Ra'anana Community Kollel - Parshat B'shalach 5765

                                  Gifts and Presents

                                                         Carin Lipson

When the manna first began to fall, the Jewish people were instructed to collect only one measure each day and not to leave over anything for the future. The Torah tells us that nevertheless, there were those amongst the Jewish people who did not pay attention to this warning and attempted to collect additional portions of manna in order to insure that they would have something to eat the following day. After all, if they were to eat absolutely everything that they collected without leaving anything over there was no way of knowing what the future would bring. However, the Torah goes on to explain that those who tried to save manna from one day to another were surprised to find that in the morning that it had become wormy and rotten.

Unfortunately, in our generation, due to a number of contributing factors, the average person is spending increasingly more and more time involved in the various aspects of making a livelihood. At times like these, it is especially important for us to keep in mind the message of the modern-day philosopher who taught us an important lesson about using our time in the world to the utmost. When a person’s final days of life are drawing to a close, he or she expresses many regrets about the things in life that the person wanted to accomplish but yet, never succeeded in doing so. However, we rarely hear of a person who passed from the world amidst regret that he did not better utilize his life by spending more time at the office.

This is one of the important attitudes towards life that the Torah taught us long, long ago in it’s narrative of the manna. All too often do we find ourselves chasing our tails in order to provide for the type of lifestyle that it has somehow been decided (sometimes by us, but more often by our society) that we desire to have. Are we investing the vast majority of our time and efforts in order that we will be able to afford a two-week holiday at the end of the year or another so-called necessity which lasts for but a few fleeting moments? Is it really worth letting the rest of life slip through our fingers for the sake of precious moments on the beach or traveling abroad? Is it really worth saving for our old age to the extent that we neglect our spouse and ensure that there will be no pleasant old age waiting for us when we get there? Are we busily saving up money for our children’s education yet ignoring the development of our relationship with them?

As another popular modern proverb goes: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift - that’s why it’s called the present. May learn from this week’s parshah to thoroughly enjoy the portion that we have right now and not let our manna get stale because we are too busy focusing on what we will have tomorrow.