Understanding the Miracles and the Effects of Poverty
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5775
Every so often you hear, if only God would do a miracle for me, I would believe! The response to such a claim is often refuted by the events in this morning’s parsha.
After witnessing the 10 plagues the Jews are approaching the sea and the Egyptian army is in hot pursuit, they are bearing down and the Jews are understandably afraid, “are there not graves in Egypt that you took us out here to die?” Moshe understands and reassures the people- stand and watch the salvation of the lord – God will fight and you will inherit!
Miraculously the sea splits, the Jews cross the sea and the Egyptians drown in the sea. Moshe promises and God delivers. The Jews are so impressed that they find their faith, and sing Az Yashir – heaping lavish praise upon their savior!
Immediately following the song, the very next episode, finds the Jews without water for three days and then with water too bitter to drink, and they complain to Moshe; they did not ask or believe that God would provide, rather they complain to Moshe. Apparently the faith found was not long-lasting. So God sweetens the water.
At their very next destination they are hungry. They do not ask or believe; again they complain to Moshe and long for the good old days in Egypt!
So God does one more miracle and provides the Manna, special delivery from heaven with the following provisions 1. Don’t leave any over until the morning and don’t go out to collect on Shabbat because it won’t be there! And true to form, many leave it over until the morning, and many go out on Shabbat to collect. They still don’t get it!
At the next destination, more of the same, they can’t find water, again no water- did they learn from their last experience? NO! The same response – they complain- Where is the water? Why have you taken us out to die? What are you doing to us?
At this point Moshe is at his wits end, he complains to G-d, Od me’at uskaluni, they are going to strangle me! SO God does one more miracle and instructs Moshe to hit the rock!
The cycle is clear, test after test and they fail each and every time! Why didn’t they learn? They had just experienced the water – didn’t they know that God would provide it for them?!? To the objective observer this is preposterous. The truth is staring the people in the face, God is smashing them over the head with it but they simply do no get it.
Why not? The answer most often given is that we see from here that miracles don’t work! They do not provide long lasting faith!
At some level that is certainly true, but to fully understand the story we need a more nuanced read. Read as I presented it – the miracles were supposed to produce Jews with absolute faith and complete obedience, yet it did not. They failed.
I have three issues with such a reading.
- If God knows this is going to fail, then why do it? Why not simply give the Jews the food and water that they require?
You might tell me that this is done in order to show that miracles do not work and that we should look to another source for inspiration and faith. If that is true, however, then Hashem is torturing these poor souls and depriving them of food and water, knowing they will not gain faith from it, in order to teach us a lesson. That bothers me.
- If the point was obedience and we failed as a people, why don’t Hashem and Moshe get angry with the people? Nowhere in this parsha do we find that type of reaction!
- Who is to say that the miracles were not at least partially successful? The Jews did complain about the food, but at the end of the parsha when Amalek comes to attack, we don’t find a refrain of “why did you take us out to kill us”; they simply follow Yehoshua to war. Maybe at some level they were impressed with kriat yam suf and knew God would protect them?
One could suggest that the point of the miracles and food deprivation was never to achieve complete faith and obedience. We are people after all.
Rather, the point was to demonstrate to the people that God is involved in their salvation and continued sustenance – maybe a continuation of the message of the plagues. And in that the miracles certainly were successful. They taught and reinforced this idea! And in regard to an external enemy it did have limited impact and allowed the Jews to fight with faith that Hashem would lead them to victory.
If that is true- then I have one last important question – why did it work for war and not for food?
I think the answer to that is quite simple. Not having enough food to eat or water to drink, and not knowing where your next meal is coming from is at some level worse than an external enemy.
That type of poverty affects attitudes and action in ways that are profound.
Last week in shul during Mincha we learned in ערוך השולחן אורח חיים סימן קנו סעיף א that
אח”כ ילך לעסקיו דכל תורה שאין עמה מלאכה סופה בטילה וגוררת עון כי העניות מעבירין את האדם על דעתו ועל דעת קונו
I would translate that as “poverty causes you to transgress your mind and the mind of your creator.”
Extreme poverty can make go out of their mind and certainly causes some people to do things that they know are wrong!
Maybe that is why the miracles worked better for war than for food and water.
Throughout the year I have been actively pushing for us as individuals and as a community to become more active supporters of the people and state of Israel. When most of us think of the threat and our supportive role we think of the external enemy, the war. And that is right and we must be supportive.
But the external enemy is not the only issue that we can help with.
There is a poverty issue as well. Some connected to the war and some of it not.
This Tuesday (last year) night in honor of Tu B’shevat we are having an event with Leket Israel, one of the most impressive organizations that I have come across.
You will have an opportunity to hear about what they do and how they help and hopefully as a shul community we can help them feed the poor throughout the land of Israel.
Please come, listen, learn and help!
