need of 12 step programs. In the beginning we are powerless in Egypt, the same way someone who needs a 12 step program is powerless against his behaviors. Just as Hashem is the force that initially frees us, Hashem is the force that initially frees someone from their behaviors and leads them to recovery and a 12 step program. Step 1 in the 12 step program is realizing that we were powerless and then later in the steps we realize that we need a power greater than ourselves. Once we left Egypt it was important for us to review what had happened, and seen how we were powerless and how we were helped by a power greater than ourselves - Hashem.
We discussed how there are 2 cases that we encounter in life. In case 1 we need to rely on Hashem completely. And in case 2 we do our part and Hashem does his part. We discussed how we have a yearning to find a power greater than ourselves. Unfortunately we do not always choose the right power, and that can lead us into trouble.
This Shabbos we continued our discussion of the halakuh against making a fire on Shabbos. We discussed that the problem is not necessarily the fire itself, but that we are using the fire to do work that takes the form of converting potential to kinetic energy. We discussed that not all conversions of energy are forbidden, but that starting and extinguishing fires is a Torah level violation. Bucky talked about how our body “burns” calories. Should we be trying to do as little activity as possible on Shabbos? It turns out that the “burning” of calories is permitted however we wait until after Shabbos to do our normal exercise routines.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred. To unsubscribe, send reply email with unsubscribe in the subject line.
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