Shabbos Parashas Beshallach - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Beshallach - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

And the children of Israel were armed when they went up from Egypt. [Shemos 13:18]

Why does the Torah feel it necessary to tell us this? So many miraculous things had

occurred to this point that one would not be out of bounds to think that miracles would

continue. We are, in fact, about to see more miracles that save the Jews. Why did the

people have to carry weapons?

First we need to look at the word armed. Rashi says "the word chamushim can only

mean armed." He explains that if they were about to travel through populated areas, they

would plan on buying whatever they needed, but since they were going to travel in

the open desert, the only people they would run into would be those with bad intentions

for the Jews. As an alternative, Rashi notes that the root of the word relates to the

number five, and he derives that four fifths of the Jews would die during the three days

of darkness, and only one fifth would depart Egypt. The Yerushalmi starts from a similar

place, and says it means that the Jews brought with them fifteen different kinds of weapons.

The word is also related to chomesh, referring to the abdomen, which might mean our

verse refers to the Jews coming out from the belly of Egypt.

If we accept the definition as "armed", we are back to wondering why the Jews needed to

bring weapons. Why did they allocate so much of their limited cargo space to this when

food and water would seem to be so much more important? Sforno understands that even

though they had weapons, their life as slaves put an uncontrollable fear in them, such

that they would not be able to stand against the most powerful army in the world. Ibn Ezra

says that the former slaves had to go up looking like a free nation, not like slaves.

Rav Moshe Feinstein tells us that a miracle does not come to one who sits and waits to

be taken care of. The nation needed to prepare to handle problems that would arise. They

had to make a reasonable showing of defending themselves. Chasam Sofer asks why,

then, did G-d instruct the people to sit and watch Him battle Egypt? He answers that the

lesson for us is that we should not fight against one who was once our host. In the fight

with Egypt, the Jews were to carry weapons, but leave the battle to G-d.

Our parsha ends with the fight with Amalek. G-d knew this was coming, and He planned

to make that battle non-miraculous, thus He knew that weapons were necessary. But we

then need to ask, why was this battle to be a non-miraculous event? Abarbanel says the

Jews did not deserve miracles, having just asked, "Is G-d among us or not?" Nachshoni

answers that G-d wanted the world to see that He has the power to save the Jews either

as Elokim, using natural means, or as Hashem, using supernatural means.

Rav Moshe also addresses the question about carrying weapons instead of food. He

points out that no matter how much they tried, there was no way the nation could have

carried enough food and water to survive in the desert. For that survival, they were

forced to trust in G-d, no matter how they might try. Defending themselves was something

they could do.

Our verse is teaching us that faith in G-d is paramount, but that we cannot just sit back

and not do our part.