Same song different day...

"Song of the Sea" (AKA "Miriam's Song") 

text seen as scribed in actual Torah

Parashah Beshalach (Exodus 13:17 – 17:16)

“…the Israelites marched on dry ground in the midst of the sea.” Exodus 15:19

This week’s Shabbat is known as Shabbat Shira (The Sabbath of Song) because it contains the text from Miriam’s song, the verses from the Torah which describe the Hebrews leaving Egypt as they walked through the Sea of Reeds.

What is also unique to this week’s Torah portion is the way in which the text is inscribed on the parchment of the Torah. There are only a handful of times where the text of the Torah visually depicts a message or illustrates an idea by the way the sopher (scribe) writes the text. 

Usually the text is written in a justified column fashion that is uniform and identical from column to column. In this week’s Torah portion however, we see a layering of the text that depicts three staggered columns almost intertwining with one another. The visual is quite powerful if you are able to “see” the intended representation of the two walls of water surrounding the Hebrews as they walked through the Sea (see above photo).

It is hard for me to imagine this awesome scene without reverting to flashbacks of Charlton Heston in Cecile B. DeMille’s movie, “The Ten Commandments.” On the other hand, our children will have flashbacks from DreamWorks’ depiction of the Exodus in the movie, “The Prince of Egypt.”

The reason I share this seemingly obvious fact is that our children’s memories will be no less meaningful, powerful, or even memorable, than ours. Yes, they will be different, but they live in a different world, at a different time, with different experiences, expectations, and available resources. So too is their education.

I often meet with parents who share with me their memories of how they learned a certain concept, idea, or fact. They are not wrong being confused as to why their child might be learning it differently; but they are often wrong thinking that differently means “less than” the way they learned it.

Today, our children see the world so differently than we did. They are bombarded with millions more stimuli than we ever were. They have the accessibility to more information than they will ever be able to absorb. So the manner in which we teach them needs to be different, as the world in which they will be living their adult lives will be so very different than the one we are living in today.

This weekend, my questions are for you, rather than for your children. This weekend, think of the knowledge that helps make you successful at what you do. Is it the ability to remember the facts and figures, methods and concepts, ideas and formulas; or is it your self-confidence, your social skills, your drives, pursuits, and motivations to always do better?

One should never be at the expense of the other, but one should never have to exist without the other either.

Have a wonderful weekend. Shabbat shalom.

Grading on the curve...

-->

Parashah Bo (Exodus 10:1 – 13:16)

“In the middle of the night God struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle.” Exodus 12:29

Rabbi Judah Loew, The Maharal of Prague (1525-1609) explains that the Jewish People, who had remained distinct in Egypt, were spared from the fury of the first nine plagues on a relative scale. The Jew who had retained even a part of his heritage stood out amongst the decrepit culture around him. Therefore the Jewish People dodged the waves of misfortune that fell upon Egypt.

The 10th plague, however, was different. This one was to be delivered by God and no other delegate. To survive it wasn't enough to be a little better than the low society about them. It became necessary not just to abandon everything Egyptian but to also adopt everything of God. The crucial test was to determine a willingness to approach the light of The Infinite and to bear forever the standard of The Absolute.

Rabbi Label Lam, in his d’var Torah of this week’s Torah portion, shared a story of when he arrived at his college campus so many decades ago, how, for some non-mystical reason; about 80% of the entering freshman class had their sights on medical school. He was not part of that pack but it seemed everyone around him was. Obviously not all were going to make it so they had these impossibly hard and competitive pre-med bio-chem classes to weed out the weak willed and under-qualified. People stayed up nights at a time and one by one, dreams were dashed as grades were posted.

Everyone, Rabbi Lam shared, was graded "on a curve". If everyone did poorly then even a low grade could still earn an "A". Nobody despaired when tests were handed back because as long as others had failed as miserably, they might still salvage a high mark. After a particularly tough test everyone looked madly to see where on the curve they fell. The great upset was when some genius of a fellow actually scored "99". Now everyone else's "40" automatically spelled failure and many a tense and teary phone call was made to disappointed parents.

You see, for Rabbi Lam, the curve on the science tests lowered the standard of performance just like the first 9 plagues.  Yes, some students passed, but was it because they were qualified, or was it because the others around them were simply worse off?  The 10th plague, however, had no curve.  The 10th plague was a test that had an identical passing grade for everyone.  You either believed and passed, or disbelieved and failed.

This weekend talk to your children about how they rate themselves.  Do they do it based on the people around them?  Are they right, successful, and/or good, when others are wrong, failures, and/or bad?  Or does your child understand that as long as they pursue righteousness, justice, and truth, it does not matter what others do, for they will always end up on top.

When the going gets tough...lead anyway!

Parashah Va’era (Exodus 6:2 - 9:35)

“But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage.” Exodus 6:9 

What happens when a leader leads, but no one follows? Is the person still a leader?

In this week’s parasha we read of how God chose Moses to lead the Hebrews, and yet a) they were not in any shape to be led; and b) they were not the ones who chose Moses as their leader. Both of these challenges made an already difficult situation for Moses all the more challenging.

But the research on leadership parallels our rabbinic texts in that both fields of knowledge say that one is to do the right thing, even if the masses choose to do differently.

Being a leader is not about taking the easy road; rather, it is about pursuit of righteousness and justice. It is about leading toward a vision. It is in order to bring the masses to a better place.

Rabbi Michael Zedek, of Emanuel Congregation, Chicago, IL, wrote a wonderful piece on this week’s Torah portion to highlight these leadership principles quoting a sermon given by the famous American psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Menninger:

“Moses now knows his focus is to serve the people, to care about them, to nurture them, to love them. There may be hard moments ahead, but despair is overcome in service. Such is reminiscent of the wonderful statement by Dr. Karl Menninger. Implicit in Moses’ new vigor, it is explicit in Dr. Menninger’s words:

If people are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered [just like the Israelites], love them anyway. If you do, good people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives [they certainly didn’t think Moses was such a great guy], but do good anyway. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies [remember Edward G. Robinson in the movie; always giving Moses a hard time], succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow [miracle after miracle and still they don’t leave him alone; they complain and complain]. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. People favor underdogs but seem to follow only top dogs. Fight for underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight [what do you think Moses thought when he came down and saw the Golden Calf]. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you help them [Moses certainly knew that]. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have, and you may get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.”

It’s not easy to lead, and Moses found this out the very hard way. This weekend ask your child to name someone who they think is a leader. What is it about the person that makes them a leader? Do they think leading is easy? What skills and training do they think a leader should have? Did Moses have these skills? What experiences best prepared Moses for his role as our greatest leader? These are just the starter questions. From here let your child take the lead…

Have a wonderful weekend. Shabbat shalom.

Back to school humor...Happy 2013!