Sweetness is in the Eye of The Beholder

Following an incredible divine revelation at the Yam Suf - the Jewish people journey for three days without water. They finally come upon an oasis, but - as its name "Marrah" suggests - the water is too bitter to be drunk. The people cry to Moshe who in turn cries out to Hashem. Upon His instructions a tree is tossed into the water, rendering it drinkable.

Huh ?!

Certainly there is more going on here. And there is.

Chazal teach us that the three days were not actually bereft of water, but of Torah - which is compared to water. The people were punished because they allowed their lofty spiritual status to fade - instead of nurturing it with Torah thoughts. This, however, doesn't explain the bitter waters. If the issue was that the people didn't engage in Torah study - then Hashem should have withheld water (the physical representation thereof ) from them entirely until they repented - why give them water but make it too bitter to be of any use ?

To answer this - let us ask another question ( that's so Jewish ! ). We have learnt that G-d deals with man in an infallibly fair fashion. How, then, do we explain the following measure of divine interaction :
"אם תעזבני יום - יומיים אעזבך"
"If you depart from me for a day, I will be distant from you for two."
The %100 inflation seems a little steep, doesn't it ?

The answer lies in the exact fairness of it. Hashem says that if man decides to walk a day's journey away from Him ( figuratively speaking ) - He will journey a day's worth in the opposite direction - exactly mirroring the action ! The result, however, is a two day distance gap that must be closed before man regains his place with G-d ( so as to speak ). We see, therefore, that when we choose other pursuits over our spiritual ones it isn't just a matter of deciding to come back - we must close the gap that we created.

This is why the water was bitter - the Torah that Bnei Yisrael ignored for three days was bitter. They had taken a three day break from it and couldn't just expect it to be laying there, ignored and disgraced until they had the good sense to pick it up.

This is also why they made amends with the tossing of the tree. The Kli Yakar explains that one opinion has it that it was actually a bitter tree, an olive tree. This tree has symbolized in the past ( the olive branch that the dove returns to Noach after its experimental flight from the ark ) that we would rather taste bitterness from the hand of G-d than sweetness from the hand of man. The major part of our penance to Hashem was demonstrating that we now recognize the importance of Torah and of the divine connection it affords us. This enabled us to "bridge the gap" and, once again, enjoy the sweetness of Torah.

May we all merit to 'Tap into Torah' on a regular basis - not just for the sweetness it provides us - but for the service of G-d which we perform by learning his wisdom. May our steadfastness never waiver, but if it does - may our subsequent "gap" be bridged speedily and quickly, amen.

Hatzlacha !