How Can we Heal the Bitter State of Mind?

Parashat Masai 

Who Wants to Become a Bitter, Old Lady?

One thing I don’t want to become is a bitter, old woman. I don’t want to become like one of the many, elderly grannies, I’ve met, with marionette lines from the edges of their lower lip towards the chin, making their mouth pout. They can go on and on talking about their ailments and suffering, as if, there is nothing more interesting in the world than the details of their various aches and pain. I got a taste of this bitterness when I impaired my left leg while exercising too strenuously. Yet, I’m going to withstand the temptation to bother you with more details about it. We all go through our measure of suffering in this world, but whether it’s going to make us bitter or not, depends on our own choice and attitude. The life of Naomi in the Bible was greatly embittered, to the extent that she asked the women of Beit Lechem to call her Mara – ‘bitter.’ Yet, in the end, her nachat (Jewish delight) from her daughter-in-law, Ruth, who was better to her than seven sons, revived her spirit (Ruth 4:15). We are all aware that “all is well that ends well” (The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccacci, 1353). This implies that everything is always well, because one of the main principles of our emunah, is that everything that happens in the world and in each of our individual lives, is orchestrated by Hashem, Who is the ultimate good. Therefore, no bad or evil truly exists in the world, as eventually, everything will become good. The problem is, that we never know when that end will be. This is why we need Emunah. Although I have tried to live by emunah for several decades, I find the struggle with the yetzer hara especially fierce, when it comes to accepting our fate, and suffering in life with love and emunah. The negative impulse seems to creep in at every opportunity, infecting us with its poisonous venom, injecting bitter fear and worry about “what’s gonna be?” Then I tell myself, ‘Why needlessly add to your present suffering, by worrying about what will be in the future? This only extends and quadruples your suffering.’ Instead, we must get in touch with our present pain and turn it into prayer. For example, today I prayed, “Please Hashem, You know how much I want to serve you, using the precious time You grant me to learn Torah, teach, write and pray. Please do not make me waste my time going to doctors and dealing with medical procedures when it’s so easy for You, Healer of all flesh, to just fix my leg in the blink of the eye! Please remove the pain so I can sleep well and wake up full of energy to serve You!” 

From Bitterness to Repentance

Parashat Masai, repeats the 42 locations that the Israelites passed through in the desert on their way from Egypt to the Holy Land. Each station had a lesson to offer to refine their character. At the fourth station, מָּרָה/Marah – ‘the bitter waters,’ they were faced with their repressed bitterness – the residue of their embittered prior enslavement. Through the suffering of the bitter water, which acted as a mirror, they were able to become healed of their own bitterness according to the homeopathic principle that ‘likes cures likes.’ This healing propelled them forward to their fifth station: 

:ספר במדבר פרק לג פסוק ט וַיִּסְעוּ מִמָּרָה וַיָּבֹאוּ אֵילִמָה וּבְאֵילִם שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה עֵינֹת מַיִם וְשִׁבְעִים תְּמָרִים וַיַּחֲנוּ שָׁם

“They journeyed from Marah and arrived in Elim, and in Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there” (Bamidbar 33:9). 

From the fact that it didn’t state, “they encamped in Elim,” like at the other stations, we learn that they had in mind to just pass through. It was only due to the miracle of the 12 wellsprings, that they decided to encamp there (Ba’al HaTurim, Bamidbar 33:9). The Zohar explains, that the name Elima can be broken up into two words אֵלִ"י /Eli – ‘my G-d,’ מָ"ה/ma – ‘is what’ (meaning ‘is everything’ – that is, ‘G-d is all there is’). From this, we learn that when the Israelites arrived in Elim, they repented and returned to the service of Hashem, by accepting His decrees with a complete heart, and true emunah. Elim was blessed with the purest water in the entire world because the twelve wellsprings of water embodied the Written Torah. The seventy date palms represented the 70 members of the Sanhedrin (who established the Oral Torah), while being nourished from the wellsprings of the Written Torah. It was the teshuvah of the Israelites that propelled this process [of the living Torah] (Zohar Chadash, Parashat Beshalach).
 
A Metaphor for the Sweetness of Torah

After facing their own bitterness at Marah, the Israelites were able to experience the sweetness of the Torah, when they arrived at Elim – the oasis of Torah in the desert – which can be compared to a life devoid of Torah. At Elim, the waters were sweet and good, since palm trees cannot thrive in soil where the waters are bitter. Dates, themselves, also allude to Torah, as they are called דְבָשׁ/devash – ‘honey’ (Devarim 8:8). Torah is compared to honey, as it states, “…sweeter than honey” (Tehillim 19:11). The date palm, nourished by the sweetness of Torah, represents the righteous person, as King David wrote, “The righteous person will flourish like the date palm” (Tehillim 92:13). We, Jews, all have a spark of righteousness within us, as it states, “Your people are all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever” (Yesha’yahu 60:21). The process of photosynthesis, by which a plant converts the light of the sun into leaves and fruits, teaches us to absorb Torah – Hashem’s light- deep within ourselves. This process can yield for us the fruit of inspiration and understanding. תָמָר/tamar – ‘date’ shares the numerical value (640) with the word  שֶׁמֶשׁ/shemesh – ‘sun.’ Dates only grow in hot climates with abundant sun. When we receive the Torah of Divine light, as we work on overcoming our ego, we can become transparent vessels, that convert light into the blood that flows in our veins, like a date palm, which is a pure conduit for transforming the sun’s energy into unadulterated sweetness (By Avraham Arieh Trugman https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/2097201/jewish/The-Healing-Power-of-Trees.htm).

Rectifying the Tree of Knowledge
The Israelites left the place of bitterness (Marah) and went to Elim, which also means ‘strength’ and ‘power.’ It has been said that, at that hour, Israel was perfected below according to her prototype above, for it is written, “and they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and 70 palm trees.” Now, the Holy Tree [Tiferet] spreads to twelve boundaries, on the four quarters of the earth, and to seventy branches closely intertwined, so that what was above is reflected in its counterpart below (Zohar, Shemot, 2, 62b). Through the sweet water and the 70 date palms at Elim, the Tree of Knowledge was rectified. The tall, stately date palms, furthermore, rectified the serpent, who crawls on its belly. This prepared Israel to receive the Torah at Sinai (Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Chaver, Beit Olamim 138a). Rabbi Eleazar of Modaim said: “On the very day that the Holy One, blessed be He, created His world, He created twelve springs, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel, and seventy palm trees corresponding to the seventy elders.” Scripture, thus tells us, that each tribe encamped beside his spring and the elders sat in their shade praising G-d for them, because He had prepared for them [such a restful place] in a land of drought (Ramban, Shemot 15:27). Date palms correspond to Malchut (kingdom). The stately, tall and straight date palm, with its strong roots gleaning nourishment from deep within the poor desert soil, reflects the concept of Malchut: The channel that connects heaven and earth, allowing everything from above to manifest below. 

Dates, Wellsprings, and Unity
In order to understand the significance of the fact that Israel has 12 tribes, and 70 elders, we need to delve deeper. The Israelites left Egypt as distinct units. Every tribe had its own place, its own flag, even its own window in the sky, for its prayers to enter. This could easily induce each tribe to separate from the others, declaring itself a distinct and separate unit. That would not only cause the tribes to become 12 separate nations, but it would also generate a rift in the Torah. By the same token, the seventy elders were men of great wisdom and stature, each with his own students, school, and distinct style of learning. The potential surely existed for each elder to declare that only he possessed the truth and the true interpretations of the Torah. This could have, heaven forbid, turned the Torah into seventy Torot. The wells and the date palms symbolize the unity that prevented the rift among the Israelites. The word אֵילִם/Elim is an acronym for אָבִינוּ יַעֲקֹב לֹא מֵת – “Our father Ya’acov never died.” Each of the tribes was united under one father.  His spirit was in all of them and served to connect them as a nation, just as the Children of Israel declared at the end of their father’s life: “Hear, Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is one.” Although each tribe comprises its own well, it cannot separate from the other wells. In Elim, all 12 springs were in the same place, to show that they were available to the entire nation! The date palm also symbolizes unity, since it has only one trunk. Moreover, the stickiness of dates can serve as a unifier, when mixed with other substances. The seventy date palms further symbolize the seventy facets of our unified Torah. Although there is the potential for disparity, through the Sanhedrin, the elders can achieve unanimity in issues of the Torah. May we experience unity soon in our days, which will sweeten all bitterness and comprise the true healing of our nation!