Torah of Recovery: B'Shallah

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Ibn Ezra on Exodus 13:17

(1) AND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN PHARAOH HAD LET THE PEOPLE GO...the reason God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines was that it was close. God thus led them via a distant way so that they would not witness any war and say, Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt (Num. 14:4). (3) We know for certain that the Lord knows the future. God knew that the people would repent if He led them by the way of the land of the Philistines. Scripture reads, Lest peradventure the people repent because the Torah employed human terminology so that those who study will understand.

Eruvin 53b

One time I was walking along the path, and I saw a young boy sitting at the crossroads. And I said to him: On which path shall we walk in order to get to the city? He said to me: This path is short and long, and that path is long and short. I walked on the path that was short and long. When I approached the city I found that gardens and orchards surrounded it, and I did not know the trails leading through them to the city. I went back and met the young boy again and said to him: My son, didn’t you tell me that this way is short? He said to me: And didn’t I tell you that it is also long? I kissed him on his head and said to him: Happy are you, O Israel, for you are all exceedingly wise, from your old to your young.

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, p. 200, Kindle edition

Yet, here, the Torah makes a point of God’s not taking the obvious route. Instead, a dubious, unmarked route is chosen, for reasons that are related to a repressed desire. So far, we have had no evidence of such a desire; it is the omniscient God who first speaks of it, as though it were self-evident. Through this opening speech at the moment of redemption, we understand that the Israelites, even at this moment, are ambivalent about the movement to freedom.

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, p. 204

“Their crooked road into the wilderness gives them, paradoxically, a freedom to think, to ask their subversive, sarcastic questions. It gives them, also, the outrageous freedom to “zigzag,” not only geographically but intellectually, emotionally. The road that is akuma threads through places of vision and faith and, adjacently, through places of doubt and revision. It makes possible a journey that is like a graph curve (a modern Hebrew meaning for the word akuma), zigzag lines joining highs and lows.”

Rabbi Cantor Allson Wissot, Bitachon - Trusting the Path, in The Mussar Torah Commentary, p. 101, kindle edition

How do we know we are heading in the right direction? Sometimes our path is so winding and long that it feels like we took a wrong turn somewhere. Even the giant signposts that once indicated that we were on the right path ultimately only go to show that up until that moment, we were headed in the right direction. Similarly, the Children of Israel experienced the walls of water, an extraordinary miracle, as a sign that so far, everything had gone well. But then what? After the experience of an extraordinary miracle, how can we know in which direction to turn?

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 107

And one-fifth of the Israelites went up from Egypt. —Exodus 13:18 This week we learn a lot about people who have been enslaved. According to many commentators, Torah says that only 20 percent of the Israelites actually left Egypt. Can you believe this? The gates are opened, you have the opportunity to leave your own particular Egypt, and yet most of us stay. This seems ridiculous. Yet, if we look at history, we clearly see that this happens over and over again.

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, p. 559, Kimdle Edition

Only the bones of Joseph remained in Egypt until the Israelites went out of the land, for the Egyptians guarded them in their royal treasure chambers. Their magicians had warned them that whenever Joseph's bones should be removed from Egypt, a great darkness would envelop the whole land, and it would be a dire misfortune for the Egyptians, for none would be able to recognize his neighbor even with the light of a lamp.

Midrash Tanhuma, Beshelach 2

(1) And Moses took the bones of Joseph (Exod. 13:19). How did Moses know where Joseph’s grave was to be found? They say that only Serah the daughter of Asher had survived from that generation, and that she revealed to Moses where Joseph’s grave was located. The Egyptians had made a metal coffin for him and then sunk it into the Nile. Moses went to the bank of the Nile with a pebble upon which were engraved the words “Ox, arise,”3Mekhilta de-R. Ishmael says that the Tetragrammaton was engraved on the pebble and called out: “Joseph, Joseph, the time has come for the Holy One, blessed be He, to redeem his children. The Shekhinah and Israel and the clouds of glory await you. If you will reveal yourself, good, but if not, we shall be free of your vow.”4Joseph had made the brothers swear that they should carry his bones out of Egypt (Gen. 50:25). Whereupon Joseph’s coffin floated to the surface. Do not be surprised at this, for it says elsewhere: As one was felling a beam, the axehead fell into the water, and he cried, and said: “Alas, my master,” for it was borrowed, and the man of God said: “Where fell it” … and he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and he cast in thither, and made the iron to swim (II Kings 6:5–6). We can logically conclude that since Elisha, who was only Elijah’s disciple, was capable of making the iron float, surely Moses, Elijah’s teacher, could do as much.5Reasoning here by kal vehomer (an inference from the lesser to the more important), the first of R. Ishmael’s rules of interpretation.

(2) R. Nathan was of the opinion that Joseph’s grave was in the royal tombs, since it is written: And they embalmed him (Gen. 50:26). How, then, did Moses know which one was Joseph’s coffin? He went to the tomb and stood among the coffins and called out: “Joseph, Joseph, the time has come for the Holy One, blessed be He, to redeem his children. The Shekhinah awaits you and Israel, and the clouds of glory await you. If you will make yourself appear good, but if not, we will be free of your vow.” Whereupon Joseph’s coffin began to stir, and Moses took it and departed. This teaches us that just as a man treats others, so they will treat him. Joseph buried his father, as it is said: And Joseph went up to bury his father;and with him went up all the servants … and his brothers (ibid., v. 7). Even though none of his brothers was as famous as he, since he was a ruler in the land, it is written: And he brought up with him both chariots and horses (ibid., v. 9). Therefore, he deserved to be taken from his grave by Moses himself (since he exerted himself in burying Jacob).

(3) Moses bore Joseph’s bones out of Egypt, though there was no one in all the world as important as he, since he was a king, as it is said: And there was a king in Jeshurun (Deut. 33:5). Moses merited that the Shekhinah itself should be concerned about him. Hence it is said: He buried him in the valley (ibid. 34:6). What is more, not only did Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his house, and the elders of the land of Egypt escort Jacob, but Joseph’s coffin was escorted by the Shekhinah, the ark, the priests, the Levites, and the clouds of glory. Furthermore, as Joseph’s coffin was borne alongside the ark of the Eternal One through the desert, the nations would inquire of Israel: “What are these two arks?” And the Israelites would reply: “This one is the ark of the one who died, and the other is the ark of the Living One of the world.” “Is it customary to carry the ark of a dead person alongside the ark of the Eternal, the Living One of the world?” they would ask. The Israelites would respond: “The deceased lying within this ark fulfilled all that is written in the other ark.”

(4) Because Miriam waited an hour for Moses, as it is said: And his sister stood far off (Exod. 2:4), the Holy One, blessed be He, waited for her in the desert, with the clouds of glory, the Levites, and the priests, for seven days as is said; And the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again (Num. 12:15). For he had straightly sworn the children of Israel (Exod. 13:19). He had made his brothers swear that they would cause their sons, the children of Israel, to take a vow that they would bring his body out from Egypt. Why did he compel his brothers to vow rather than his own sons? He said to himself: If I impose this vow upon my sons, the Egyptians may not permit them to fulfill it. For if they should tell the Egyptians: “Our father brought his father out of the land,” they may reply: “Your father was a king, and therefore he forced his brothers to promise to do this.”

(5) Another explanation. Joseph said to them: Our father descended voluntarily, and I took him back, while I was brought here against my will; therefore swear to me that you will return me to the place where you caused me to be sold, and so they did, as it is said: And the bones of Joseph which the children brought out of Egypt buried they in Shechem (Josh. 24:32).

(6) God will surely remember you. That is, He will remember you in Egypt, and He will remember you at the sea; He will remember you in the wilderness, and He will remember you at the river of Arnon; He will remember you in this world, and He will remember you in the world-to-come.

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p 400

To be a proper leader of Israel, Moses acquired the strengths of Joesph his ability to provide people with food as well as with spiritual guidance and his capacity to forgive people who had wronged him.

Baal Shem Tov, cited in RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim, Torah and Commentary, p. 402.

Often in life, we think we can escape our problems by running away, only to find our problems running after us.

Frida Kahlo, in a letter to her friend Ella Wolfe

I tried to drown my sorrows, but those bastards learned how to swim.

Jay Michaelson, in Torah Queeries, p. 89-90

Ultimately, what differentiates ancient Egypt from ancient Israel, and what makes the Exodus not just a liberation story but an affirmation of love and life, is not law but the way law relates to the value of life. Egypt, both in its literary construction and, to a great extent, in historical fact, was a death-obsessed culture; its lasting monuments are not palaces but tombs. As all those who have visited the Valley of the Dead, or even the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, know, Egypt created beautiful, lavish coffins, mummified their dead pharaohs and nobles, and regarded this life as merely an entryway to the next one (to use a Talmudic image). They even buried their noble dead with supplies needed to make the transition. I think it is fair to characterize ancient Egyptian culture as at least equally weighting the life of this world and the next one—if not privileging the latter outright. Not so the incipient Israelite faith. Today, what happens after we die is one of the basic questions that many people assume religion is supposed to answer. But Judaism does not really do that...The exodus from Egypt is one from death into life—from a culture that denies this world to one that embraces it.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, p. 244-245

The inner feelings of the Israelites, their subconscious subservience to Egyptian overlordship is mirrored in the very wording of their grumbling...'Egypt' is an eternal refrain in their mouths...better to be buried in the graves of a familiar country, than to die in the unknown. Egypt was a 'house of serfdom.' But better to serve the Egyptians than to live in a strange clime. Later, Egypt became a land of the fleshpots, of onions, garlic, and fish.

Rabbi Alan Lew, z'l translation of Exodus 14:13-15, in Be Still and Get Going, p. 2, Kindle Edition

But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Collect yourselves and see the salvation which Adonai will make for you today. . . . Adonai will fight for you and you will be still.” Then Adonai said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to just get going."

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 108

We do not and cannot depend on God to do for us what we can do for ourselves. God acts as our partner, giving us the respect of believing that we can and will do our part. The Israelites were taught an important lesson: you have to do things for yourself. What we are able to do, we must do; when we need help, we must ask for it.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 111

Many people think that if you kill the enslaver, you will be set free. The truth is that the pharaoh never dies because there is always a new one to take his place. We have to learn how to live freely in order to truly be free of Pharaoh. Our tradition teaches us that through spirituality, sometimes our own unique practice of spirituality, we can and will find freedom. Only through connection to our higher selves will we be able to see the miracles and beauty in life.

Sotah 37a

...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).

Patricia Carlin-Neumann, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 106, Kindle edition

The daredevil confidence of this Nahshon contrasts sharply with another vision of this moment ( M’chilta, B’shalach 5). Huddled together, a terrified crowd looks behind at the Egyptians and forward toward water. As they yell, “I don’t want to go into the sea!” Nahshon jumps up in fear; losing his footing, he falls into the waves. Overcome with terror, he cites Psalms, “Save me, O God, for the waters have reached my neck” (Psalm 69:2). Here, Nahshon—a fearful, drowning man—cries for God’s help.

Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, cited in RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 404

When Pharaoh died, he was stationed at the gates of the underworld, where he would greet tyrants of a later generation with the words 'Why did you not learn from my example?'

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, p. 739, Kindle Edition

The dividing of the sea was but the first of ten miracles connected with the passage of the Israelites through it. The others were that the waters united in a vault above their heads; twelve paths opened up, one for each of the tribes; the water became transparent as glass, and each tribe could see the others; the soil underfoot was dry, but it changed into clay when the Egyptians stepped upon it; the walls of water transformed into rocks, against which the Egyptians were thrown and dashed to death, while before the Israelites could slake their thirst; and, finally, the tenth wonder was, that this drinking water was congealed in the heart of the sea as soon as they had satisfied their need. And there were other miracles, besides. The sea yielded the Israelites whatever their hearts desired. If a child cried as it lay in the arms of its mother, she needed but to stretch out her hand and pluck and apple or some fruit and quiet it.

Dr. Avivah Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, p. 216

...the Talmud is urging praise and thanksgiving while one is in the midst of the narrative. Before the tension is resolved, before one has emerged from the undetermined, ominous passage—that is the time for gratitude and song. The implication of this reading is that the people sang while they were crossing, not after emerging, as most readers assume. The timing, of course, makes a difference. Do they sing their song of praise after salvation is complete? (The text does seem to suggest this: only after the conclusion of the narrative [14:31], when the Israelites see the dead Egyptian army, are we told, “Then, Moses and the Israelites sang this Song …” [15:1].) Or do they sing while still in the unresolved course of the miracle? The difference is related to the motif of fear that we have been exploring. If they do indeed sing while still in the process of crossing, the fear and anxiety which are part of that process, the sense of their fate hanging in the balance, must be imagined as informing that Song.

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 42:9-10

(9) Rabbi Shela said: All the children (of the Israelites) whom the Egyptians cast into the river did not die, for the river cast them up, and threw them into the desert of Egypt. The Holy One, blessed be He, brought a rock to the mouth of each one, and a rock to the side of each one. The rock which was at his mouth was feeding him with honey and milk, and the rock which was at their side was anointing them with oil, like a lying-in woman who anoints her son, as it is said, "And he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock" (Deut. 32:13). When Israel came to the sea, they saw the Holy One, blessed be He, and they recognized Him, and praised Him, and sanctified Him, as it is said, "This is my God, and I will praise him" (Ex. 15:2).

(10) Rabbi Simon said: On the fourth day the Israelites encamped by the edge of the sea, and to the south of the sea. The Egyptians were floating like skin-bottles upon the surface of the waters, and a north wind went forth and cast them opposite the camp of Israel, and the Israelites went and saw them, and they recognized them, and they said: These (here) were the officials of the palace of Pharaoh, and those (there) were the taskmasters, and they recognized every one, as it is said, "And Israel saw the Egyptians || dead upon the sea shore" (Ex. 14:30).

Muriel Rukeyer, Searching/Not Searching, in Breaking Open

Miriam: The Red Sea

High above shores and times,
I on the shore
forever and ever.
Moses my brother
has crossed over
to milk, honey,
that holy land.
Building Jerusalem.
I sing forever
on the seashore.
I do remember
horseman and horses,
waves of passage
poured into war,
all poured into journey.
My unseen brothers
have gone over;
chariots
deep seas under.
I alone stand here
ankle-deep
and I sing, I sing,
until the lands
sing to each other.

Baal Shem Tov, 18th c.

Let me fall if I must fall. The one I will become will catch me.

Rabbi Dr. Sue Reinhold, The Final Crossing: Parashah Beshallach and the Other Side, Lecture, January 2008

The Sea of Endings, it seems, in this moment, was also the Sea of Beginnings. Or as Zornberg puts it, “On the threshold of death, the Israelites experience, most viscerally, the restoration to life.”[1] Many commentators ascertain that the Sea of Reeds is a metaphor for a birth canal, a narrow body of salt water through which the Israelites press through in order to be born. What does a baby feel in the warm and salty womb? What does it feel in the birth canal? How does it feel when it comes out into the bright and unfamiliar light of the “dry ground”? It cries! How do we feel at times as we change and grow over our many years and make passage from our Egypts, our Mitzrayim, our narrow places?...So all along in this journey, there are opposites held in tension. The sea is the land. The ending is the beginning. Near death becomes birth. Can’t you think of things in your life that at the time seemed like endings, but were really the beginning of something else? And how closely linked are death and birth? The seven days we sit shiva are in reference to the seven days of creation, and as Rabbi Jane has pointed out to me, these seven days reference the creation of something new – a world without that actual person in it, and a world with her memory in it.

[1] The Particulars of Rapture, p. 215

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 407

Legend has it that the angels wanted to sing songs of praise, but God told them, 'Wait, and let Israel sing first. Humans are able to praise only when they are inspired. If we do not give them the opportunity, the desire will pass.'

Mekhilta d'Rabbi Ishmael 15:20

(2) (Exodus, Ibid.) "the timbrel in her hand": Whence did they have timbrels and dance (instruments) in the desert? __ Being tzaddikim, and knowing for a certainty that the Holy One Blessed be He would perform miracles and mighty acts for them when they left Egypt, they readied timbrels and (dance) instruments for themselves. (Ibid. 21)

RA & USCJ, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 413

The purpose of religion is not to explain life's bitterness but to sweeten it, to make it more palatable. The Midrash envisions Moses asking God, 'Why did You create brackish water in your world, a liquid that serves no purpose?' God replies 'Instead of asking philosophical questions, do something to make the bitter waters sweet.'

from Rabbi Dr. Sue Reinhold, The Final Crossing: Parashah Beshallach and the Other Side, Lecture, January 2008

How many times have we undergone a challenge, a scary but positive transition, a move towards the light, away from darkness, and found ourselves compelled to step back into what is comfortable and known, even if we know it includes pain? How often have we ourselves bound ourselves in community and decided collectively that the past was better merely because it was what we knew? The longing for Egypt, for the familiar pain instead of the uncertain future, strikes me in modern parallel in my modern sage Bono’s lyric – he’s the lead singer of the rock band U2: “Don’t you worry about the day, the day the pain it goes away? I know I miss mine sometimes.” The fact that this lyric of Bono’s resides in a song titled Xanax and Wine is an indicator of some of our modern ways of staving off the fear of an uncertain world. In the end, the Israelites in this moment are not sensing joy at freedom. The Israelites are not weighing the contrast between slavery and freedom. They are weighing the contrast between the familiar and the unknown. We are like this too.

George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 362, Kindle edition

And they all lived happily after.

For about a day.

Now the Hebrews commence what will be forty years of wandering in the wilderness. And forty years of grumbling, complaining, and muttering dissension. In swift succession we are shown three separate incidents of complaining and possible insurrection, and there will be more to come. How is it possible that the Hebrews, who were singing God’s praises so ardently in the Shirat Ha’Yam, turned so quickly into the doubting, kvetching masses who could accuse Moshe with “You have brought us to this desert to starve this entire congregation to death” and could ask at Rephidim, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 1132

16:7. YHWH’s glory. The glory surrounds God when in the presence of humans. It is some sort of indescribable substance that veils or masks the deity, who cannot be seen. “A human will not see me and live.” Even the glory itself is seen through a cloud. This is the first mention of the divine glory, and a few verses later it is seen for the first time. It then does not occur again until the revelation at Sinai. It is impressive, but also sad, that its first appearance comes in response to the people’s complaints over food rather than as the surrounding of the Sinai event. It suggests the extreme seriousness of what is taking place in this first period following the exodus. The people are unprepared, vulnerable, and frightened; and they are apparently in need of manifest evidence that the power that brought them out of Egypt is still present, that the exodus was just the beginning, that what comes next is the acquaintance and continuing relationship with God.

George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 364, Kindle edition

A nation of slaves is not refashioned in an instant by a display of divine power.” Faith is not the product of externals; it has to be planted like a seed and nurtured within your heart. It will grow slowly, not in the fires of the miraculous, but in the sun and rain of daily life. And faith has as one of its components doubt. Doubt is not the same as fear or lack of trust, which is what the Hebrews have before they enter Yam Suf. Doubt is the probing that makes it possible to sustain a thoughtful but not unquestioning attitude to the Holy.

Shai Held, The Heart of Torah, v. 1, loc. 3239

More convincing, I think, are the words of R. Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089–1167), who maintains that God is testing Israel’s ability to tolerate “needing [God] each and every day” (commentary to Exod. 16:4).83 Dependence can be difficult, Ibn Ezra realizes, especially when one has heretofore been dependent upon a merciless tyrant. But God wants to teach the people trust, and genuine trust will require the embrace of healthy dependence.