Beshalach
How can we find dry land inside the water?
Reflection by Abigail Be'eri-Harel, Graduate of Or HaLev's "Yesod" Program in Israel:
"In the first few days of the war, every time I tried to sit down to meditate, I felt like I was hitting a wall. The emotions that arose - fear, sadness, hopelessness - did not want me to see them. In those days, I thought to myself, can practice really give me and others confidence and light in such hard times? Or is it serving as an escape from what's really happening, as a failed attempt to cover the darkness with fake calm?
In our parshah, Parshat Beshalach, the Israelites are trapped in a difficult situation. On one side of them is the army of Egypt, and on the other side is the stormy sea. Darkness surrounds them, and they are so frightened that it seems easier for them to return to the familiarity of slavery in Egypt.
God does not give in to their helplessness and cries, but commands them to continue straight into the sea. Why does God do this?
God leads the Israelites into the most unknown and dark place. The sea is bleak and mysterious; only the edge of it is revealed and known to us. The Israelites go down to the sea, and, according to the Midrash, begin walking and then swimming into the dark waters. Only then do they find that inside the water waits dry land.
God's demand to travel straight to the sea seems harsh at first glance, until we discover that they have a solid path on dry land through the sea. We also discover that God is there with them all the way.
From the divine perspective, the division between land and sea, like the division between light and darkness, does not exist. After all, God is in everything, and everything is in God. The experience that there is evil and darkness, separate and threatening, reflects our uniquely human perspective. The miracle of the splitting of the sea, and the ability of the Israelites to walk amid the sea, not just changes the physical reality but changes their perspective. The sea is not what they thought it would be.
Over time, I found that meditating in difficult times opens the possibility to see precisely and compassionately what is here now, including the difficult feelings, without covering or hiding. Through this, I have continued to find comfort and self-understanding. May the walls in our hearts melt into seas of healing."