Beshallach: Activating God's Mercy

יהוה stiffened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he gave chase to the Israelites. As the Israelites were departing defiantly,*defiantly Lit. “with upraised hand”; cf. Num. 33.3. the Egyptians gave chase to them, and all the chariot horses of Pharaoh, his riders, and his warriors overtook them encamped by the sea, near Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon. As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites caught sight of the Egyptians advancing upon them. Greatly frightened, the Israelites cried out to יהוה. And they said to Moses, “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us be, and we will serve the Egyptians, for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’?” But Moses said to the people, “Have no fear! Stand by, and witness the deliverance which יהוה will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. יהוה will battle for you; you hold your peace!” Then יהוה said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground. And I will stiffen the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them; and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his warriors, his chariots, and his riders. Let the Egyptians know that I am יהוה, when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his riders.” The messenger of God, who had been going ahead of the Israelite army, now moved and followed behind them; and the pillar of cloud shifted from in front of them and took up a place behind them, and it came between the army of the Egyptians and the army of Israel. Thus there was the cloud with the darkness, and it cast a spell upon*and it cast a spell upon From root ’-r-r, “cast a spell” or “curse.” Others “and it lit up.” the night, so that the one could not come near the other all through the night. Then Moses held out his arm over the sea and יהוה drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split, and the Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

Rabbi Yehuda said to Rabbi Meir: That is not how the incident took place. Rather, this tribe said: I am not going into the sea first, and that tribe said: I am not going into the sea first. Then, in jumped the prince of Judah, Nahshon ben Amminadab, and descended into the sea first, accompanied by his entire tribe, as it is stated: “Ephraim surrounds Me with lies and the house of Israel with deceit, and Judah is yet wayward toward God [rad im El]” (Hosea 12:1), which is interpreted homiletically as: And Judah descended [rad] with God [im El]. And in this regard, the tradition, i.e., the Writings, explicates Nahshon’s prayer at that moment: “Save me, God; for the waters are come in even unto the soul. I am sunk in deep mire, where there is no standing…let not the water flood overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up” (Psalms 69:2–3, 16). At that time, Moses was prolonging his prayer. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: My beloved ones are drowning in the sea and you prolong your prayer to me? Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, but what can I do? God said to him: “Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward. And you, lift up your rod and stretch out your hand” (Exodus 14:15–16). For this reason, because Nahshon and the tribe of Judah went into the sea first, the tribe of Judah merited to govern Israel, as it is stated: “Judah became His sanctuary, Israel His dominion. The sea saw it and fled” (Psalms 114:2–3). The baraita interprets the verses in this manner: What is the reason that Judah became His sanctuary and Israel came under His dominion? It is because “the sea saw it and fled.”

מה תצעק אלי, "why are you crying out to Me, etc.?" The word "to Me" is difficult. Who else was Moses supposed to cry out to if not to G'd? We find both in Jonah 2,3 and in Psalms 118,5 that in times of distress one is supposed to cry out to G'd as did both Jonah and David successfully. If G'd meant that Moses indulged in too much prayer that would seem an unjustified criticism as long as Moses' prayer had not yet been answered. Besides, we see from G'd's instructions in verse 16 that Moses was to raise his staff that G'd did answer his prayer. If so, why did G'd ask Moses: "why do you cry out to Me? What is G'd's answer "speak to the children of Israel so that they will move on" supposed to mean? Where were they supposed to move to? The Egyptians were behind them and the sea was in front! If G'd meant that they should move after they would observe the sea split, G'd should first have told Moses to raise his staff and afterwards have given the command that the Israelites were to move into the bed of the sea! We have to refer to Shemot Rabbah 21,7 where Samael is described as opposing the impending miracle claiming that until very recently the Israelites had worshiped idols with the same fervor as the Egyptians. In other words, the Israelites were subject to the attribute of Justice. G'd (i.e. the attribute of Mercy) told Moses that the Israelites (or he) were addressing themselves to the wrong attribute in their prayers for help. We have a tradition based on Deut. 32,18 צור ילדך תשי, "you have weakened the Rock which begot you," that G'd's respective attributes are "strengthened" or "weakened" in accordance with the deeds we perform or do not perform here on earth. While it was true that the attribute of Mercy was anxious to perform a life-saving miracle on behalf of the Israelites, they had not yet qualified for such a miracle by their deeds. G'd advised Moses "speak to the children of Israel to perform an act of faith such as entering the sea so that I can activate My attribute of Mercy and perform the miracle that I have in mind." Following such a demonstration of faith Moses was to raise his staff to enable G'd to perform the splitting of the Sea of Reeds. When G'd said to Moses: "why do you cry out to Me?," He meant: "the matter is altogether not in My hands." If and when Moses had spoken to the children of Israel and they had demonstrated the necessary mesasure of faith, only then: "raise your staff, etc., and divide the sea!" This is precisely what happened after Nachshon ben Aminadav of the tribe of Yehudah walked into the sea up to his neck before the sea had split. Sotah 69 reports concerning him that the waters of the sea were about to drown him. In view of the foregoing none of the verses present a problem, neither as to content nor as to their sequence. The principal reason the Israelites had been handed over to the attribute of Justice was that they had said they were better off serving Egypt than dying in the desert. This is why G'd (the attribute of Mercy) had declared that their appeal to Him at that stage was useless.