Shabbos Parashas Beshallach - 5780

Shabbos Parashas Beshallach - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

Perhaps the people will reconsider when they see a war and they will

return to Egypt. [Shemos 13:17]

Our parsha includes the splitting of the sea. In verse 14:31 we read, "Israel

saw the great hand that God inflicted upon Egypt, and they had faith in God

and in Moshe His servant." The people had been witnessing and benefitting

from miracle after miracle for a year. How could they stoop to the low level

of constant doubt and disbelief? What's more, our verse is only one of many

this week alone that demonstrate this lack of faith. Why did this happen?

There does not seem to be a single, clear answer. In fact, commentators try

to separately explain each occurrence, without addressing them as a whole.

In 14:11, the people ask whether Moshe brought them to die in the desert

because there were no graves in Egypt. Rav Hirsch thinks this means that

the people doubted Moshe's mission, and asks, "How could they just quietly

assume that God would help them in such an extraordinarily miraculous

manner for which there was no precedent?" from which we derive the

question, are we allowed to rely on miracle?

In 16:20, the people "did not obey Moshe, and left over from it until morning

and it became infested." Rashi limits this to Dasan and Aviram, although

Onkelos disagrees based on Mechilta: "these were men of little faith among

the Israelites", and holds that the number was small, but not two.

In 16:27, "some of the people went out to gather and they did not find." How

could they, after a week of receiving the miraculous food, they still went out

on Shabbos, against Moshe's orders. Some explain that it was still just this

small number, not a significant portion of the population. Others say that it

was only the first Shabbos, where they did not yet understand what it meant.

On our verse, Rambam says that God wanted to toughen the people in the

desert, as they, fresh out of slavery, were not ready to tackle their part in the

conquering of the land.

Each of these major failings of belief gets explained away in some form or

other, not with proofs, just with excuses. So what is really behind this behavior?

Rabbeinu Chananel gives us a starting point. Had God led the people through

the Plishtim, He could easily have protected them, convinced the Plishtim to

leave them alone, etc. But doing so would have cut out His opportunities to do

so many of the miracles we are going to read about in coming weeks. Rav Moshe

Feinstein concurs, and adds that God did not wish to remove the free will of the

Plishtim, nor did the people, by their lack of faith, yet deserve His miracles to

protect them in battle.

According to Nechama Leibowitz, this episode actually shows the strength and

belief of the Jewish people. They had just left Egypt, which was not just a house

of bondage, but the cultural and scientific center of the world. They were told

they were headed to a wonderful new land, but instead were led first into the

desert. Yet they followed Moshe, God's servant, not on promises but on faith.

They believed that God was real and was looking out for their best interests.

These incidents, good and bad, were merely the stepping stones of the learning

process, learning to accept and honor their Creator.