Beshalach: Can We Achieve the Impossible?

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1. Can We Achieve the Impossible?
“Impossible. Absolutely impossible.” How often do we hear these discouraging words, pouring cold water on our freshly hatched ideas? Don’t you think that the first creators of the airplane or any other modern feat were told by their peers that their dreams were an impossibility?

And yet…In this week’s Torah portion we read about the parting of the sea – a rather famous story told and retold over the generations (we even recite the song, Az Yashir, evoked by this miracle in our daily prayers). But what is the significance of this event? What relevance does it have to our modern-day lives? And above all, why was the parting of the sea necessary in the first place considering that there is no sea that separates between Egypt and Israel? So why did God take them on a detour to lead them to the sea, so that the parting could take place?!

The answers to these questions offer us a surprising and profoundly relevant lesson to what is truly possible is our own lives today.

2. How Sensitive Are You?
With all the talk about environmental protection, it’s worth asking: Who was the first to actually celebrate nature with a special holiday?

This coming week we celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the New Year for Trees. Why do we honor the New Year for Trees in the first place? We are, after all, humans, not trees, and we mark our own New Year, when the human race was created on Rosh Hashana, so why is it relevant for us to celebrate the New Year for… Trees?

Tu B’Shevat and the Jewish view on environmentalism contains a fascinating and relevant message for all of us – the critical importance of sensitivity. Appreciating the environment is not merely a crusade and another cause; it reflects awareness of the Divine in all. In makes us more cognizant of every detail in life – how one virtuous deed affects the delicate balance on which the fate of the world hangs.