Parashat B'Shalach 5769 -- Rebirth

This week’s Torah portion is Parashat B’Shalach, or in English, the Torah Portion in which we are “sent” or “let go” from Egypt. This is the week, after weeks of Moses declaring, “Let my people go!” that we are let go. This Shabbat is Shabbat Shira, the Shabbat on which we come to banks of the Sea of Reeds, Moses lifts his staff, and the Israelites pass through the split sea onto dry land.

Scholars and the rest of us read this magnificent story and often ask, “Yeah, but did that really split?” We like to know the details. There are documentaries that detail weather patterns and tide patterns—yes, it did take place. There are famous sermons—no, it didn’t take place. There are archaeologists—yes, it did; no it didn’t. There are careers at stake, passionate cries of historicity, and fists pounded with one word, “authenticity.” happen? Did the sea

In the middle of this debate, I shrug.

I think these are both the wrong questions and the wrong answers.

For me, the question is not, “Did the Exodus take place?” But rather, “What is the metaphor?”

You see, I don’t think our people can cross through a split Sea of Reeds and travel from slavery to freedom, without there being some intended deeper meaning. I believe this image cries out for interpretation.

And, I think this week, of my friend and colleague, Rabbi Riqi Kosovske, and others like her, who explain this Text through a radical new lens.

“This is a birth narrative,” they declare.

Yes, when the people of Israel step into the parted sea, the people who had suffered through slavery are now passing through nothing less than a birth canal. The split sea, which leads them from the confined space of Mitzraim, of Egypt or literally “the Narrow Place,” now leads them into the midbar, the desert, the wide expanse.

Then Moses held out his arm over the sea and Adonai drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split, and the Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14:21-22)

This is a birth narrative. The split sea is the birth canal. We, as a people, are reborn. From slavery to freedom. And so, the question is not “Did it happen?” But, “What does it mean?”

On this Shabbat, I invite you to ask yourself this very question. This is Shabbat Shira, a Shabbat on which any song is possible. This is Shabbat Shira, a Shabbat on which we are reborn. This is Shabbat Shira, a Shabbat on which we re-enter the world with new formed eyes and an appetite for new experiences.

In our tradition, we are born not once, but again and again through our Torah narrative. Seize this opportunity and find what you may.