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“...as with Brachot and other efforts to acknowledge the good in our lives and give thanks, we should always try and appreciate the cost and implications of the blessings in our lives. That is living life with awareness.” Lessons for Today
Thus the Eternal delivered Israel that day from the Egyptians. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea. And when Israel saw the wondrous power which the Eternal had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared the Eternal: they had faith in the Eternal and in His servant Moses. Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Eternal.... (Exodus 14:30-15:1)
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Rabbi Pinchas H. Peli writes:
"It was indeed part of the miracle which occurred at the crossing of the sea, that the Israelites looked at what they saw and were moved to faith. It was this spontaneous faith which erupted in the exalted immortal Song of the Sea.
Song and praise has remained ever since the most genuine language of faith. Most of Jewish prayer does not consist of petition and supplication, but of hymns and praises. The Song of the Sea sung by Moses and the Israelites is to this day part of the daily Jewish liturgy.
Singing to God is not without limitations, just as not singing may have fateful repercussions.... Rabbi Yohanan comments that when the ministering angels wanted to sing hymns during the crossing of the sea, God silenced them saying: 'The work of my hand is being drowned in the sea, and you chant songs?' (Babylonian Talmud Megilla 10a).
This comment of Rabbi Yohanan was often quoted to show the humaneness of the Jewish attitude even towards the worst enemies. Even as the Egyptians were chasing the Israelites to push them into the sea and God wrought the miracle making the wheels of their chariots swerve, sweeping them into the water which soon covered chariots and horsemen, even then no wrathful vendetta, but consideration for the casualties of the enemy was the order of the day." (Peli, Torah Today, p.67-68)
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The death of the Egyptians in the sea as part of the process of God's redemption of the Israelites has always been noted with some discomfort by our commentators. But, as Sforno notes, it was a necessary step in order that the Israelites may be truly free. On the passage, And the Eternal saved Israel that day... (Exodus 14:30), Sforno comments: "...through the death of those who oppressed them by bondage. They now became free men, for until their [masters'] death, the Israelites were considered runaway slaves." Sforno's commentary is based on the understanding that the Israelite slaves, in leaving Egypt, would be considered runaway slaves, and therefore still technically in the possession of the Egyptian masters. The Israelites would never be considered truly "saved" until the masters were no longer alive. He bases this understanding on the fact that the Torah text does not use the term va-yosha - "and He saved" - until now, even though the Israelites had in fact fled Egypt. Sforno implies that it is not until the Israelites see the "Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea" that they are truly saved.
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It is one of the most dramatic and cinematic moments in the entire Torah. After 400 years of slavery, and ten plagues, the Israelites are finally able to go free from Egypt, and they, along with a "mixed multitude" of assorted non-Israelite slaves, flee for their lives. With the Egyptian charioteers hot in pursuit, the former slaves race headlong into a natural barrier: the Yam Suf or Sea of Reeds (often identified as the Red Sea). In what is perhaps the most remarkable miracle in history, God defied God's own laws of nature and parted the waters, allowing the Israelites to cross over ahead of their adversaries to freedom. In awe of what has just taken place, the Israelites, lead by Moses and Miriam, seem to break out into a spontaneous song of praise for God. The words of that song, known as Shirat HaYam - "the song of the sea" - are recorded in this week's parashah, and Jews continue to sing those same words to this day, as part of the Geula prayer, in our daily liturgy.
But, as the camera pulls back from the image of the Israelites singing joyfully on the seashore, we see a much more gruesome sight. There, slowly washing up on the edges of the shore, are the corpses of the Egyptian soldiers who gave their lives in the vain attempt to appease Pharaoh's hardened heart. While Israel sings out of a combined sense of relief and triumph, the Egyptians, who began to wail over the death of their first born, now bemoan the further futile destruction of more of their sons. Israel has been saved, but at great cost to Egypt.
Jewish tradition has never failed to acknowledge that thanks and praise are due to God for redeeming the Israelites from slavery. But our tradition has also never failed to acknowledge that there was great human cost for that redemption, and that God, as creator and parent of all, was forced to sacrifice some of humanity (the Egyptians) for the benefit of another element of humanity (the Israelites).
Pinchas Peli, in his comments on this parashah, tries to balance the Israelites's particularistic response to their new found freedom, against the human cost of their freedom. Praise was certainly due to God for freeing the Israelites, and it was incumbent upon them to give thanks, as it is incumbent upon us to this day to give thanks for the many blessing in our lives. In this particular situation, Israel was the beneficiary of God's redeeming power, and from their point of view, they could feel nothing but joy and awe. They had a right to sing.
But from the Egyptians' point of view, or, indeed, anyone else's, this was no time for rejoicing, and we should not overlook that more universalistic perspective. To that end, Peli quotes from a well known midrash in the Talmud which depicts God chastising the malakhim (divine messengers or angels) for singing along with the Israelites. "How can you sing when my children are dying!" God cries out in response. Israel had a right to sing. The angels, who are not to play favourites, did not. They should have been more sensitive. As Peli notes, we should try learn from this and be more sensitive as well.
Lessons for Today
For every moment of great joy there is a cost. That sounds terribly cynical, I know, but it is true. I like to think that the cost may be little, and perhaps those occasions of greatest joy actually have the least cost, but there is always a cost, of one kind or another. We cannot allow ourselves to be blind to that fact. That, I believe, is Rabbi Yohanan's point in the midrash that Rabbi Peli quotes: one person's miracle can be another person's plague. While God did a wondrous thing for Israel, that same miracle was experienced as a plague by the Egyptians. And even though Egypt was the enemy, they too were God's children. While we enjoy travelling everywhere in comfort in our automobiles, there is a cost to the environment, which is part of God's creation. While we may appreciate the ease and taste of fast food, there is a toll on our health and bodies, which also belong to God. And, in all of these cases, what does damage to God's creation, in the end does damage to us as well. The immediate cost of life may not always be readily apparent to us, but it is there, and, as with Brachot and other efforts to acknowledge the good in our lives and give thanks, we should always try to appreciate the cost and implications of the blessings in our lives. That is living life with awareness. Which is not to suggest that we should only focus on the cost and sacrifice the joy. Like the Israelites at the shore of the sea, it was completely appropriate to sing and give praise for the good in our life. But let's also remember the cost.
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