Part of my morning ritual is sitting down to a reheated bowl of overnight steel cut oatmeal, adorned with ancient grains and seasoned with toasted flax seeds. To the right of my bowl sits a mug of iced coffee and to my left is my trusty tablet reader displaying the latest headlines of the myriad events around the world. 

Tracing my finger lightly from bottom to top, I scroll past the headlines. In many instances, the headlines alone tell me all I need to know about ongoing topics. 

My scanning always seems to stop when I come across headlines that inform us about ordinary people placed in situations where the life or lives of others fall into their unsuspecting hands. Invariably I will read a quote that goes something like this: “It all happened so fast. I had no time to think about the consequences and did what I thought was best for the moment.” Variations of that quote can be inserted into any crisis scenario, it seems. 

A restaurant in Boca Raton, Fla., was the scene of a person celebrating the New Year when that person suddenly fell to the floor in cardiac arrest. Another couple reacted by administering CPR while the whole incident was being recorded by a patron on a cell phone. The responding couple were trained in CPR and, though they had never had to deploy their skills before, they performed exactly the way they were trained and saved a life. That couple came to a restaurant to welcome 2019 and, in a flash, they became activists in “pikuach nefesh” (restoring of saving a soul). They did not choose that moment to become heroes. The moment chose them.

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Prior to this week’s parasha Beshalach (Exodus 13:17–17:16), Moses’ moment began with an unconsumed burning bush, which ignited a series of events that conditioned a people for a threshold moment so monumental, that the written narrative had to be further embellished (one of only two instances in the Torah) by arranging the words to form a brick wall! Not just any brick wall, the spacing of the words are loosely set as if the words are floating, each word containing its own song adrift in a universe of unknowns yet held together by solid lines above and below. 

The words — a vagabond text free but yet to be congealed — are somewhere between heaven and earth; the void of the universe and the impenetrable mantle of the ground on which they stand. The imagery is truly protean and has inspired countless lessons, essays and sermons connecting its form and/or its message to historic events beyond the original one. Phrases have been extracted and placed into our standard liturgy “who is like You …” – “Mi Chamocha.” 

Israel’s moment was conceived with a flame and born from the flowing water of the Reed Sea. Before this moment, Moses and the Israelites were physically, spiritually and strategically conditioned to be prepared for the time of their emancipation. Moses knew what he had to do to save his people. The moment arrived and he, with nothing more than an understanding of his role and knowledge of the task at hand, stepped from the shore, into the water and … the rest is history.

This weekend, we celebrate the emancipation of our ancestors  with words, melodies and lyrical interpretations. We welcome the “Season of Music” and remind ourselves that, while not as magnificent as the crossing of the Reed Sea, we may yet be defined by a moment not of our choosing. This weekend we celebrate liberty, diversity, unity and divinity. We recognize those in history whose moments helped to paint a yet to be finished portrait of a country where they sky is open to those who look up and a nation’s hope can induce wholeness in our time. 

Are you prepared for your moment? Hindsight may cause you to regret the moments that have passed, but it’s never too late to condition yourself for the next moment.

Shabbat Shalom.

Cantor-Rabbi Ronald D. Eichaker serves United Hebrew Congregation and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association, which coordinates the weekly d’var Torah for the Jewish Light.