BESHALACH 13:17-17:16
This week's Parshah is
Beshalach.
Among other things:
Pharaoh chases after
us, and we are trapped at the Sea of Reeds
The sea is split and
we pass on through
Songs of praise
and gratitude are sung
Moshe
sweetens the bitter waters; we get manna; we get quail
We rest on
Shabbat.
Moshe produces
water by striking a rock
Someone forgot
to post a rearguard and we are attacked by the Amalekites
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In Parshat Beshalach
Hashem says (14:4):
"And I will
harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them".
וְחִזַּקְתִּ֣י
אֶת־לֵֽב־פַּרְעֹה֘ וְרָדַ֣ף אַֽחֲרֵיהֶם֒
Instead of
"harden" substitute the word "strengthen" because the
root of ְחִזַּקְתִּ֣י is חַזֵק which means strengthen.
And if
"heart" means the intellect, then Hashem is causing Pharaoh to
mentally focus on losing million of his slaves who for 100's of years have
supported the Egyptian economy and are now leaving with the wealth of Egypt.
Slaves are property;
they are things, not human beings. And Pharaoh
wants to take back his “property”
which he believes belongs to him. It could be that this system of
national servitude started 100’s of years before, during the famine
years. This was the time when starving Egyptians sold everything they had
in order to buy grain from Pharaoh. Perhaps, some sold themselves into
slavery.
Did Joseph have a role
in this?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In
Parshat Beshalach we are entering into a new phase for the Jewish
people. We are on our way to becoming a tribal nation. We are
becoming conscious of our autonomy, unity, and our exclusive attachment to
Hashem, the one God. I
think Rav Kook some would say that as individuals and as a nation we are acquiring a spiritual, national soul. We are already in possession of a
rich legacy of memories and hopefully the desire to live together.
But in
order to be truly free, there is a time to stand up and take that first step:
Trapped
at the Sea of Reeds, with the Egyptian Calvary breathing down our necks, Hashem
orders us to stand up for ourselves, and go forward. This is a lesson
for Jews for all time and all places.
At
14:15:
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, מַה-תִּצְעַק אֵלָי; דַּבֵּר
אֶל-בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְיִסָּעוּ.
“Hashem says to
Moshe: Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the children of Israel and
let them journey”.
And so we took the
plunge!
Anyone living outside
the Land of Israel, should also consider taking the plunge.
It is all part of your
journey.
וְיִסָּעוּ is
translated as “journey”, meaning traveling from one place to another. But
since the journey turned out to be a long arduous one, and largely on foot,
“trek” would have been a better choice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Follows is an excerpt from an excellent article
in the Jerusalem Post, by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, dated April 9, 2020
https://www.jpost.com/judaism/parsha-shevii-shel-pesach-last-day-of-passover-624129
In the Chumash there is a description of the
event known as the Parting of the Red Sea. If we look carefully, from the order
of things, it seems that the Children of Israel were commanded to walk into the
sea even before it split. They were told to enter the sea and only then the sea
split. The Children of Israel were being asked to partner in a Divine act.
Indeed, God is omnipotent, but He demands that man be an active partner, taking
part in progress. When the Children of Israel stood on the banks of the sea,
the active role they were asked to take was entering the sea with faith that
God had not abandoned them, and He who had taken them out of Egypt would save
them from the current adversity as well.
We note that after the Parting of the Red Sea, they
sang the Song of the Sea, something they had not done when they were liberated
from Egypt. The song stemmed from a sense of partnership. The Children of
Israel felt they had a part in the victory over the Egyptians, and so they saw
themselves as worthy of expressing their feelings in a lofty and transcendent
song.
--------------------------------------------------------------
n the
Parshah at 15:20-21 we find Miriam, leading all the Jewish women:
וַתִּקַּח מִרְיָם הַנְּבִיאָה אֲחוֹת אַהֲרֹן, אֶת-הַתֹּף--בְּיָדָהּ;
וַתֵּצֶאןָ כָל-הַנָּשִׁים אַחֲרֶיהָ, בְּתֻפִּים וּבִמְחֹלֹת.
"And
Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in
her hand; and all the women went out following her with tambourines and with dances."
Is
there some significance to the verse “and all the women went out
following her…” in the sense of emphasizing that all the Jewish
women went out from Egypt...that is leaving idolatry behind, but maybe not all
the men doing so?
If you look hard, in the word וּבִמְחֹלֹת, “and with dances”, you can see the Hebrew word חֹלֹ.
חֹלֹ has a military connection as in army or force or maybe bastion.
These Jewish women were a
mighty force to contend with, and it is still true today.
Bastion is an institution,
place, or person strongly defending or upholding particular principles,
attitudes, or activities.
No doubt these are Jewish women.
The IDF women in these photos are not carrying tambourines. They are carrying assault rifles.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MANNA AND THE FIRST SABBATH, 16:16-30
When
the children of Israel saw [it], they said to one another, It is manna, because
they did not know what it was, and Moses said to them, It is the bread .
16:
Gather, an omer for each person. The omer is equal to about 3.64 litres.
22:
It came to pass on the sixth day that they gathered a double portion of bread,
two omers for [each] one, and all the princes of the community came and
reported [it] to Moses.
23:
So he said to them, That is what the Lord spoke, Tomorrow is a rest day, a holy
Sabbath to the Lord. Bake whatever you wish to bake, and cook whatever you wish
to cook, and all the rest leave over to keep until morning.
24:
So they left it over until morning,
25:
And Moses said, Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord;
26:
Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day [which is the] Sabbath on
it there will be none
30:
So the people rested on the seventh day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The
Haftarah portion comes from the Book of Judges, Chapters 4 and 5. It is
the story of Deborah. She is the only woman called a Judge, שופטת and also the only Judge to be
called a Prophet. For the most part a Judge was a military leader.
Judges were chosen by God to rescue the people of Israel from their enemies and
to establish justice. As per 4:5, Deborah also settled disputes:
וַיַּעֲלוּ אֵלֶיהָ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, לַמִּשְׁפָּט
“And
the children of Israel went up to her for judgment”.
Deborah
is described as אֵשֶׁת
לַפִּידוֹת, translated
as a “woman of torches” or a “fiery woman” or if you are a misogynist and
cannot stomach having a woman with an independent value of her own then make
her “a wife of a man named Lapidot”. This is the take of someone none
other than Rashi.
Deborah
is a case in point of how a woman is often treated in male dominated society.
Instead of praising her prowess in co-commanding 10,000 warriors from the
Tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, a Midrash relegates the fiery Deborah to making
candle wicks for the Sanctuary in Shilo.
I
prefer to see this amazing woman as a catalyst an enabler for Barak her partner
in destroying Israel’s enemies. She lit his fire. I picture her
standing over Barak vis a vis The Doors saying: "The time to hesitate is
through. No
time to wallow in the mire".
Deborah
sings a song regarding the heroics of Yael who slays Sisera. As to Yael:
She is not an Israelite. Yael is a Kenite. They live in the south of
Canaan. Her husband Heber, who is not at home, is an ally of the northern
Canaanites. Because the Israelites give chase to the Canaanites who are
fleeing northward, Sisera is able to cover his escape by fleeing southward
seeking shelter in the tent of an ally, and well out of the fray.
Why
Yael murders him is another question: what was in it for her?
It is
interesting to note that the Israelites were low tech, no chariots for them in
this tale or for that matter in the Book of Joshua at Chapter 11. Joshua
not only burns captured chariots, but cripples all the captured horses. Is the lesson
here not to put your trust in horses, and
not to ascribe victory to your own strength, but wholly to God, whose
power alone enables you to subdue your enemy?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE REASON WHY JERUSALEM WAS DESTROYED
When we
were slaves in Egypt, Hashem heard our cry and started a lengthy process
whereby Pharaoh would release his Hebrew slaves from slavery. And it
worked!
However,
a thousand years later when the Babylonians were breathing down our neck, we
were asked by Hashem to free our Hebrew slaves. We went into Hashem’s
House, His Temple, the Bais HaMikdash and pledged before Him that we would give
our Hebrew slaves their freedom. Then, fools that we were, we reneged on
our promise. What do you then think Hashem said and did? (Jeremiah
34:8-17):
“Therefore,
so says the Lord: You have not listened to Me to proclaim freedom, everyone to
his brother and everyone to his neighbor; behold I proclaim freedom to you,
says the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I will
make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------
At the
Burning Bush, Moshe is told by Hashem that he will lead the Israelites out of
Egypt into the land of Canaan. Hashem tells Moshe that He had made a promise to
the Patriarchs to give them the land of Canaan and it is time to fulfill that
promise.
Fulfilling
the promise is easier said than done. But Hashem has a plan:
He
demonstrates his mastery over nature with the onset of the Ten Plagues.
He
bolsters the self-worth of the Israelites by having them slaughter sheep, an
animal worshipped by the Egyptians, and there is no retribution.
At
Hashem's bequest the Israelites obtain much gold and silver from their
Egyptian neighbors. For the Israelites this has to be a WOW moment:
"We are not only being paid to be freed, but are leaving with great
wealth. Does it get better than that"
The
Israelites do not have much time to reconsider. We are hustled out,
.chick-chock Reality has not yet began to set in. But when it does,
starting at the Red Sea, oy vay. And as Parshas Beshallach shows,
this is only a beginning:
In
order for us to cross over, the Red Sea needs splitting,
We
are pursued by the Egyptian army who will be drowned,
We lack
of food.
We lack
water. There was no shortage of water in Egypt.
There
is water, but it is bitter and Moshe has to sweeten it.
Hashem sends
us food in the manner of Manna and quail.
Mosses
again has to miraculously produce water from a rock in order to quench our
thirst. In Egypt with its Nile River there was no shortage of water.
We do
not know how to protect ourselves against from an attack at our
rear.
There
is a pitched battle where finally learn the rudiments of protecting ourselves.
We ask
ourselves some questions:
Was
being a slave in Egypt really so bad?
Will
the Canaanites roll over and let us take their land?
----------------------------------------
Moshe
is our leader and as such he has responsibilities as to our welfare.
How
does Moshe rate in terms of his leadership skill?
How
much help from Hashem does he need?
Leadership
definition:
The
ability of an individual to influence or guide other individuals or
organizations.
A
process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of
others in the accomplishment of a common and ethical task.
An
influential power-relationship in which the power of one party, the leader,
promotes movement or change in others.
Moshe
needed help in carrying out his responsibilities, and he often got it, as we did
too:
Parting
of the sea.
Destruction
of the Egyptian army.
Avoiding
the Philistines.
After
three days We are thirsty. There is water, but it is bitter and Moshe through
has to sweeten it.
After
one month We are hungry and Hashem provides manna and quail.
Sometime
later we encamped in Rephidim, and again there was no water. At Hashem’s
instruction Moshe obtains water from a rock.
This
raises a question as to why Hashem chose the arid land of Canaan to be the Holy
Land for His people.
There
are instances when Moshe did not live up to his responsibilities, and did not
receive Hashem’s help:
Deuteronomy
25:18 - Amalek attacked our rear ranks on the way to Rephidim. He killed all
the stragglers. Moshe did not protect them.
At
Rephidim we fought the Amalekites. When Moses was not able to keep his hands
raised, we suffered losses.
