Lessons of Faith in Kriyat Yam Suf

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The Jewish people have finally been freed after 210 years of slavery. They stand poised to begin their lives in the Promised Land as the Chosen Nation, when, only three days after being sent out of Egypt, Pharaoh has changed his mind and comes chasing after the Jews again. They stand between the sea in front of them and Pharaoh and his army behind them, not knowing what to do. In what might be considered the pinnacle of the Exodus story, Hashem performs another miracle, causing the sea to split and the people to pass through it on dry land, while the Egyptians, chasing after, become stuck in the sand and drown as the waves come crashing back to their natural state.

The events at the Red Sea are a turning point for the Jewish people, one characterized by faith and action. As we will see, this faith is shown not only by the leadership of the Jewish people, but by each and every one of Bnei Yisrael.

The Torah states: But Moses said to the people, “Have no fear! Stand by, and witness the deliverance which G-d will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. G-d will battle for you; you hold your peace!” Then G-d said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And you lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Israelites may march into the sea on dry ground.”¹

Rashi explains², ‘Why do you cry to Me?’ We learned that Moses was standing and praying. God said to him, ‘This is not a time to pray at length. Israel is in trouble!”…’They must move on because the sea is not in their way. The merit of their ancestors and the faith with which they believed in Me when they left Egypt will split the sea for them.’³

Hashem tells Moshe, now is not the time for prayers, now is the time of action, action that stems from faith. Moshe, being a leader of supreme faith knew that Hashem would see us through this challenge, but rather than pray, the midrash tells us, he should have asked for instructions from Hashem – what do I do now? What action must I take to help the process of our redemption along?

Our sages debate what happened next. Some believe that the tribes fought over who would be first⁴. Some believe they were afraid and did not want to move forward. More than one source tells us that Nachshon ben Aminadav took the plunge⁵, and one midrash teaches that actually all of Bnei Yisrael waded forward: “Why does the Torah write: “they came unto dry land?” If they came unto dry land, why does the Torah call it “sea?” The verse teaches that the sea was not split for them until they had set foot in it while it was still sea up to the level of the nostrils (to demonstrate their faith). Immediately after they had done this, the sea was converted to dry land…”⁶

What is clear is that when we were so filled with faith that we attempted the impossible, Hashem came to our aid and made the impossible possible.

It is not only the faith of Nachshon, or Bnei Yisrael, that is highlighted in the splitting of the Sea. Miriam, Moshe and Ahron’s sister, a prophetess and leader of the people, also shows us a lesson in long term trust in Hashem. Commenting on the verses “and Miriam took her timbrel in her hand”⁷ our Sages ask why, on their speedy escape from Egypt, Miriam even had a timbrel with her? The Sages explain that Miriam, and indeed all the Jewish women, kept their musical instruments at the ready, as they knew that one day, somehow, they would have cause to sing praise to Hashem. ⁸

The splitting of the sea was not a miracle that occurred in a vacuum. Aside from the faith of Moshe, Miriam and Nachshon, the midrash tells us that the nation of Israel deserved the miracle as a result of the faith of our ancestors. Commenting on the line from tehillim (recited in Hallel) “the sea saw and fled”⁹, we learn that it saw the faith of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, as reflected in their actions, and retreated so as not to be an obstacle for their children and Hashem’s plan for the nation.¹⁰

As they emerge from the waters and see that the Egyptians have been destroyed behind them, the Jewish people burst into songs of praise for Hashem. The verse says clearly, “they believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant.”¹¹ While the Jewish people were no strangers to miracles after the 10 plagues, the miracle of the sea was different. During the plagues of Egypt, Am Yisrael, who were still enslaved, were passive. At the sea they take an active role, partnering with Hashem, in their redemption. The experience was close to nevua: The Talmud tells us, “A maidservant saw at the sea what Yeshayahu and Yechezkel did not see.”¹². Rabbi Yaakov Medan explains:

“The people of Israel entered the sea with their wives of children, in the midst of a strong east wind that lifted the water way over their heads, roaring waves that were held up by the strong wind alone and to the human eye seemed liable at any moment to fall back down with force to their natural place on the floor of the sea. Try to imagine a Jewish mother holding an infant with one hand and pulling along her two-year old toddler with the other, the deafening noise of the wind making his crying inaudible. She heads down to the bed of the sea in the darkness of night in the midst of the water that is lifted up high, only because this is what Moshe had told her to do in the name of God. She marches on with her husband and her older children, like a well-disciplined army following the orders of Moshe, and she does not turn back. The sheep and the donkeys that are carrying the family’s possessions advance with them. Only after we internalize this awesome sight can we understand the aforementioned statement of Chazal:”¹³

The faith that the people gained in Hashem and the trust they felt to Moshe served to give them faith in themselves. Rabbi Sacks describes the splitting of the sea as the turning point in the Jewish people’s slave mentality. On the banks of the sea, they were weak slaves, unable to defend themselves against the mighty Egyptians, but just a short while later when faced with the surprise attack of Amalek, they formed an army¹⁴. Their experience at the sea- the actions they took coupled with their faith that the actions of Hashem would come- taught them that when they are on a Godly path, Hashem would be right there with them.

On the festival of Pesach we celebrate not only our redemption from Egypt, but also the formation of the Jewish nation. As a nation we are tasked with the job of bringing Hashem into this world. This requires both faith and action. It requires faith in Hashem, and faith in ourselves to complete this task to the best of our ability. In today’s climate of growing antisemitism, ongoing war in Israel, and internal strife that threatens to tear us apart, we should lean into the faith of our ancestors and follow their example of forging forward into the waters. This lesson is true on a national level, and also on a personal level. With Hashem’s help and our faithfully guided actions, may we as a nation be able to split the seas and defeat today’s Egyptians, and on the personal level may we find our faith in ourselves to continue on a path of growth, splitting whatever seas we face.

Shemot 14, 15-13-16 ↩︎
Exodus 14:15:1-2 ↩︎
Rashi, Shemot 14, 15 ↩︎
Bemidbar Rabbah 13:4 ↩︎
Sotah 37a:3-5, Bemidbar Rabbah 13:4 ↩︎
Shemot Rabbah 21,10 ↩︎
Shemot 14,20 ↩︎
Mechiltah D’Rabbi Yishmael, Shirat Hayam 10. ↩︎
Psalm 114, 3 ↩︎
Mechilta 14:15; Shemot Rabbah 23:5. ↩︎
Shemot 14, 31 ↩︎
Mekhilta, Massekhta De-Shira 3 ↩︎
https://etzion.org.il/en/tanakh/torah/sefer-shemot/parashat-beshalach/beshalach-splitting-sea ↩︎
https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/beshallach/the-turning-point/
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