Exodus 13:17-17:16 – Judges 4:4-5:31 – Luke 6:1-16

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Beshallach
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
In Summary
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Parashat Beshallach

1. What happened at the location named Mara? What lesson are we meant to learn from this story? On a spiritual level, how might it point to the self-sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua?

Rabbi Jason Sobel

One month after leaving Egypt and wandering in the wilderness, the Children of Israel ran out of water and began to complain about it. God intentionally allowed this to happen in order to test the Israelites and teach them an important lesson. They had to learn to trust the Lord to meet all of their needs. As a people, Israel had become dependant upon the Egyptians to provide for their basic needs. Although they were no longer slaves in Egypt, they still need to be liberated from the debilitating and demoralizing fear of not having their basic physical needs met. Through this miracle Moses performed by casting of the tree into the bitter water to make it sweet, the Lord was trying to teach Israel to trust and depend upon him alone to meet their spiritual and material needs..

Messiah Yeshua also underscores the importance of trusting in the Lord to provide for the basic necessities of life when he says in this week's Besora reading:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing?" Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Matthew 6:25-30 (NKJV)

Like the generation that left Egypt, we also need to learn to free ourselves from the anxieties of life by trusting the Lord if we ever hope to be truly free to fulfill our destiny as "a royal priesthood and holy nation" (Exodus 19:6).

On a spiritual level, our lives are like the waters of Mara due to the bitterness of sin, sickness, and death. The source of this bitterness goes all the way back to the first Adam who ate from the forbidden fruit of tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Once Adam and Chava partook of this tree, humanity became like it, a mixture of good and evil. This struggle between our good and evil inclination embitters our lives and ultimately leads to physical as well as spiritual death for some. 

Death however is not the final word. Through Yeshua's self-sacrifice on a tree, we can see an illusion to the incident at Mara as well as a reversal of the sin committed by the First Adam (both of which are connected to a tree). Thus Yeshua died a bitter death upon a tree in order to sweeten our lives which are embittered by slavery to sin and death. By placing our faith in Messiah Yeshua, our lives are made sweet like the bitter waters of Mara. Therefore, let us never harden our hearts and lose faith in the Lord and his provisions as our ancestors did at Mara.

2. Why was God giving Manna from heaven a test as to whether the people would obey the Torah or not?

Joshua Brumbach

It is easy to point the finger and complain about other peoples' grumblings. It is also just as easy to point the finger at the Israelites wandering in the desert and think of ourselves more highly than we really ought. 

Although God gave manna to the Jewish people as a result of their constant cry for food, the Torah makes it clear that it was also given as a test. The question then arises as to how giving bread from heaven serves as a test?  

The manna forced every single person to approach the gathering of the manna on multiple levels. For many, just the thought of eating this unidentifiable "stuff" was ridiculous. They even asked, "What is it? " (Exodus 16:15), thinking that this white flaky stuff was nothing special compared to the pots of meat they had back in Egypt (16:3). So for those people, the manna itself was a test of their ego. To others, it was a test of their faith. When told not to leave any until morning, many did, and found it consumed by worms. It was also a test of obedience.  When told not to expect any manna on Shabbat, there were those that still arose to go out and gather, and found nothing.  The manna served as a test of each person's spiritual condition, as Moses even states, "Your grumblings are not against us, but against the LORD (Exodus 16:8)."

Often you and I are also out chasing and gathering. We're being fed in some way, but we don't know what it is. Like our predecessors, we keep walking around asking "What is it?" And we too, go around complaining, rebelling, and grumbling the whole time. It is easy to point the finger at the Israelites, and accuse them of being stiff-necked and imprudent. We even wonder how they could respond in such a way, especially after seeing all the miracles God was continually doing for them.  Yet we too do the same thing. We too experience miracles on a daily basis, and yet still question why God has dragged us out into the dessert to die. 

Parashat Beshallach is about choices and redemption. Yet, this week's Torah portion also points to God's chesed and rachamim - his grace and mercy. Despite all of our shortcomings, God is still faithful to bring about ultimate redemption. That it is not because of our own merit, but because of his righteousness. May we learn from the tests of our own personal manna, and may we all be enabled to sing the ultimate song of redemption!