From the Rabbi's Desk

Theology and philosophy are tricky subjects to teach and learn. We live very physical lives and demand to see evidence rather than accepting things on faith. This issue is exasperated by our adherence to the law of consistency. We demand consistency for the simple fact that, in almost all areas of life, consistency is necessary. But when it comes to theology and philosophy, strict adherence to a black and white consistency handcuffs the individual in a way that’s nearly impossible to live with.

Many Jews believe in a theology of God that places God as a “wish granter” and “puppet master.” What this means is that many believe prayer is a way for us to communicate with God and to receive what we want and need. There are so many stumbling blocks with this idea but namely it’s problematic because it asserts God chooses to or not to intervene when we request such intervention. For those of us who have had the blessing of seeing our prayers answered, we feel a sense of having been heard and feel a fondness for God. Those of us who have felt ignored and/or rejected, feel cast away and let down by God and this is beyond deflating. This is all reliant on the basic ideology that God has the power and ability to change the physical world at will. This works well for some, but for others it’s very difficult to live in such a reality.

To add to the problem, we, as modern people, seem to have adopted a “reverse fair weathered fan” mentality of the world. We love to blame God for all that’s wrong and yet we seldom take time to appreciate God for all that’s incredible. When we learn of a serious illness, we demand God enlighten us as to why God is doing this to us or letting this happen. But when we witness a magnificent sunset with our nearest and dearest family and friends, we don’t reflect on the beauty of the world God created. We don’t acknowledge the miraculous nature of our relationships and the environment all around us. What we have today is a constant problem with blaming God for the bad and not appreciating God for the good.

This whole outlook on the world is on full display in this week’s parsha: B’Shalach. In the words of Janet Jackson: What have you done for me lately? Our people had just witnessed the miraculous 10 plagues that enabled and led to our emancipation after more than 400 years of brutal enslavement. We had just set out on our journey into a free life. As we stood between the Sea of Reeds and an approaching Egyptian Army, we watched as the sea was split and we walked through on dry land. Time and again we saw power and we saw possibility and yet what was our response when the going got tough? “Why did you bring us here to die… were there not enough graves in Egypt?” We complained about a lack of water, about enemies, about not having food or food that we wanted. Time and again rather than recognizing the majesty of the creation and Creator, we chose to show a lack of faith and hope by figuratively saying “what have You done for us lately?”

In 2020, we were locked up in our houses. We were living in fear of an illness we didn’t understand. We put our heads together and discovered measures that could mitigate the spread of the illness and we found scientists who invested considerable time and effort to find a vaccine that could help us and they did. They did so by utilizing the intellect God endowed us with to look for solutions to problems. They did so by utilizing the naturally occurring elements found in our world that they were able to refine and turn into medications. Rather than looking at God and demanding an accounting for unleashing a modern plague on our world, we looked at each other, made in the image of God, and found the ability to care enough to stop the spread and to find the ability to negate the effects of Covid with medication.

Time and again we have a choice to make. We can complain and blame externalities, or we can turn within and look for solutions to the problems that plague us today. We have a choice to make on a daily basis: we can magnify the curses we see or we can increase the blessings in our everyday lives. This choice is within our hands and the time has arrived for each of us to look to the good and the incredible and to be thankful for those items. When we choose to show gratitude for blessings rather than merely anger and blame for curses, we’ll find ourselves more able to accept the world as it is and thus more able to live lives of meaning and blessing.