Around Mincha time on Shabbat, I try to start reviewing the parsha for the coming week. If all goes according to plan, I review one aliyah each day.
This week, things didn’t go according to plan.
I reviewed the entire parsha on Shabbat, but I never got to my daily aliyah review because I got completely stuck on two objects.
Moshe’s staff and the bronze serpent.
The more I thought about them, the more they bothered me.
God tells Moshe to bring the staff, but the miracle is supposed to happen through speech.
Later, the people look at the bronze serpent, but Chazal are very clear that the serpent itself wasn’t healing anyone. Looking at it simply caused the people to direct their hearts toward Heaven.
So if neither object is actually the source of the miracle, why are they there?
I spent the week reading commentaries and flipping this around in my mind.
I found lots of explanations about Moshe’s mistake.
I found others that discussed Moshe and Aharon’s emotional state, suggesting that they were still mourning Miriam and that their grief may have contributed to what happened.
I didn’t really find the answer to my question, In fact, after spending a this week obsessing over the objects, I realized there were a lot of other important questions here. (But I’d still love an answer if you know!) I
Everyone knew Miriam and Aaron would eventually die. The timing may have been unknown, but their deaths were not unimaginable events.
So why wasn’t there a contingency plan?
When Miriam dies, the water disappears.
After seeing that happen, why wasn’t there a conversation about what would happen when Aaron died and the Clouds of Glory disappeared?
I couldn’t find a good answer. (Again, if you know the answer, hit reply and let me know!)
But as I thought about it I tried to put myself in Moshes position, maybe it didn’t bother Moshe, cause just like with what happened with Yitro, Moshe relied on faith and not systems?
Maybe Moshe trusted that when the time came, God would tell him what to do?
While I can accept that approach, I also wonder: should faith be our only tool?
Miriam dies, the people need water, Moshe is grieving, the people are complaining, he’s flustered, and he makes a mistake.
Faith and planning are not opposites.
Planning is important. It helps us identify our next steps. Faith comes after we’ve done our part.
Earlier this week, Evan and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. During dinner, I asked him what our goals should be for the coming year and what we wanted to work on together.
The next morning we started talking through practical action steps.
Not because anything is wrong or because we’re trying to control the future.
Because our lives are changing.
We have different needs, our children are getting older and so are our parents (they should live and be well).
The way we manage our finances, schedules, home, family, and goals needs to change along with everything else.
There is no way to plan for everything.
Life will always surprise us.
There will always be challenges we didn’t anticipate and problems we couldn’t have prevented.
But planning isn’t about eliminating uncertainty.
Planning gives us clarity about how to move forward, especially when we aren’t sure exactly the best path to take, because planning helps us understand the destination on our journey.
It creates a bridge to faith.
It helps us adjust when our plans don’t align with God’s plans because we understand what we’re working toward in the first place.
Maybe the lesson isn’t that Moshe should have had all the answers. Maybe the lesson is that we shouldn’t wait until we’re overwhelmed to start asking the questions.
It’s about giving ourselves a little more clarity before we’re trying to make decisions in the middle of grief, stress, or crisis.
I started the week wondering why the Torah kept pointing me toward physical objects that weren’t really the point.
I ended the week thinking about how we prepare for the inevitable changes we know are coming while still trusting God with the things we can’t control.
That’s one of the reasons I run the Journey To Organization and Tidy Together. Since we can’t prepare for everything, we can make certain transitions easier on ourselves and the people we love, by letting go of what doesn’t serve us so we can have space to plan for the future.
In honor of our 24th wedding anniversary, I’d like to share a gift with you.
I’d like to help you see your goals and destinations with more clarity so for the next 24 hours…
Purchase any Tidy Together package, and I’ll add one bonus Tidy Together session to your account.
No coupon code is needed. Once we see your order come through, we’ll manually add the extra session for you.
Purchase your Tidy Together package and get 1 bonus session
Offer valid for 24 hours from the time this email is sent. Additional session will be emailed to you with an additional code once check out is completed.