Art

Be Shalach Leaving Egypt Crossing Sea of Reeds

By Steve

Posted on January 31, 2010

In the Midrash: “One who recites the Shema is obligated to mention the splitting of the sea…
Why does the splitting of the sea have to be mentioned? Because that is when they came to [have] faith in God, as the verse says: ” They believed in God and in His servant Moses” [Ex. 14:31] By the power of this faith they were able to sing, with the Shekhinah (spirit : my definition) dwelling upon them…And just as they purified their hearts [by faith] and then sang…so too does any person coming to pray first have to purify the heart, and then begin to pray.
…The point is that Israel was created to bear witness to the blessed Creator: “This folk I have formed [that] they tell My praise” [Is. 43:21]

“The theme of exile and redemption is a central drama of the Jewish soul. Our people’s historical sufferings-and their triumphs, with God’s help-are there as paradigms by which we live. Each of us has been to ( and often revisits!) our own Egypt. We have to learn to see this Egypt-even in the form of our daily struggles with our own desires-as a purifying furnace, making our voices into instruments that will sing God’s praise more clearly as the sea splits once again for us. Remembering that Egypt and transforming its meaning is a process vital to our religious lives; hence, any prayer service that fails to mention it “needs to be repeated.”

[ The Language of TRUTH: The Torah Commentary of the Sfat Emet: Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger. Translated and Interpreted by Arthur Green Jewish Publican Society) All italics are Rav. Arthur Green’s commentary.
I strongly suggest purchasing this book for your library.

” At the Sea of Reeds(14) The liberation account ends with two literary masterpieces: the semipoetic story of Israel’s miraculous passage through the Sea of Reeds along with God’s smashing of the Egyptian war machine, and the song of triumph that follows in Chap. 15. Taken together, they form a natural conclusion to what has gone before and a bridge to what follows. Chap 14. marks the Israelites’ last contact with the Egyptians, and the beginning of their desert journey.

“Scholars have scrambled their brains for decades, trying either to reconstruct precisely what “natural” event this “really” was ( e.g., tides, tidal waves), or to identify the exact location of the “Sea of Reeds.” While such matters are important to the historian, the Bible itself concentrates on the theme of the story. The narrator was concerned to demonstrate God’s final victory and to portray Israel’s escape in terms of a birthing (through a path, out of water), and these themes had the most influence both on later biblical tradition and on the generations of inspired Jews and Christians that heeded them.”

Now it was, when Pharaoh had sent the people free,
that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines,
which indeed is nearer,
for God said to himself:
Lest the people regret it, when they see war,
and return to Egypt!
So God had the people swing about by way of the wilderness at
the sea of reeds.
and the Children of Israel went up armed from the land of
Egypt. (Ex.13:17-18)

As Pharaoh drew near, the Children of Israel lifted up their eyes:
Here, Egypt marching after them!
They were exceedingly afraid.
And the Children of Israel cried out to YHWH,
they said to Moshe:
Is it because there are no graves in Egypt
that you have taken us out to die in the wilderness?
What is this that you have done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?
Is this not the very word we spoke to you in Egypt,
saying: Let us alone, that we may serve Egypt!
Indeed, better for us serving Egypt
than our dying in the wilderness!
Moshe said to the people:
Do not be afraid!
Stand fast and see
YHWH’s deliverance which he will work for you today,
for as you see Egypt today, you will never see it again for the ages!
YHWH will make war for you, and you-be still!
YHWH said to Moshe:
Why so do you cry out to me?
Speak to the Children of Israel, and let-them-march-forward!
and you-
hold your staff high, stretch out your hand over the sea
and split it,
so that the Children of Israel may come through the midst of the
sea upon dry-land.” (14:10-16)