Chevre, this week’s parsha is BeShalach (בְּשַׁלַּ֣ח). The parsha starts with Bnei Yisrael starting out on their journey to Eretz Yisrael. I can almost hear the kids in the back, “are we there yet?”, “I have to go to the bathroom”. But then Paroah changes his heart again and sends an army to bring Bnei Yisrael back. We have the splitting of the Yam Suf, the destruction of the army and Bnei Yisrael singing praises to HaShem for their salvation.

And immediately, they start complaining. The water isn’t fresh. What are we going to eat. We want meat. The answers are Mana from Heaven and water from a stone. And the parsha ends with Amalek attacking the stragglers.

For a long time, I didn’t know what the cloud was or its’ benefits. Now, however, I understand that ANYONE for minimal cost can get first-rate technology. Yesterday I restored an EC2 from a snapshot in minutes with only a few clicks. I have a pile of Lambdas running things for me automatically (like updating my Dvar Torah website with the archives). And AWS is releasing updates, fixes and new services regularly. For a minimal cost (sometimes even 0) anyone can get access to computing power in 1 (or more) of 36 locations (I needed to check) around the world.

And yet, I see a lot of complaints about how it works or its’ deficiencies. Everyone is allowed their opinion. But sometimes, take an extra second to remember that you are accessing and using compute resources in the cloud of the highest calliber. And I would say, a even miracle close to Mana from Heaven. Shabbat Shalom.