B'shalach: The Divine Code
B'shalach: The Divine Code

 The Rabbis inserted one phrase from the Torah over and over again in everyday Jewish prayer. It is recited ten times by the praying Jew on a weekday and twelve times on Shabbat.



Exodus, B'shalach 15:18 – "G-d reigns until forever".



On a weekday the phrase is repeated six times at Shacharit, one time at Mincha and three times at Ma'ariv. No

No other phrase from the Chumash is repeated so often.

other phrase from the Chumash is repeated so often. The next most often repeated phrase is the Sh'ma and it is recited only four times.



Exodus 15:18 is the final verse in the famous Song at the Sea, sung by Moshe and the entire Jewish People after the crossing of the Red Sea in Parshat B'shalach.



The entire Jewish People sang the Song. An interesting thing to note is that this was one of the moments in history when the Jewish People were the most united. The people all sang the same song and everyone was singing it for the first time. Did the entire people experience a Divinely inspired vision? If they did it must be pointed out that a part of the prophecy was the commitment to build a Sanctuary (Holy Temple, Beit HaMikdash) for G-d.



In the verse immediately before Exodus 15:18 the Temple Mount is described as the foundation (of the world) and the holy place of G-d.



The praying Jew is meant to internalize the message of the Song at the Sea many times a day and not just at the Pesach Seder. The message is: The earth is G-d's. The earth will always be G-d's. G-d as owner decides what part of the earth is designated for who and for what purpose.



G-d has chosen just one people to have a special, unique responsibility to worship Him with ritual sacrifice on His Holy Mountain in the Holy City of Jerusalem in His Holy Land.



This people – the Jewish People – were miraculously delivered from bondage in Egypt as the Haggadah relates

The message is: The earth is G-d's. The earth will always be G-d's.

with "signs and wonders", specifically to demonstrate to the Jewish People and the other nations of the world that G-d is the absolute Ruler of the Universe. The Dayanu song in the Haggadah also contains a reference to the connection between the miracle at the sea and the building of the Beit HaMikdash, as both landmark events are mentioned.  



The Jewish People's reciting of "G-d reigns until forever" 10 times daily is meant to be a reminder that the Jewish People have a responsibility on the Temple Mount. We are missing the message. A connection between this idea and Peasch is the closing statement we make at the seder – Next Year in Jerusalem!



Four words. "G-d reigns until forever" is four words in Hebrew as well as in English. When modern Jews read a four word combination they are probably limited in their ability to place the four words in the context of the original source of the phrase. It should be clear that to the Rabbis who compiled the Jewish Siddur the Chumash held much more of a central place in their lives and the lives of the members of their communities. The Chumash was their literature, history, study object, sacred scripture, poetry and music. Talmud and Tanach would not have been as familiar to the common Jew at the time before the printing press as the Chumash.



And the verse the Rabbis choose to use again and again from the Chumash – "Hashem reigns until forever". Let's re-internalize the message in its proper context a striving for the re-built Temple on the Temple Mount in our days.



And until that time, let's us do things that the generation of our grandparents could not do because there was no sovereign Jewish state with control over Jerusalem. Let us struggle with all our might against any attempt to surrender any of Jerusalem to any so-called Palestinian entity – which would be a catastrophe of the same magnitude of the destruction committed Jews continue to mourn for on each Tisha B'Av. Let us demand that the State of Israel abolish Waqf (Islamic theocratic police) control on the Temple Mount. The Waqf has engaged in supporting and encouraging terrorism and has undertaken a relentless criminal campaign to destroy all ancient Jewish archeological artifacts on the Temple Mount.   



As Israel's greatest national poet Uri Zvi Greenberg (1896-1981) wrote: Whomever controls the Temple Mount controls all of the Land of Israel.