The Children of Israel were standing on the shore, terrified at their plight. The desert closed them in on both sides, the Red Sea prevented them from going forwards, and Pharaoh’s Egyptian Army were rapidly advancing on them from behind.
Moshe attempted to calm the nation: “Do not fear! Stand erect and see Hashem’s salvation that He will wreak for you today, because you will never again see Egypt as you have today! Hashem will fight for you while you remain silent” (14:13-14).
The Midrash (Mechilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, Beshallach, Masechet de-Vayechi 2, also Targum Yonatan and Targum Yerushalmi to Exodus 14:13) record that this brief oration was directed to the four camps which arose mong the nation:
One camp said: Let’s jump into the sea.
One camp said: Let’s return to Egypt.
One camp said: Let’s fight against the Egyptians.
And one camp said: Let’s pray.
And so, to those who said “Let’s jump into the sea”, Moshe said: “Stand erect and see Hashem’s salvation”.
To those who said “Let’s return to Egypt”, Moshe said: “You will never again see Egypt as you have today!”.
To those who said “Let’s fight against the Egyptians”, Moshe said: “Hashem will fight for you…”.
And to those who said “Let’s pray”, Moshe said: “…while you remain silent”.
It is easily understandable how a nation facing potential defeat and disaster is disunited, different factions screaming for different responses to the crisis.
But after the Splitting of the Sea, after G-d’s miraculous salvation, the nation was magnificently united:
“Then Moshe sang – as did the Children of Israel – this song to Hashem [1], when they said: I shall sing to Hashem because He is greatly exalted; horse and rider He threw into the sea…” (Exodus 15).
This Song which the Children of Israel sang in unison with Moshe covers 19 verses, 198 words. It is indeed miraculous that the entire Jewish nation, unrehearsed and spontaneously, would sing a Song in perfect unison.
Rabbi Dr Joseph Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1913-1946) graphically introduces it: “This Song, notable for poetic fire, vivid imagery and quick movement, gives remarkable expression to the mingled horror, triumph and gratitude that the hosts of Israel had lived through during the fateful hours when they were in sight of Pharaoh’s pursuing hosts… It is probably the oldest song of national triumph extant”.
Nevertheless, when the Children of Israel first emerged from the dry sea-bed, their situation was not yet ideal:
In Psalms 105 and 106, King David gives a magnificent lyrical précis of Jewish history from the time of Abraham to the era of the Judges. In recalling the Splitting of the Red Sea, he writes, “They rebelled against You at the sea, the Red Sea” (Psalms 106:7)
The Talmud (Pesachim 118b) explains what this cryptic reference means:
Rav Huna [2] said that the Jews of that generation lacked faith. As evidence, he cited Rabbah bar Mari’s exposition on these words in the Psalms. Their “rebellion” against G-d was that when they emerged from the Red Sea, they said: Just as we have come up alive and unharmed on this shore, maybe the Egyptians have come up equally alive and unharmed on the opposite shore.
To allay their doubts, G-d commanded the angel of the sea to spit out the bodies of the dead Egyptians onto the shore, whereupon the waves of the Red Sea washed them ashore. Hence the Torah’s wording, “Israel saw Egypt dead on the seashore” (Exodus 14:30): on the seashore, not in the sea.
How did the Jews react when they saw these Egyptian corpses? – We find an answer in Midrash Tehillim (Shocher Tov) in its exposition to Psalms 22, which records the same event and continues:
“What did they do to them? – Every single Jew took his dog, and went and put his foot on the neck of an Egyptian, and told his dog: Eat from this hand that enslaved me! Eat of these innards which had no mercy on me! And you know this happened from the verse, ‘So that your foot will trample the blood, the tongue of your dogs will have its portion from the enemies’ (Palms 68:24).
“Israel said before G-d: Master of the Universe! You have already wrought all these miracles for us, we will certainly not be ungrateful. So what can we do? – Sing to You songs of praise and exaltation; ‘Then Moshe sang’”.
When G-d grants us victory over our enemies and salvation from destruction, our obligation is to thank Him, to demonstrate our ecstatic gratitude, and to recall that salvation for future generations.
This Shabbat, Parashat Beshallach, is called שַׁבַּת שִׁירָה, Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat of the Song at the Red Sea.
The Haftarah is Judges 4:4-5:31 (some have the custom to read only Chapter 5); the obvious connexion with the Parashah is that Chapter 5 is the triumphant Song of the Prophetess and Judge Deborah, after she and Barak led 10,000 Israelite warriors to defeat the Canaanites who had oppressed them terribly for 20 years, and Yael killed the Canaanite General Sisera.
Evidently, of all the events recorded in Parashat Beshallach, the Song at the Red Sea is the most central.
Decades ago, an Italian Jew told me of an ancient Italian Jewish tradition that on Shabbat Shirah they commemorate and celebrate the drowning of the Egyptians by cooking a pasta-dish called “Le Ruote di Faraone”, or Pharaoh’s Wheels: the noodles are round in a red Bolognese sauce, and the meat is chopped into relatively big pieces. The round noodles represent the chariots’ wheels, and the finger-tip-sized chopped meat represents the Egyptians’ heads, floating on the waters.
When G-d grants us victory over our enemies, when He destroys our enemies who oppress us, we are obligated to thank Him with ecstatic praise. Anything less denotes extreme ingratitude – an attribute which Judaism, and G-d Himself, denigrates as being among the most despicable.
Endnotes
[1] This is admittedly an unusual translation, maybe clumsy; however the Hebrew phrase demands it. אָז יָשִׁיר־מֹשֶׁה וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, the verb יָשִׁיר is in the singular, “he sang”. Hence “Moshe sang – as did the Children of Israel”, instead of the more usual translation “Moshe and the Children of Israel sang”.
[2] There were some 85 Talmudic Masters called Huna, four of whom the Talmud refers to just as “Rav Huna” without further identification, so identifying which Rav Huna the Talmud refers to is often difficult, sometimes impossible. The Rav Huna here had to be either contemporaneous with, or later than, Rabbah bar Mari; so he was most likely the 3rd-4th generation (mid-4th century) Babylonian-born Amora who made Aliyah (Yerushalmi Rosh Hashanah 2:2), and who survived the exceptionally harsh Roman persecution in Israel in the year 4111 (351 C.E.) by hiding in a deep cave (Yerushalmi Pesachim 1:1).