You’ve heard the story about the Californian policeman who pulled a car over and told the driver that because he had been wearing his seatbelt, he had just won $5,000 dollars in the statewide safety competition.
"What are you going to do with the money?" asked the policeman.
"Well, I guess I'm going to get a driver's license," he answered.
"Oh, don't listen to him," yelled the woman in the passenger seat.
"He speaks nonsense when he's drunk."
This woke up the guy in the back seat, who took one look at the police officers and moaned, "I knew we wouldn't get far in a stolen car."
At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a voice said, in Spanish, "Por Vavor…. excuse me, but have we crossed the border yet?"
In this week's portion of Beshalach–Shabbat Shira, the Jewish people have left Egypt miraculously. They crossed the Red Sea supernaturally. Complaining that they have no food, the manna fell from heaven each morning. Yet as they arrive in a place called Refidim, there is a shortage of water. The people are hysterical and protest. Moses provides water from a rock.
The Torah then concludes the episode by saying: Moses named the place testing and quarreling because of the quarrel of the children of Israel and because of their testing G-d, saying, is G-d in our midst or not?
The question is obvious. How can this generation of Jews ask such a question? Only one month has passed since the Egyptian Exodus. You have just witnessed the read-sea spectacle; you are enjoying the celestial manna and water from the rolling stone. How can a nation sincerely wonder “Is G-d in our midst or not?” The question appears not only as obnoxious, rude, and ungrateful, but also as illogical and out of touch with reality. How could this happen?
interpretations of their question. Upon reflection we can see that these questions are profound; they capture three dilemmas that so many of our people have asked throughout the centuries, especially in our times.
This past Wednesday marked the 10th of Shevat, the yartzeit of the previous Rebbe, and the day the Rebbe assumed leadership of Chabad 70 years ago.
Looking back, it seems that in many ways, the Rebbe’s leadership embodies a response to these questions raised by a post-holocaust generation, summed up in that a single sentence: Is G-d in our midst or not?
Ultimately, how many more important questions can you ask in life? This single question seems to sum it all up. Is the G-d inside of me, or not? If yes, it changes everything. How I look at myself, how I look at the world, how I live my life, how I deal with each aspect of my existence and my life experiences.
Each generation has its challenges. It was not easy for a Jew in 1951, the year the Rebbe assumed his position, to sense that “G-d is inside of me.” It is still not so easy today, at least for many of us.
But the Rebbe did not let go. For many years, he persisted. Through endless encounters, audiences, addresses, sermons, correspondence, essays, books, and perhaps most of all through the disciples and students he trained, educated and inspired—the Rebbe’s message to a generation was: G-d is in our midst, and how!
Miriam Rhodz was a typical secular American Jewish hippy in the 1960s, searching for enlightenment. She knew nothing of her own heritage and was searching for the truth.
She spent four years experimenting with every possible pagan idolatry under the sun. Traveling alone around the world, she explored many religions and experimented with many and diverse meditation paths and techniques. She spent years in pagan ashrams performing their rites and practices.
She ended up in Crown Heights for a Passover Seder, on Pesach 1974. It was the heart of the Chabad movement. She stayed in Crown Heights for a month, learning, asking, and observing. And then decided to stay.
She wrote a letter to the Rebbe introducing herself. In it, she shared all she has done over the four previous years. She described all the pagan practices she performed and all of the idol worship she was involved in, experimenting with almost every pagan idol out there.
Some people told her the Rebbe would probably give her a whole set of spiritual remedies to help her cleanse her soul from all the idolatry. It would probably take years to perform this cleansing.
Here is what the Rebbe wrote to this young woman:
Our sages teach us, “If I work hard, I will discover. If I toil, I will find.” Since you have fulfilled you have searched and searched non-stop, you have at last reached you have discovered the light your soul needs as a Jew.
In this single answer, the Rebbe removed a boulder from her chest. In one line, a sweeping perspective, he helped her redefine the four years of paganism as the prerequisite, the catalyst for her discovery of the Torah and Judaism. [4]
Miriam shared this story with me and concluded: How the Rebbe looked at Jews! Someone else might have told me, you are guilty of the death penalty 74,000 times. The Rebbe said: Wow, you were looking so hard for the truth, look how far you were ready to go, now you can appreciate what you arrived at. You searched so hard, so G-d brought you back to yourself.
“G-d is in your midst,” inside of you. Never fear your past, never fear your present. Never flee any of your inner emotions and experiences. G-d in inside all of them. Relax, embrace, and feel compassion. And then, use it all as an opportunity for awareness, humility, discovery, curiosity, and choose the behavior G-d wants from you at this moment.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky
Tom Peacock wrote...