Rabbi Breit's Blog

In a sea of complaints, the Israelites leave captivity in Egypt. When they were slaves, the Torah teaches, they cried out and groaned under a heavy load. But one of the very first liberties they take as free people is to complain in their own words, sometimes snarky sometimes biting, to another person.

To Moses they quip, “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness?” Hungry, they wish they had died in Egypt, at least then they had some meat to eat. Thirsty, they ask Moses if that was his whole game plan — to bring them here to die of thirst?

The complaining is a recurrent theme. Everything is wrong and Moses is definitely the problem. At one point, Moses worries aloud to God that the people are so angry he thinks they might stone him.

We have all been in a community like this, where the group conversations seem all to have the same tone. An entire community can be stuck in conversations of mutual recrimination, unregulated anger, embitterment, complaint, indignation. There’s a concept called the Overton window that communities have a fixed range of politically acceptable discourse in any given population at a given time. Maybe whichever Israelite dared to express optimistic enthusiasm about their trek across the desert was shot down, given a withering look for not getting the “vibe”.

But then there’s a miracle. The sea parts and the Israelites flee across it on dry land. The sea closes over the Egyptians pursuing them.

Or maybe the miracle is what happens next. The Israelites break into songs of praise and gratitude and joy. The text says: az yashir Moshe u’vnei Yisrael, the  Moses and the children of Israel sang. Moses (or maybe it was Miriam! it depends whom you ask) has the bravery to do something totally against type, to make a wild new statement: to burst into song in joy. And the rest of the people join in.

We cannot live our lives waiting for every sea that faces us to part. But maybe we can have the bravery to say or do something completely outlandish — to break into hopeful, grateful song, to shove that Overton window from cynicism towards optimism. Then the people of Israel will sing. Then the people of Israel will live through a miracle. Shabbat shalom.