B’Shallach
What informs a skillful action in the world?
Reflection by Or HaLev teacher Rabbah Dr. Mira Neshama:
"Breaking free is messy.
Parashat B’Shallach tells us about the last struggle of the former captives to be free, when Pharaoh `sends` them away (the title of the parsha), but then tries to regain control over them again. B’nai Israel are terrified of the Egyptian army pursuing them. At the same time, they feel a deep fear of the unknown before them. The fear of the barrage of the sea before them expresses itself through the temptation of nostalgia, wanting to go back to what is familiar, even though all that was familiar was oppressive slavery.
Once again, the biblical narrative eloquently serves as a metaphor for our own human processes. Although we may not like to admit it, more often than not, we live with ambivalence, or mixed feelings.
One of the benefits of mindfulness practice is to help us uncover, acknowledge, name, and welcome these various, and often contrasted aspects of our experience.
This complexity is familiar too today for many Jews in the world, witnessing the slow and painful process of the liberation of the Israeli captives from Gaza. What can help us move through such challenges?
The Talmud (Sotah 37 a) teaches us the story of Nachshon Ben Aminadav. At that moment that B’nai Israel stood paralyzed, with Pharaoh behind and the sea in front of them, Nachshon just decided to move forward.
'קָפַץ נַחְשׁוֹן בֶּן עַמִּינָדָב וְיָרַד לַיָּם תְּחִילָּה'
Jumped Nahshon ben Amminadab, and descended into the sea first
But not only, continues the talmudic midrash: at the same time that he was taking action, he started praying:
`הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי אֱלֹהִים כִּי בָאוּ מַיִם עַד נָפֶשׁ ... טָבַעְתִּי בִּיוֵן מְצוּלָה וְאֵין מׇעֳמָד וְגוֹ׳`
Save me, God; for the waters are coming in even unto the soul. I am sunk in a deep mire, where there is no standing…
`אַל תִּשְׁטְפֵנִי שִׁבֹּלֶת מַיִם`.
let not the water flood overwhelm me (Psalms 69:2–3, 16)
Jewish Mindfulness is not just about being conscious of the often complex layers of what is alive in us. It is also about acting in the world. Skillful action, as shown by Nachshon, is informed by courage, by awareness that, in the end, not much is in our hands. We must act anyway, and we must also ask for help. We must connect to the Life Source.
Paradoxically, embracing the complexity of our human conditions can help make our action much clearer, open hearted, and determined all together.
Just as Israel did at their crossing of the Sea, so we are called today, in the challenging passage we are moving through as individuals and as a collective."