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Torah Portion -
Beshalach
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Written by d fine
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There’s a key line that Bnei Yisrael sang in the shirah after they crossed the Yam Suf; ‘ze keli ve’anveihu’ (5:2). The Targum translates this as ‘this is my God and I will build Him a Mikdash.’ Now why were the Bnei Yisrael suddenly committing to building a Beis HaMikdash at this point - did they not have enough miracles to sing about? The answer is given based on a Ramban in Shir HaShirim. The Ramban writes (based on Shir HaShirim 2:7) that in order to keep inspiration alive one must make a kli (physical vessel) for it before it flows away. In other words, in order to convert the inspiration from a transient experience to a life-affecting event, one must ground this inspiration by taking on a consistent spiritual practice to keep the inspiration expressing itself. Thus, Bnei Yisrael knew that they were experiencing earth-moving (sea-splitting) miracles and inspiration, but they wanted to make sure that they made it all part of them by making a physical vessel; a project to put their inspiration into - to build a Mikdash.
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Torah Portion -
Beshalach
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Written by d fine
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As Bnei Yisrael seem to be trapped between the Egyptians and the sea - with no way out - HaShem commands Moshe (14:16) ‘lift up (harem) your stick and stretch your hand over the sea and split it…’ Indeed, the sea split, the Jews safely crossed (the Egyptians did not) - and the rest is history. But why was Moshe told to lift his stick over the sea - HaShem did not need an angled stick in order to perform the miracle, so why was this necessary for or related to the miracle? The Kli Yakar answers that the word harem does not mean ‘lift up’ in this context, but rather ‘take away/remove.’ He goes on to explain that the Egyptians were clinging on to their false belief (hope) that without Moshe’s stick HaShem could not perform any miracles. Thus, in order to make it clear for the Egyptians that the miracles had nothing to do with the stick, Moshe was told to put the stick away for this one. It was precisely because the splitting of the sea was the greatest miracle - and Divine revelation - of all the plagues that the stick had to be put away here. One lesson to take out of this is what desperation can do to someone’s mind; the Egyptians still wanted to believe the ludicrous idea that the staff was performing the miracles - not HaShem - because that would be easier than changing themselves, their beliefs, and their value systems.
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Torah Portion -
Beshalach
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Written by Daniel Sandground
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Parashas Beshalach
This week’s sedra is Beshalach which sees us leaving Egypt, at last! The sedra begins with the Torah telling us that… ‘G-d did not lead them by way of the Philistines, because it was near [to Egypt], for G-d said: “Perhaps the people will reconsider when they see a war, and they will return to Egypt.” So G-d turned the people towards the way of the Wilderness to the Sea of Reeds’. As a Geography genius I can personally confirm that the quickest way to Israel from Egypt would have been up the M1 and turn left… or to go northeast along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, a course which would have passed through the Philistines and then through modern day Gaza. Problem was, this route was full of war hungry Philistines who would view the Jews as invaders or trespassers (nothing has changed there then, except maybe the use of rockets instead of arrows) and with this in mind Hashem was said to
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Torah Portion -
Beshalach
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Written by Rafi Jager
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In this week's Torah portion, a fascinating interpretation can be learned from the interpretation of a single word. The Torah states, ". . .And the Jews went up from the land of Egypt chamushim" (Exodus 13:18). Rashi explains that the word "chamushim" means that the Jews left Egypt armed.
Rashi continues and mentions a possible alternate explanation: The Jews left "mechamushim" meaning one out of every five Jews were taken out of Egypt, and the other four-fifths died during the plague of darkness.
Both of these explanations are wonderful, but there is a problem. Usually, when Rashi brings a second explanation, the additional one is in some way related to the first explanation. However, in this case, the two ideas seem to be totally unrelated.
If we take a look at the Aramaic translation/commentary of Yonatan ben Uziel, he states that
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Torah Portion -
Beshalach
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Written by Yaakov Hibbert
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This week is Shabbos Shirah. In actual fact there are two songs in the Sedra; the one sung by the men and the other by the women. There is only one phrase that makes it into both songs, thus indicating that it is the essence of the whole Shirah. The phrase is, “I will sing to Hashem for He is exalted above all exaltedness, a horse and its rider He heaved into the sea[1]”.
In order to understand why this is the most fundamental line of the Shirah, and why this encapsulates the essence of the Shirah, we must first explain this expression. Why the mention of the horses, surely it’s just
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