Parashas Beshalach - We are NOT our emotions!

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It's a little frightening when my son 'hangs around' the oven while we're baking. Like all little children, he's always curious, wondering, what's in there baking. He always wants to know why is there steam everytime Mommy and Daddy opens the oven door (seems like a cool toy.) He always tests us and tries to open the oven door but to his disappointment, we always refuse to let him do it. Last week, my son slightly burned the tip of his finger because he somehow managed to get into (literally) the candy my wife made which came right off the stove. Baruch Hashem, it was nothing bad.

This morning (Wednesday), we opened up the oven door and saw him getting near. We told him (like we always do,) "it's hot, don't touch!" Today, for the first time, he backed off without trying to test us. He learned his lesson. We always warned him that the oven was hot and so are the things that came out of it. After we warned him today, he just repeated "don't touch" after us, and walked away. That gave me a lot of nachas. He'e such a smart little boy, unlike some people I will soon mention. (Don't worry, there's no Lashon Harah, you'll see what I mean.)

In this week's parasha, it says, "The pillar of cloud moved." Rashi comments, "The cloud esscorted Bnei Yisroel in the day, and the fire took over once it became dark. Once it became dark, the pillar of cloud completed its 'job', letting the pillar of fire take the next shift. The cloud was not removed as it usually disappeared in the evening, rather it continued to move behind them to make it dark for the Egyptians." [1]

Hashem made every plague last seven days. However, by Makkas Choshech, there were only six days of darkness. Three days of regular darkness were followed by three intense days of darkness, where the Egyptians literally couldn't move. If they were standing, then they remained standing; and if they were sitting or bent over, they would remain in that position. The seventh day was saved for this occasion, a time when the Jews feared that the Egyptians would get near and kill them by the Reed Sea. Bnei Yisroel were scared because they were surrounded in every direction: wild beasts from their right and left, the Dead Sea in front of them, and the Egyptians behind them. [2]

A question has been bothering me for a year already: If they Egyptians witnessed the darkness brought by the cloud, then why didn't they back off? They already suffered through Makas Choshesh! Now that they are faced with the maka once again, why didn't they retreat? Didn't they learn their lesson from the first time they got hit? Instead, they insisted in pursuing Bnei Yisroel! Honestly, that seems like stupidity to me. I mean, come on, my son was even able to figure that one out on his own, and he's only (almost) two! He knew that he once got burned from the hot oven, so now it's a good idea to stay away from it.

I believe the answer is: Pharoh and his men were driven through anger. Their emotions got the best of them. When a person lets his/her emotions over take their bodies, they start to take action through illogical thinking. Emotions are part of a person, but emotions are NOT who the person actually is.

If we thought about this and understood it, we would live happier lives. For example: Happiness is a state of mind. When we get overwhelmed with emotions (sadness, fear, anger, etc...), our happiness starts to deteriorate. However, just as sadness, fear, or anger are emotions that effect the way we live; and we make decisions upon those feelings, so too happiness is an emotion! There's no reason to let the sadness override our happiness.

May we live a happy, healthy, and good 'decision making' (long) lives.

Have a wonderful Shabbos,
Nisso

[1] Shemos 14:19
[2] Shemos Rabba 14:3