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                                                            Parashas Beshalach

                                                        Who Are These People?

                                                               Rabbi David Katz

Parashas Beshalach is the Exodus; an Exodus as we will soon discover extends well beyond normative "Israel / [Jews]", for a liberation for every demographic of the Torah, including women, children, prophets, gerim, jews, erev rav, and every other member of Torah society, big and/or small. What on the surface level looks benign and almost boring, is a containment field of a powerful world that we are largely blind to; it is a story of Torah, and today, just as then, we are its characters. In a World that is thirsty for plot and depth, the content lies in the ink that was never told, as year after year we fall short of breath in the hopes of capturing the sacred wisdom of the dormant Torah. Perhaps now we can wake up to their World, and drink of new light under the same old sun, and realize, the war against Amalek continues every generation; that would mean – our Torah and theirs, are equally relevant. Turn the myth into reality, and behold the Lord Your God; some things never change.

The Parasha contains a surreal series of code and prophetic blindfolding in its subtleties; a couple of the off beats that you may recognize when you read it, are the citations of "The People" and/or/vs. "The Children of Israel" or even a few other coined terms that have a staggering effect on the reader. Another off topic is when we meet Miriam after the Sea Miracle, she is referred to as Aaron's sister; why? The answer [surprise] is the allusive Ger, and his association with the infamous Erev Rav; all in relation to Moses as [their] redeemer. The implications will prove quite shocking not just on a practical level, but historically, and even spiritually as well. Quite frankly, this will change the way we view the art of serving God, and once again without the Ger, we remain  in darkness groping mythology, in face of actually being able to perceive true light.

In the Parasha, there is code as I mentioned with the Ger and Erev Rav. In overly simplified terms, when it says "Children of Israel" this is Jewish proper, "The People" [quote by Rosh Amana] this is Erev Rav – which contain the spark of good, i.e. the future Gerim, and "Israel" [or "all of the assembly of Israel"] which refers to literally "everyone." The ramifications are straightforward, in that the Torah does indeed have code, and [from help of the Ger] with insight we are able to map the code effectively to gain control of the flow within the Torah's verses on a verse to verse basis [which is a pre-requisite in understanding the Ger]. Under these conditions, and a little bit of background knowledge, [i.e. Moses took out the Gerim/Erev Rav against God's desire] we can finally clearly see and identify exactly who Moses is talking to and WHY. Thus when Moses calls "[proverbially] YOU" an insult [in the second episode of hitting the rock; this parsha was the source of the action], we can see with absolute certainty that he was talking to the Erev Rav, or in other words, "The People" to the exclusion of the other implications to be found in alternative coding. Thus we have established the pretense of dialogue in Parsha and a viable lexicon for guidance. You will find that this methodology produces perfect accuracy in navigation throughout the parsha, and sets precedence for the entire Torah. [See the Ger in each source for likewise patterns.]

Throughout the Parsha, and its foundational principles, we witness Moses as a Messiah [ben Joseph] figure [through his "taking the 'bones' (as a shield) of Joseph"] , while setting up the Noahide Laws, preparing for Sinai, and laying the foundation of the final redemption through his prophetic "Song of the  Sea." Yet intermingled in this tapestry of redemption and Messianic Torah [as King David prophesies that these very items mentioned are the catalyst of the Final Redemption; Moses is considered to be a part of it, through a union of soul with King David himself] are the numerous battles and quarrels that take place among "all peoples" in unique settings [according to the flow of the code in context/connotation]. It all came to a head in Rephidim, as "The People" challenged Moses and God for water [opposite of "The Children of Israel" who appropriately wanted meat; each is consistent with the old country view as per societal needs]; this ultimately brought out the revelation of Amalek, and through "it" – a new world of Torah opens up, one that happened to always exist – right before our dreamy mythological indoctrinated eyes. The prophecy is about to become reality…in a whole new light.

The Vilna Gaon makes a few things clear over his assorted works: 1) The Erev Rav [that doesn't pursue "Ger" in any way is considered Amalek 2) the Evil Inclination is also considered Amalek 3) we all have both (1) and (2) in us in some way, shape, or form…the goal is to defeat it [which is where this article will drive towards next]. Thus when "The People" [notice that is the code used] quarrel over water, this is a revelation of Amalek as a foreign entity latched onto the people, in an already compromised position of being considered Erev Rav [for having self-interest in Moses' holy efforts as opposed to what will become of the Gerim who act for the sake of God]. Thus the Torah has every reason to write in a literal fashion the prophetic, for with an open eye, this is what reality is sharing in actual form; the antithesis is not falsehood, rather an act of denial.

An anomaly that we mentioned with Miriam being called Aaron's sister [as opposed to Moses] now can take center stage, for we have reason to attach Miriam to Aaron as opposed to Moses in a certain sense, as we look to Hur, son of Miriam.

When "Amalek" [not to exclude the nation of Amalek, for he equally exists too, as the Vilna Gaon states there are many manifestations of Amalek, just as we see in the opposite, there are states of Israel as well; namely Jews and Gerim, as we see in the language/code] takes stage, Moses quickly dispatches Joshua to dismantle them through going out to action, while Moses retreats with Hur and Aaron. Hur is a most interesting persona here, and through research we learn that he was a great prophet as well [Aaron is mentioned with Miriam in one regard as being a great prophet, thus deserving of Honor, something often taken away from Aaron in poor taste]; it is taught in the Midrash, that Hur was killed at the Golden Calf, for he alone was able to potentially hold off the pursuit of the idolatry [of "The People"] by his might through prophecy. And as we know, Moses was the greatest prophet ever; the new revelation presented here is that all three men were not only great prophets, but of one House of Levi! Moses and Aaron are obvious in this regard, but Hur [although a member of Judah] is considered particularly Miriam's son, and for this she even is credited with founding the House of David through Hur! Now Moses can fight with Torah supported through Aaron and Hur [Priest and King with Moses equaling the feat] as Joshua and his men [minyan] can battle through….prayer?

A close reading of the text concerning the war against Amalek will show that Moses' hands raised represent the power of Torah, while Joshua's "sword" in midrashic/kabbalistic literature can represent the tongue, as in prayer. Joshua is often seen in relation to Pinchas and Caleb [through spying the Land]; both men were scripturally proven to be masters of prayer, as Joshua was seen to have a kosher mouth upon his travels in the Land. Based on this, when the Torah speaks of Moses' efforts, immediately it says, "he" remained with his hands held in prayer, followed by …Joshua weakened them with the blade of the sword, ending with Moses whispering the secret of Amalek's defeat into Joshua's ear [gematria "sod" – secret] for eternal remembrance. Under the lens of light and context, it appears now in Technicolor, that Moses was cementing the Torah [as per before Sinai – in the new methodologies given at Marah [Noahide law etc. – which led to Jethro's warning to Moses against becoming worn out, hence "hands raised" = tiring] and Joshua was waging war through prayer, much like the Priest Anointed for War" [Pinchas; know that Pinchas married Joshua's daughter for context] as explained in Yoma 73a. [Notice there the language in code, and its relevance to Gerim and the Sanhedrin, along with the Four craftsmen; audio will cover this point.]

Under these guidelines in context, the Parsha now can be seen with laser like detail and precision. We have an access point to see the demographics of all of the people, the services of the Prophets in Moses – Aaron – Hur – Joshua – Miriam, the nature of their disputes are now on record and distinct, the usage of prayer and Torah finally have workable definition – even for today's practical outcomes, context makes sense, the myth became reality – one that we all live  within and without, code has been developed into modern every eternal vernacular that all can understand and already engage in on a natural level, and most important of all, we have kept shape in the Torah of Bereishit, in using the prophetic inclination to understand the Torah's "simple meaning" as opposed to myths and baseless wisdom.

The path to defeating Amalek was paved here and an ancient people were found along the way. The Ger, like all prophetic inspiration was there the whole time; we just wished to call it by another name; one that ironically and paradoxically had no name to begin with. As the title suggests, "who are these people"; now we know; they're Gerim, and along with them, we shall take privilege in meeting everyone else in the Torah; its simple – to understand the Torah is to understand prophecy, and to make that happen, God never unloved those people, the Ger.

Class Tonite - Tuesday 1/14/14 11 P.M. [on Parasha]

Posted in: Article,Parsha,Torah,Truth,Tzfat,Vilna Gaon,Yeshivat Shem V'Ever