Beshalach - 3rd Portion

Join as we learnish for the third Torah reading of parasalak Tuesday parasak chapter 14 verse 15. Yesterday we learned as Pharaoh was getting closer to the Jewish people. The Jewish people turned to Moshe and say what do we do? Are there not enough graves in Egypt? They got panicked. Moshe tells them the way you see Egypt today you'll never see them again. Today Moshe turns to God to know further instructions how to proceed. Verse 15 and God says to Moshe, "Why are you crying out to me? Speak to the Jewish people and let them journey for forth." Verse 15. From here we learn that Moshe was praying. So God tells him This is not a time for you to take your time in while the Jewish people are in danger. Another explanation. Why you screaming to me? It's up to you. I made it your responsibility. It's on my responsibility. You don't have to worry about it. Like it says, "I'm my children and what I do." So all the Jewish people have to do is just travel. All that they should be doing is move on, travel on. They don't have to worry about the sea standing in front of them as any uh issue. It is worthy. They are they are worthy to have the sea split for them because of the faith that they and their forefathers had in God. Verse 19 verse now you raise your staff and then stretch it out over the sea and split it and the Jewish people will then go into the midst of the sea in dry land. Verse 17. And I I will make the Egyptians heart hard. And they will come after you and it will harden the heart of Pharaoh and all his army in the riders and the chariots and all the horsemen that they will then follow you into the sea. Verse 18. And the Egyptians will know that I am God. And I'll be glorified through Pharaoh with his riders and with his chariots and with his horsemen. They will all come to see the greatness of God because of it. Verse [snorts] 19. And the angel of God had been advancing that was leading the Jewish people that was going in front of the Jewish the camp of the Jewish people. And instead of going in front of the camp He went behind them. So too, the pillar of the cloud was moved from in front of the Jewish people and it went behind the Jewish people. Why did he go behind them? To make a partition between the Egyptian camp and the Jewish camp as well as the Egyptians were then shooting rocks and stones and arrows at the Jewish people. And these clouds would accept them to accept the slingshots and the arrows of the Egypt because in every place when he talks about an angel over here he calls it uses the name of whenever the name is used because it means discipline of judgment that teaches us that the Jewish people were in judgment. at the time. That means it was a case against the Jews. Should they be saved or should they be destroyed like the Egyptians? Because they were the very fact that there were some Jews that were complaining and saying, "Are there not enough graves in Egypt?" Those Jews were putting themselves in jeopardy. Maybe they should also drown like the Egyptians. When it got dark and the cloud went instead of the fire, the cloud of did not leave like it used to do that it would leave in the evening completely. What happened was that generally there was the purifier was in the front and then during the day was the cloud. This time the cloud by night went in the back and it made it pitch black for the Egyptians and also accepted all those arrows and stones that they were throwing. Verse 20. What did this cloud do? And the cloud positioned itself between the Egyptian camp and the Jewish camp, the Israelis, the Israelites camp. And there was darkness because of it. Because of the cloud, there was cloud and darkness. And for the Jews, it had the pillar of fire and it lit up the night for them. Neither camp came near each other throughout the night. It's their example. A person's going in the road and his son is walking in front of him. So robbers come and try to attack him. He takes him from before him and puts him behind him. B then a wolf comes from behind him to try to catch him to try to attack his son when his son puts him before him. So what happens now in the end? Now he has wolves in the front behind and thieves in the in the behind thieves front of him and wolves behind him. You see carries him in his hand and he fights them. So too when the God says that he put the cloud in the front and in the back it says that God says and I took a frame and I kept in my arms when I was waging war against for you. It was dark for the Egyptians and it gave light. However, the pillar of fire gave light for the Jewish people was going in front of them in the usual way to go throughout the night and the darkness that was on the side of the Egyptian the two camps did not come no close to one another. Verse 21. And Moshe then raised his hand over the sea. And God made the sea. And God drove this back the sea through the night with a powerful wind with a powerful wind throughout the night. And it turned the sea into dry to dry land and the water split which is an eastern wind which is which that is the strongest of the winds. That's the wind that blows from the east that God uses to punish the evil as it says with a eastern wind I spread them out. So to we find in other places in that the eastern wind of gods the eastern wind that's in the heart of the seas that talks about as well as says that God wants to bring punishment on the evil. It uses the eastern wind and the water split. It doesn't say only the water of the sea all the waters everywhere a person had a bath. Whatever it was the water split in every sea and that's why later on we find that Jethro says that he heard about the splitting of the sea. How do he hear about it? There was no news media. There was no television was he knew heard about it because he saw that his water split and people spoke about it and that's how the news went that the Jewish people went through the the splitting of the sea. Verse 22. And the Jewish people went into the midst of the sea on dry land. And the water formed a wall on the right side and on the left side. 23 and the Egyptians pursued the the Jews. They came after them. All of Pharaoh's horses, the riders of Far and the chariots in the midst of the sea. Why is it a singular term? Did Pharaoh only have one horse? Did he only have one? It teaches us that all of them were just like just one. Everything that God destroyed, it was like if killing one horse. Verse 24. And it was during the watch of the night during the third watch of the night. And God looked the third watch of the night which was already means the beginning of the morning. So that's why it says the morning and God looked down upon the camp of the Egyptians with a pillar of fire and with a cloud and he confused and he threw the camp of the Egyptians into confusion. What does it mean? So Rashi explains as we translated the thirds of the night there are three thirds three parts of the night each one of them is called a watch the one that's right before the morning is called is called the watch of the morning I say why is it called because the night is split up to the different watches according to the angels that each one each group comes to say different song in front of God. Therefore, therefore he calls it ashes like shifts comes from the word mish and we also find mish different shifts of angels that's what translates which means the shift of the morning the word says means he looked he looked towards them to destroy them as the translates this also means to look closely like the word state The clouds would come down. It made the earth of the water like cement and then the pillar of fire would make it really hot. because it was so hot it would and therefore the um the horseshoes that were on the horses were then falling off and that caused the horses to be able to uh be in a lot of pain because of it. When they become in a lot of pain that their nails were coming off and their hooves were coming off because of that it became very confusing. He mixed them all up. He took away their ability to control of what was going on. Anytime you find the word confusion means there was a loud noise and they were making all different kinds of noises. And therefore we find also later on in the book of Samuel where he uses the same terminology about the Philistines that there was a loud noise which confused them all of what was going on at the time. Verse 25. And we removed the wheels of their chariots and therefore the Egyptians had then were had a hard time were were trying to lead it heavily. We treated it heavily and the Egyptians then said, "Let us flee from the Israelites because God is fighting for them against Egypt." What does it mean? He took off the wheels because of the fires that was there. The wheels burned and therefore the chariots were being uh dragged on the ground. The people that were sitting inside the chariots were because of they were so shaken by it. They were all their limbs were falling apart and it was difficult. That means God led them in a way that was difficult and hard for them. This same punishment was measure for measure because the very fact that they were hard on the Jewish people and so too it was difficult for them as well meaning against the Egyptians. Another one in Egypt that the same way these people that were in the sea were being punished and they're being drowned into the sea. Even those that were left in Egypt also were being punished and were being plagued upon them at the same time. This concludes the third Torah reading of Pares Shalak.