Parashat Beshallah: On Divine Accompaniment in all its Forms

When we sing Shalom Aleikhem on Friday night, can you feel the presence of those accompanying angels, one to the right and one to the left?

This week’s parsha is about accompaniment. The people of Israel leave Egypt and God keeps them company and protects them, taking the form of a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of light during the night, leading them and clearing a path before them through the great unknown dessert. When the Egyptians come from behind, this divine accompaniment moves from in front to behind, to protect the Israelites and separate them from their enemies all that night before the splitting of the Sea. The midrash compares the situation to a parent who carries her child first in the front, then in the back, then on her shoulders, depending on the danger that is presented.

When the Israelites walk though the Sea, the Torah describes repeatedly vehamayim lahem homah miyiminm umismolam, “the water was for them a wall to the right and to the left of them.” In front and behind are the divine pillars and on either side are the walls of water. The feeling is one of complete embrace.

The bed-time prayer similarly says: To the right of me is Michael,
To the left of me is Gavriel,
In front of me is Uriel
And behind me is Rafael
And above my head is the Presence of God.

Do you feel this sense of divine embrace and accompaniment? It does not mean we won’t face danger and difficulty, as the Israelites do here and throughout their desert experience. Danger and difficulty are part of life, but facing them with a sense of divine accompaniment can mean the difference between winning the Amalekite war and losing it.

How do we recognize – really see -- that God is around us? Perhaps the pillar of light and cloud were clear (though perhaps not; perhaps they could have been interpreted by scientists as natural phenomena). But later in the parsha, the Israelites, struggling with food and water, ask: Is God present in our midst or not? This is our question – is God present? Where? How can we recognize God’s presence?

Sometimes God’s messengers take strange forms. Yes, sometimes God’s angels look like a pillar of light. But sometimes they look like Pharaoh. According to the midrash, the parsha actually begins with a word of accompaniment, beshalah, “when he sent,” but who is doing this accompaniment here? Pharaoh! The very same Pharaoh who caused all this suffering and will later give chase again is here doing the mitzvah of livuy, accompanying one’s guest on their way, just as Avraham did! Pharaoh is performing the divine act of accompanying!

Are we open to seeing the divine in those around us, even from those we least expect it? The other day I was deeply sad and crying and I prayed to God to give me strength. Soon after, I walked into a public space and someone I did not know looked over at me and gave me a big smile and said: How are you today? I thanked God for that angel. To feel God’s presence is to become aware of the pillars of light in all their forms, to the right and to the left, behind us, before us and always above us.