In Parashat Beshalach we find that right after Kriat Yam Suf, Am Yisrael arrive at a place called Marah. Marah means bitter. Why was the place called bitter? Because when they came there the water was bitter and they could not drink it, so they cried out and pleaded with Hakadosh Baruch Hu to give them water to drink. Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to take a piece of wood and throw it into the water, and the water became sweet. That was a miracle, and that is what happened.
Why Is the Place Still Called Bitter?
But I was wondering: why did the place keep the name Marah? The pasuk says: וַיָּבֹאוּ מָרָתָה וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לִשְׁתֹּת מַיִם מִמָּרָה כִּי מָרִים הֵם עַל כֵּן קָרָא שְׁמָהּ מָרָה (Shemot 15:23). They could not drink the water because it was bitter, therefore the place was called Marah. And then, after the miracle: וַיִּצְעַק אֶל ה’ וַיּוֹרֵהוּ ה’ עֵץ וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ אֶל הַמַּיִם וַיִּמְתְּקוּ הַמָּיִם, שָׁם שָׂם לוֹ חֹק וּמִשְׁפָּט וְשָׁם נִסָּהוּ (Shemot 15:25). The water became sweet, and after the miracle Hashem also gave Am Yisrael some laws of the Torah so that they could learn and elevate themselves. Rashi says: בְּמָרָה נָתַן לָהֶם מִקְצָת פָּרָשִׁיּוֹת שֶׁל תּוֹרָה שֶׁיִּתְעַסְּקוּ בָהֶם, שַׁבָּת וּפָרָה אֲדֻמָּה וְדִינִין, in Marah He gave them a few parashiyot of the Torah to occupy themselves with: Shabbat, parah adumah and dinim. The Gemara adds that the mitzvah of kibbud av va’em was also given to them at Marah (Sanhedrin 56b).
So why did the name of the place stay Marah? It should have been changed from bitter to sweet, to a place of Torah, since Torah was given there, to a place of a miracle. Call it nissim, call it metukah, call it Torah, something positive. Why call it something negative?
The Same Question in Parashat Bo
I had the same question last week, in Parashat Bo. Right before the last makah, makat bechorot, Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells Am Yisrael to smear the blood of the korban Pesach on the doorposts: וְנָתְנוּ עַל שְׁתֵּי הַמְּזוּזֹת וְעַל הַמַּשְׁקוֹף (Shemot 12:7). The mezuzot, Rashi explains, are the two posts standing on either side of the door, and the mashkof is the top of the door: הָעֶלְיוֹן שֶׁהַדֶּלֶת שׁוֹקֵף עָלָיו כְּשֶׁסּוֹגְרִין אוֹתוֹ, וּלְשׁוֹן שְׁקִיפָה חֲבָטָה. It is the part that gets hit every time the door slams shut on it, and that banging is what gives it the name mashkof, from the word for a blow, a bump.
I was wondering: why give it such a negative name? It is not nice to call something by a name that says it is constantly abused, hit and smashed. And why not give the same name to the doorposts on the sides, which the door also closes against and bumps every time? Why are they called mezuzah and not mashkof like the top?
When You Are on Top
I was thinking that the answer is a very interesting idea we can learn a lot from: when you are on top, you do not care what people call you. The mashkof is on top and the mezuzot are below. Since the mashkof is on top, you can call it whatever you want; it does not bother it whatsoever, because it is on top. Whenever a person is on top, higher than the others, you can call him names, you can say bad things about him, and he does not care, because he knows he is on top. But the mezuzah is below, and a painful name would be very painful to it. So the mezuzah does not get the name mashkof.
The same is true in our parasha. The place is called Marah, and the place itself does not care, because it is so elevated. Marah had a miracle in it, the water turned sweet; Marah now has beautiful sweet water, which by itself makes it an important place that people can enjoy; and thirdly, in that place the Torah laws of Shabbat, parah adumah, dinim and kibbud av va’em were given, as we saw. It is a very high and elevated place because of all that, and it does not care what you call it.
The Real Elevation
There is a big mussar in this for us: elevate yourself spiritually, in the things that matter. Of course, we are not talking about ga’avah, feeling more important than others. On the contrary, when you feel more important than others, when you pump yourself up, every little thing somebody says really hurts you, because you are so “elevated.” Like Haman: Haman felt so good about himself, so important, that when Mordechai would not bow to him, he could not tolerate it. We are talking about real elevation, spiritual elevation; a person should not only feel more elevated but actually become more elevated: really think about the important things in life, about Torah, about mitzvot, about Hashem. When a person has those priorities, everything else becomes very small.
The parable is this. When you are here on the ground, everything looks big: a car looks big, people look big, trucks look tall, trees look very tall and wide. But once you take off in an airplane and slowly climb higher and higher, those things become smaller and smaller, until they disappear completely and you no longer see them. That is the parable. The more a person elevates himself, the smaller those things become, until they disappear and you do not care about them whatsoever.
So the mussar is that a person should elevate himself. And again, not just as talk, or as something a person feels about himself, but really elevating himself, becoming more spiritual, closer to Hashem. Then everything else disappears. You will no longer care what people say about you or what people feel about you; you will care about higher things. And that really is the mission in life. Shabbat shalom.
Based on Rabbi Shay Tahan’s class “Parshat Beshalach – How to Be Less Vulnerable” (Parashat Beshalach): watch the class.
