Shabbos Parashas Beshallach - 5779

Shabbos Parashas Beshallach - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea, and toward morning the sea went back to its power as

the Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and God churned Egypt in the midst of the sea. [Shemos 14:27]

The story is well known, even outside the Jewish world. Moshe led the people right into the Reed Sea

and it split, allowing them through on dry land. The Egyptians thought they had the Israelites cornered

ready for the slaughter, and were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a way out. They

charged into the same path their prey had just taken, God released the pent-up waters, and the

Egyptian army was destroyed. But why, with reference to the sea, does the Torah say at the height of

the action, "the Egyptians were fleeing toward it"?

Rashi says that the Egyptians were confounded and rushing about haphazardly, thus found themselves

going in the wrong direction. Onkelos avoids the problem and translates it that they were fleeing from

before the sea, not toward it. Rashbam and Sforno tell us that the Egyptians were nearly across the

entire pathway through the sea to where the Israelites had already pulled up on the bank when God

reversed the waters. The Egyptians tried to flee back to the Egyptian side, but the sea fell onto the

path before they could get through, including in front of them.

The Gemora in Sotah [11a] says, "He would not bring a flood, but they would come and fall into it."

God had promised Noach that He would never destroy the world with another flood. All He did here

was to return the water to its natural state, as noted in our verse. It was the Egyptians themselves

who threw themselves in.

Earlier in this chapter we see two other references to fleeing. In [14:5], "It was told to Pharaoh that

the people had fled", meaning the Israelites. Then in [14:25], "Egypt said, I shall flee from before

Israel". But there is a difference. In verses 25 and 27, the word for fleeing is the same, but in verse

5, it is a different word. When the Torah chooses a different word for a very similar concept, there is

a reason. So what is it trying to teach us?

The first difference is that it was the Jews in [14:5] who had fled, and the Egyptians in [14:25 and 27].

The next obvious differences relate to the purpose of the fleeing.

What were the Jews fleeing from? What was their intention? Israel had just been ordered out of the

country by the king. They were fleeing slavery, fleeing the expected treachery of Pharaoh. Their

intent was to leave permanently, to follow Moshe and God, and to go to their promised home and

to new lives. They were fleeing toward something. They succeeded.

What was Egypt fleeing, and what was their intention? First the Egyptian soldiers, and then even

Pharaoh, recognized that they were not facing their erstwhile slaves, rather the Omnipotent. They

were fleeing a situation in which they saw that they were outclassed on the battlefield. Their intent

was to return to their home, to the lives they had been living, and rethink their battle plan to return

and strike again. Their fleeing was only a temporary setback, from which they planned to recover.

They showed no growth, no recognition of God. They were destroyed.

In Hebrew, we do not say, lech b'shalom, go in peace. Rather, we say, lech l'shalom, go to peace.

Pharaoh did not understand the difference.