 | It was impossible. The liberation from bondage – our birth through the Sea of Reeds that opened into a birth canal – it could not happen. Yet here we are, and we've been talking about it ever since. The splitting Sea animates Jewish liturgy. It drives Judaism's identity of ongoing human liberation from bondage, xenophobia and hate. So what to do when modern life presents us with yet more high walls and seemingly unbridgeable chasms? What now? |
Jewish time isn't linear. We don't forge our collective future by leaving our past in the rearview mirror to vanish from view. But neither is Jewish time a mere cycle, like a high school running track retracing the same path on endless loop.
Rather, Jewish time is an upward spiral. We go forward beyond history yet also aligning above it. It's how we can commemorate the Jewish calendar's same holidays every year but differently. It's how we can we revisit the same Torah portions every year but differently. It's why we can never step in the same river twice: we are different.
Rather, Jewish time is an upward spiral. We go forward beyond history yet also aligning above it. It's how we can commemorate the Jewish calendar's same holidays every year but differently. It's how we can we revisit the same Torah portions every year but differently. It's why we can never step in the same river twice: we are different.
So what to make of this week's Torah portion – the pivotal splitting of the Sea of Reeds and ultimate departure from Egyptian bondage, the birth of a Jewish people who would be free, the launch of liberation theology, the timeless echo to free the bound?
This question is the question of our peoplehood, and the question of our times.
How many of us see ahead an unforgeable sea? How many of us feel chased and trapped by marauders bent on destruction? How many of us feel powerless, stuck, even hopeless?
That Biblical moment spirals upward to where we are now.
Though the Tenth Plague launched our spiritual ancestors from Egypt, haters gonna hate. Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his forces to chase and trap them against the Sea of Reeds. At the place called Ba'al Tz'fon (literally, hidden lord) (Exodus 14:9), the people lost it. In Torah's greatest display of Jewish snark, the people cried to Moses, "Were there not enough graves in Egypt that you needed to take us here to die in the wilderness?" (Exodus 14:11).
Even after Ten Plagues that impossibly spared them, the people couldn't imagine a future: all they saw was the trap. But no matter. Before the sea split, Torah records (Exodus 14:15):
This question is the question of our peoplehood, and the question of our times.
How many of us see ahead an unforgeable sea? How many of us feel chased and trapped by marauders bent on destruction? How many of us feel powerless, stuck, even hopeless?
That Biblical moment spirals upward to where we are now.
Though the Tenth Plague launched our spiritual ancestors from Egypt, haters gonna hate. Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his forces to chase and trap them against the Sea of Reeds. At the place called Ba'al Tz'fon (literally, hidden lord) (Exodus 14:9), the people lost it. In Torah's greatest display of Jewish snark, the people cried to Moses, "Were there not enough graves in Egypt that you needed to take us here to die in the wilderness?" (Exodus 14:11).
Even after Ten Plagues that impossibly spared them, the people couldn't imagine a future: all they saw was the trap. But no matter. Before the sea split, Torah records (Exodus 14:15):
| וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יהו''ה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה מַה־תִּצְעַ֖ק אֵלָ֑י דַּבֵּ֥ר אֶל־בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וְיִסָּֽעוּ׃ | YHVH said to Moses, "Why do you call out to Me? Tell the Children of Israel to go!" |
Before the sea split? Yes, before the sea split. Take that in. The people went forward before Torah mentioned a word of Moses raising his staff, before an impossible east wind opened the sea before their eyes, before there was a path forward to forge.
| Wait! That's not what we saw in the Ten Commandments movie! A path opened before we forged ahead. We saw the way and followed. That's exactly not Torah's point. There are times that we must lurch forward before there's a path, before any hint of one, even if there seems no possibility at all. The movie was wrong! | |
Midrash confirms that the sea hadn't split before people began running in. First into the sea was Nahshon ben Aminadav, whose name we honor for his bravery at every Passover Seder. He went forward not because the sea already had split but exactly before, but there was no going back. Only when the water reached his neck to drown him did the waters recede (B.T. Sotah 37a, Or HaHayim Ex. 14:15).
To this day we can hear a hint of Nahshon death-defying courage in our Mi Khamokha, which our ancestors sang on the far side of the Sea (Exodus 15:11):
To this day we can hear a hint of Nahshon death-defying courage in our Mi Khamokha, which our ancestors sang on the far side of the Sea (Exodus 15:11):
| מִֽי־כָמֹ֤כָה בָּֽאֵלִם֙ יהו''ה מִ֥י כָּמֹ֖כָה נֶאְדָּ֣ר בַּקֹּ֑דֶשׁ נוֹרָ֥א תְהִלֹּ֖ת עֹ֥שֵׂה פֶֽלֶא׃ | Mi khamokhah ba-eilim YHVH Mi kamokhah nedar ba-kodesh Nora tehilot oseih fele |
Who is like You among the "gods, YHVH?
Who is like You, resplendently holy, awed in praise, doing wonders?
Who is like You, resplendently holy, awed in praise, doing wonders?
The sound of the first khamokhah was water reaching their necks to drown them. By the second kamokhah, the waters receded. It was the people's faith, even to walk into the roiling waters, that split the sea and created a way forward.
But, we say, we don't have that faith! Who among us will walk into waters like that? It's not safe. We need evidence, and a plan, and a life preserver, and a boat.
Perhaps odd for a rabbi to say, but faith and safety sometimes are besides the point. God told Moses that now wasn't a time for prayer: "Why do you call out to Me? Tell the Children of Israel to go!" Torah said nothing about safety or faith during the pivotal ordeal of the Sea. Only afterward – after the people faced their fear and walked into the waters, did Torah speak of faith (Exodus 14:31):
But, we say, we don't have that faith! Who among us will walk into waters like that? It's not safe. We need evidence, and a plan, and a life preserver, and a boat.
Perhaps odd for a rabbi to say, but faith and safety sometimes are besides the point. God told Moses that now wasn't a time for prayer: "Why do you call out to Me? Tell the Children of Israel to go!" Torah said nothing about safety or faith during the pivotal ordeal of the Sea. Only afterward – after the people faced their fear and walked into the waters, did Torah speak of faith (Exodus 14:31):
| וַיַּ֨רְא יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל אֶת־הַיָּ֣ד הַגְּדֹלָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָשָׂ֤ה יהו''ה בְּמִצְרַ֔יִם וַיִּֽירְא֥וּ הָעָ֖ם אֶת־יהֹו''ה וַיַּֽאֲמִ֙ינוּ֙ בּיהו''ה וּבְמֹשֶׁ֖ה עַבְדּֽוֹ׃ | After Israel saw the great power that YHVH wielded on Egypt, they had awe of YHVH: they had faith in YHVH and in God’s servant Moses. |
"And then they sang" (Exodus 15:1). They sang joy. They sang praise. They sang awe. They sang in release. There would be a future. Our Congregation (Shir Ami, literally "Song of Our People) is named for this moment.
The waters and marauding slavers were scary. Time isn't a running track on endless loop, but there are churning waters and marauders still. We might cower, or wait for the sea to split. Yet we are the people who walked into the waters before there was a plan. Sometimes that's the only way forward.
And then we get to sing.
The waters and marauding slavers were scary. Time isn't a running track on endless loop, but there are churning waters and marauders still. We might cower, or wait for the sea to split. Yet we are the people who walked into the waters before there was a plan. Sometimes that's the only way forward.
And then we get to sing.
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