Active Hope (Shabbat Beshallach)

This Shabbat marks one week since a new administration began to govern our divided country. The insurrection on January 6th is still emblazoned in our memory. We pray justice will be served those who played any role in challenging our democratic process. And we look to next week, the date of our community’s second inoculation, with a mix of hope and anxiety.

Like our ancestors, we have been liberated from a tyrant, yet many obstacles remain between us and the world we yearn for.

This week, Torah speaks of our ancestors as they crossed the Reed Sea. No sooner was Pharaoh’s army defeated than people begged to return to Egypt. The life they knew, though they were enslaved, felt more tolerable than all the uncertainty awaiting them in the vast wilderness they had to cross to get to the Promised Land.

And as if that wasn’t enough, at the end of our parasha, the Israelites confront a new, more insidious threat: Amalek. Amalek is a tribe that attacks the Israelites after they escape Egypt, and their morale is low. According to our tradition, even after the tribe disappears (in early biblical times), Amalek’s essence lives on. The mystics connect Amalek with safek, the Hebrew word for doubt and cynicism. Amalek rises in each generation, strengthened by those who embody cruelty, division, and hatred.

Perhaps because Amalek is not just a physical being, it cannot simply be overtaken with brute force — so, the Torah tells us, as the Israelite warriors began to battle Amalek,

Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of [a] hill. Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady [until Amalek was defeated]. (Ex 17:11-12)

I love this image of Moses defeating the primal force of cynicism and doubt with arms outstretched, in (according to Rashi) a gesture of prayer. Our text describes the steadiness of Moses’ hands as emunah, which is a Hebrew word that comes to mean “faith”, but here means “firmness”, “steadiness”. We are reminded faith is not a blind belief in something, but an active engagement with the world, the effort we make to find balance and endurance in the face of all that seeks to overwhelm us.

So, in the days ahead, when Amalek, that voice of doubt or cynicism, tries to overtake us, tells us the daily struggle is too much, let’s remember that Moses didn’t hold his hands up alone, no: a trusted companion was there on either side of him, supporting him. As we prepare to enter our own Promised Land at the end of this long wilderness journey, we need each other now more than ever. Please take care of yourselves, and each other; don’t hesitate to reach out, to allow yourself to be uplifted with the love, support, and inspiration of others.

Chazak chazak v’nitchazek: Be strong, be strong – and may we all receive strength. Amen.