Dear Friends;
I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parasha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;
” Parsha in a Nutshell ”
Soon after allowing the Children of Israel to depart from Egypt, Pharaoh chases after them to force their return, and the Israelites find themselves trapped between Pharaoh’s armies and the sea. G-d tells Moshe to raise his staff over the water; the sea splits to allow the Israelites to pass through, and then closes over the pursuing Egyptians. Moshe and the Benei Israel sing a song of praise and gratitude to G-d.
In the desert, the people suffer thirst and hunger and repeatedly complain to Moshe and Aaron. G-d miraculously sweetens the bitter waters of Marah, He causes manna to rain down from the heavens before dawn each morning, and quails to appear in the Israelite camp each evening.
The Children of Israel are instructed to gather a double portion of manna on Friday, as none will descend on Shabath. Aaron preserves a small quantity of manna in a jar, as a testimony for future generations.
The people of Israel are attacked by the Amaleks, who are defeated by Moshe’s prayers and an army raised by Joshua.
” Dvar Torah ”
Parashat Beshalach starts off by saying that when Pharaoh sent out the Jewish people, G-d did not lead them by the way of Phillistines, because it was too near, for G-d said, “Perhaps the people will reconsider when they see a war, and they will return to Egypt.” Instead, G-d turned the people towards the desert and the Red Sea.
Then interestingly, the Torah says, “And it was told to the king of Egypt that the people had fled”…….. as if he didn’t know!! And the heart of Pharaoh and his servants changed regarding the nation, and they said, “’What is it that we have done to send Israel from serving us?”
Then Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: “Speak to the Children of Israel and let them turn back and encamp before Pi-hachiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-Zephon; you shall encamp opposite it, by the sea.” Now, Baal-Zephon was an Egyptian idol!
There is something strange about the above text. It doesn’t make sense! Why does Pharaoh think that it was him who granted freedom to the Benei Yisrael? Everyone knows by now that Pharaoh didn’t “send them out.” The country of Egypt was suffering through ten terrible plagues; which brought the Egyptians to their knees with its final Plague– killing of the First Borns. By this point it was well established that this was the Hand of G-d and that Pharaoh had no choice in the matter but to let the Jews go! So, how could he say “WE sent them out”?
Rav Yakov Kamenetsky, zt”l, gave an interesting explanation to this question. He says that there are two things that can influence the human mind; one is emotions and the other is intellect or logic. And whenever there is a conflict between the two, emotions will overcome the logic and takeover the control of the mind. Emotions are so strong that they override any common sense and make the mind of a person do the illogical thing.
Pharaoh had a good thing going. The free labor was an economic boom for Egyptian society. Their desire, more than anything else, was to re-enslave the Jewish people. Pharoah, seeing the Jews encamped in front of Ba’al Tzefon, reasoned as follows: “G-d was victorious over all our other gods, but now that I see that they are encamped in front of Ba’al Tzefon, the G-d of Hebrews has met his match.” Even though, any rational person would have concluded after all that had happened, that Hashem is the only true G-d, Pharaoh was so desperate to find a justification to re-enslave the Jews that he let his emotions take control of his mind and do the foolish thing– chasing after them.
When Pharaoh came to the Red Sea and saw that the Sea was miraculously split, with the Jewish people marching through in the middle, he did not draw the conclusion that would be obvious to every rational person — that this must be the Hand of G-d. What kind of fool would chase after the Israelites under these circumstances? People are afraid to walk under a ladder because it may fall on them — so how could he do such an insane act as to follow them into the middle of the sea? He again, went after his emotions and came up with irrational reasoning. He thought that it was a “strong easterly wind” that caused the sea to split, and not the hand of G-d. The emotion says, “it must be the east wind”. Rational reasoning says, “it must be the Hand of G-d”. But unfortunately, Pharaoh let his emotions take control of his mind in order to satisfy his own desire!
Yes my friends, emotions and passions can be terribly blinding! It made Pharaoh lose everything he had, including his life! But you would have thought that people would learn their lesson from the mistake of the others. Throughout the history, we clearly see that any nation who have assaulted the Jews, have been destroyed and vanished from the face of the earth. The Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans eventually vanished because they bothered the Jews. Not so long ago, the Nazi regime of Germany lost everything because they killed more than six million Jews. And because of them, the Jews returned to their land and became a strong nation again. Today Israel has one of the strongest armies in the world, while Germany has no army! But the reason for the fall of all these nations was because they went after their emotions. The emotion says “we can destroy the Jews”, but the logic says “G-d is with the Jews and they are indestructible!” But unfortunately, to this very day, the enemies of the Jews continue to do the same mistake. They think that they can destroy the Jewish nation, while they are the ones who will be perished!!
Mark Twain said it in his famous quote about the Jews that: “All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”……….. Well, we know the answer, but the question is if the rest of the world knows?!
Shabbat Shalom & Regards;
Martin