The Challenge of Getting What You Want

Rabbi Joel Fleekop

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Gifts. Some people love shopping for gifts and almost everyone enjoys receiving them. We give people gifts on birthdays, when they get married, and when they retire. Rumor has it, some people even get gifts on the day of their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Regardless of the occasion for which a gift is given, I think it is safe to say that most gifts don’t qualify as a test. Sure spending gift certificates at one store or another can be a little bit difficult, but I don’t think we would call any gift a test.

But Parshat Ekev proves that there is always an exception to the rule.

In recalling their journey through the desert, Moses reminds the people that God, “fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers knew not, that God might humble you, and that God might test you.” Moses calls the gift and miracle of manna, a nisayon, a test. But what was challenging about receiving this divine gift, of being able to wander around the desert without having to worry about where your next meal would come from?

The great parshanim, commentators, do their best to explain why the gift of manna is characterized as a test.

For Rashi, the fabled French rabbi, the gift of manna was a test because of how it needed to be gathered. Like telling a small child that they have to open their presents without ripping the wrapping paper, the Israelites were commanded to gather the manna in a specific way with several limitations. Perhaps most challenging of the limitations was the prohibition against gathering manna on Shabbat. Living in a barren wilderness, it must have been difficult for the Israelites to follow God’s instructions and let the manna spoil in the fields.

Nachmonides, a medieval Spanish commentator, dismisses Rashi’s explanation. In its place, he argues that the test of the manna was the unusual food itself. Nachmonides writes, “They were totally dependent on the daily portion of manna which rained down and melted in the heat of the sun.” In other words, trying to live off manna was like trying to live off of gift cards and coupons that expire within minutes of when you receive them. Not an easy task. Plus the Israelites had never seen manna before.

But perhaps the most interesting explanation of how the gift of manna was a test comes from an Italian commentator by the name of Sforno. Instead of highlighting the challenges of how the manna had to be gathered or how it was hyper-perishable, Sforno explains that the gift of manna tested the Israelites because it gave them exactly what they wanted.

In Egypt the Israelites had sustenance but suffered greatly for it. But now, as Sforno explains, God gave the Israelites “sustenance without suffering.” They had everything they needed and this, Sforno argues, provided a very difficult test.

We have often heard the saying, “there are no atheists in fox holes and ambulances.” Whether or not that is true, the notion that people turn to God and religion when things are uncertain is well accepted. But that when people are secure and without fear, their loyalties tend to drift from sources of authority.

This was the logic of Lord North, a member of the British Parliament who in 1763, following the French and Indian War, urged his government to return Canada to the French, predicting that without an enemy to its North, the colonists in North America would lose their connection to Great Britain. And as we were reminded last month on the 4th of July, his prediction was realized.

A similar thing could have happened to the ancient Israelites. Secure in the fact that they had both their freedom and enough to eat, the Israelites could have drifted away from Adonai. But fortunately they passed the test provided by the manna, choosing, for the most part, to follow God’s commandments.

Today we face the same test.

Having the good fortune to live in America, we live lives of relative safety and like our ancient ancestors, the sustenance we need is not beyond reach. We are the recipients, if you will, of metaphoric manna.

But like the manna gathered by our ancient ancestors, living lives of relative ease and comfort present us with a test. We face the challenge, as Sforno identified, of remaining faithful to God’s teachings.

Throughout the Torah we are reminded over and over again to be kind to the stranger for we were strangers in the land of Egypt. Though we do our best to recall those events every Passover, the experience of Egypt, and the more recent acts of discrimination and horrors that Jews have endured, seem like distant memories.

In America we have found prosperity, freedom, and acceptance. Anti-Semitism still exists, but as the outcry over Mel Gibson’s remarks illustrates, it is no longer tolerated. We are blessed to be living in times like these, but they present us with the challenge unknown to our ancestors. If we are to fulfill the most repeated commandment in the Torah we, no longer strangers ourselves, must find a way to empathize and welcome those who still find themselves as outsiders in our country and community.

Similarly, with increased affluence the Jewish community has moved from the community of tents described in the Torah, and the tenements of our grandparents, to the sprawling and spacious suburbs. Left behind, along with the crowds and noise of the city centers, were tight knit communities in which fulfilling commandments like visiting the sick and comforting the bereaved were second nature. Jewish tradition tells us that these acts are so valued they are without measure and so we must overcome the challenge of living more private lives and continue to reach out to one another, even if our communities are no longer measured in city blocks.

And finally we must make time in our busy schedules to awe at the world in which we live and to appreciate that all around us there is holiness. With our free time consumed by the myriad of entertainment options provided by Television, the internet, and now our I Pods, as well as by commitments to soccer, dance and the gym, it is easy to miss that every morning a miracle happens when the sun comes up and another occurs in the evening as it sets. Likewise as phone and email conversations take the place of face to face meetings, it’s almost impossible to recognize the holiness that exists in everyone we encounter. Much of the Torah is dedicated to instructions for marking places and times as holy. Staying true to these commandments means recognizing that our lives are also holy.

The gift of being able to live in a free, safe, and prosperous country is one for which I am eternally thankful. But this priceless gift, like the ancient manna given to our ancestors, presents us with a unique test. It challenges us to remember that although we have been accepted into American culture, there are still others who remain on the fringes of society, that although they live behind large fences and lawns, our neighbors still need support during illness and mourning, and that behind the high tech gizmo consuming our attention, there is a beautiful and holy world filled with people created in the image of God. I hope and pray that we are able to overcome these challenges. That we, like our ancestors, are able to live our lives as bnai mitzvah, followers of God’s commandments.

Shabbat Shalom.