True Magic

Beshalach, 5784

Who would you say is the archetypal magician? Gandalf? Dumbledore? What about Moshe? He’s got a magic staff that lets him works miracles. He can turn it into a snake, he can strike the water and make it blood, he can split the sea with it. Right? We all know the image, whether from a painting or the Prince of Egypt. Moshe holds his staff aloft and the sea splits. Indeed, we just read in this week’s parsha that God told Moshe

וְאַתָּ֞ה הָרֵ֣ם אֶֽת־מַטְּךָ֗ וּנְטֵ֧ה אֶת־יָדְךָ֛ עַל־הַיָּ֖ם וּבְקָעֵ֑הוּ וְיָבֹ֧אוּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל בְּת֥וֹךְ הַיָּ֖ם בַּיַּבָּשָֽׁה׃

And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground.

Your rod! Your staff. The wizard’s tool. Literally the first wizard to be associated with a staff. I think its not a coincidence that most of us think of Moshe as doing the miracles of the plagues and splitting the sea with his staff. It’s literally what wizards use to make their magic happen.

Of course, this reading of the story is exactly what the Rabbis of old, the Rabbais of the Talmud, were trying to prevent. It’s the relatively famous reason why Moshe barely appears in the hagaddah, when we tell the story of the Exodus on Passover. The Rabbis don’t want us to give Moshe all of the credit. It was God who took Bnei Yisrael, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. It wasn’t one human alone, it wasn’t Moshe. And it wasn’t because of his magic staff. So, when the Ibn Ezra wrote his commentary on the crossing of the Red Sea, he wrote that "We know that the rod did not divide the sea but that from the moment that Moses stretched his hand toward the sea God caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind and the waters then  split.”

We know, he says! It’s obvious. Everyone can tell that it wasn’t the rod that was working the miracles, it was God. Moshe can’t claim the credit.

Moshe’s staff returns near the end of the parsha. The first real external threat to Bnei Yisrael since they crossed the Red Sea appears. The tribe of Amalek comes and ambushes them. Moshe gets ready for battle, and we read in the Torah:

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֤ה אֶל־יְהוֹשֻׁ֙עַ֙ בְּחַר־לָ֣נוּ אֲנָשִׁ֔ים וְצֵ֖א הִלָּחֵ֣ם בַּעֲמָלֵ֑ק מָחָ֗ר אָנֹכִ֤י נִצָּב֙ עַל־רֹ֣אשׁ הַגִּבְעָ֔ה וּמַטֵּ֥ה הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים בְּיָדִֽי׃

Moses said to Joshua, “Pick some men for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.”

There it is again! The staff. We know what to expect. Miracles. Wonders. Plagues to smite the Amalekites. But we get no description of any wonders. Instead, all we hear is this:

וְהָיָ֗ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר יָרִ֥ים מֹשֶׁ֛ה יָד֖וֹ וְגָבַ֣ר יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְכַאֲשֶׁ֥ר יָנִ֛יחַ יָד֖וֹ וְגָבַ֥ר עֲמָלֵֽק׃

Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

Obviously there’s a small catch that when Moshe’s hands drop, the Amalekites win. So the Torah tells us the solution:

וִידֵ֤י מֹשֶׁה֙ כְּבֵדִ֔ים וַיִּקְחוּ־אֶ֛בֶן וַיָּשִׂ֥ימוּ תַחְתָּ֖יו וַיֵּ֣שֶׁב עָלֶ֑יהָ וְאַהֲרֹ֨ן וְח֜וּר תָּֽמְכ֣וּ בְיָדָ֗יו מִזֶּ֤ה אֶחָד֙ וּמִזֶּ֣ה אֶחָ֔ד וַיְהִ֥י יָדָ֛יו אֱמוּנָ֖ה עַד־בֹּ֥א הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃

But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady until the sun set.

Aaron and Hur, Moshe’s brother and nephew, help physically support Moshe’s hands until the end of the battle.

So what is going on here? Where is the magic? Why isn’t the Torah more explicit? And what’s the deal with Moshe’s hands here? I thought he was using the staff.

One explanation is that we just have to read into the story. The Torah doesn’t waste time with details. The staff isn’t mentioned in the verse I just read, but if we treat the Torah as a literary document, we know it is still there. Rashbam, the master of the pshat, or literary reading of the text, says quite plainly that he held up his hands “with his staff.” The Torah just doesn’t need to repeat the details.

But most Rabbis go in a different direction. Ibn Ezra, our friend from earlier, responds probably directly to Rashbam when he notes on the same verse:  “Some say that Moshe held his hand up in a manner similar to one holding up a banner in war. However, if this was the case then Aaron or Hur would have lifted the rod up or they would have placed it on a high place on the mountain so that the people would see it standing. The correct interpretation is the one offered by the ancient sages”  which was that Moshe’s raised hands served to direct the heart of Israel towards heaven.”

In other words, it wasn’t Moshe that worked the magic. His staff wasn’t involved at all. He didn’t perform any miracles. The only miracles that happened are when Israel’s heart was toward heaven—that is, they prayed together as a community.

To me, that is absolutely extraordinary. We have a tendency, as humans, to hero worship. To idolize the “great men.” To think: that person alone was able to do something extraordinary. But the Rabbis resisted that tendency. They wanted to give credit to God. But in order for us to commune with God, to feel the benefit of having a relationship with God, it is not enough for us to pray alone. Moshe by himself couldn’t establish that relationship between God and Israel. It takes the entire community.

See what the Torah teaches us here-- any leader is just part of the community. They are nothing without the community itself. For a community to succeed, they have to pray together, work together, live together, and be able to come together in fellowship. It is when Israel was united in purpose and community that they triumphed over Amalek. When Moshe let his hands down, that was when the community stopped praying together, and in those moments of disconnect, that was when Amalek troubled. Moshe’s hands by themselves had nothing to do with it. Moshe alone couldn’t lead Israel to victory-it took their working together as one.

So Moshe actually, if you think about it, is similar to Gandalf. Their greatest strengths are not casting spells, channeling plagues, or throwing fireballs, but bringing people together as community. That is the challenge of the leader.

So what is my challenge for you? If you’re here in a leadership role, you know what that challenge is: to be like Moshe, to inspire others. But if you are not a leader yet, you have no less a challenge: to let yourself be inspired. To be a part of the community that comes together and works the magic. Wizards may be powerful. Faith may be powerful. But it is nothing, can do nothing, without community to make it happen.