"Then Moshe and the Children of Israel will sing" (15:1)

The Midrash says that just as Moshe erred (see above) with the expression "mei-az" - "from the time" - so too, with that same word "az" Moshe rectified his mistake.

After they emerged from the splitting of the sea, the Jewish People stood on the shore. Before them lay the mighty Egyptian army, strewn across the beach like so many broken toy soldiers. Every last man and woman, from the greatest to the most humble, reached a level of insight into the workings of the world that has never been repeated.

That perception moved Moshe and the Jewish people to song. Song in Jewish thought represents the ability to harmonize all the disparate events in our world and plug them back into the One - Hashem Echad.

"Then (az) Moshe and the Children of Israel sang a song."

That song is part of the prayers we say every day of the year, to remind ourselves that even when it seems that chaos is conducting the orchestra and life sounds like the First National Cacophony, it is Hashem Who wields the baton of world events as no maestro can.

If we listen carefully, we will hear how everything in Creation sings together in one sublime concerto.

"Then Moshe and the Children of Israel will sing" (15:1)

Film is a language. It has its own vocabulary and syntax.

One of the most remarkable film devices is the flashback. A character will be speaking, and suddenly the music becomes dreamy. His voice starts to echo. The picture seems to shimmer as though we were looking into a pond with ripples coursing across it. "Yes! It only seems like yesterday, but it's over twenty years ago since I was walking down this same road...."

The film ellipsis takes us back to the character as he was twenty years ago. Essentially, we have changed tense from past to present.

A flashback is usually employed by filmmakers when they want to impart a sense of importance to an event. They want us to be right there. On the spot. Not just listening to a reported event.

Could there be an event more important than the splitting of the Red Sea?

With this analogy, maybe we can understand why the Divine "script-writer" seemingly makes a grammatical error in this week's Parsha.

"Then Moshe and the Children of Israel will sing." Surely the Torah should have written "Then Moshe and the Children of Israel sang?"

The Torah imparts a special importance to the splitting of the sea and the song that followed. It wants us to feel as if we are actually standing on the beach with Moshe and the Jewish People. It wants us to experience the excitement, that in a few seconds Moshe and the Jewish People will raise their voices in a song uniting Heaven and Earth.

"Then Moshe and the Children of Israel will sing!"

It's happening now!

"And behold Egypt was journeying after them..." (14:10)

Rashi says that the Egyptians were united "with one heart, like one person" in their desire to overtake and subdue Israel.

A phrase almost identical to this - "like one person with one heart" - is used to describe the Jewish People as they are about to receive the Torah at Sinai. An almost identical expression, but in reverse order. Why are the words reversed when describing the Jewish People?

The Jewish People are in essence a unity - like one person - because they are all offshoots of the same spiritual root. When they are divided, their schisms are superficial, and what they lack is only unity of purpose, one heart. Fundamentally, however, they are "like one person." An indivisible unit.

The nations of the world, on the other hand, are essentially separate. All that can bind them is pragmatism - one heart - and then, temporarily, they become like one person. However, their unity is based only on expediency. It dissolves as soon as the common purpose is no longer.

The Jewish People are in essence one person. When they are also of one heart, the world stops and Heaven meets Earth.

Haftorah

Just as the subject of this week's Parsha is the Song at the Sea, so the subject of the Haftorah is the Song of Devorah the Prophetess. Both the Parsha and the Haftorah depict the holiness of the Jewish Woman.

In Egypt, Yocheved and Miriam were instrumental in saving Moshe who was the agent of the redemption. After crossing the sea, the Jewish women, led by Miriam, wanted to voice their total trust in Hashem with their own song of praise.

In the time of Devorah, the Jewish People had forgotten their mission. They had intermarried with the Canaanites among whom they lived and had served their gods.

Hashem decreed that they should undergo suffering as a result of this. Part of this suffering came in the form of an immensely cruel Canaanite general named Sisera, literally "The Pacifier" or "The Silencer."

However, in this extremity the Jewish People turned their hearts to Hashem.

In the Song of Devorah we see this change in heart brought about by the awakening and purifying power of suffering.

All was due to the unforgettable merit of a glorious woman borne up by the Spirit of Hashem, fired through and through with enthusiasm, who with her "flaming words" inflamed the courage and steeled the Jewish People's power.

Not the sword of Barak, but the spirit of Devorah won the victory.

Sources

• Flashback - Ramban
• Just One Heart - Avnei Ezer and Gaon of Vilna - Kol Eliyahu
• El Pacificador - adapted from Rabbi Mendel Hirsch

� 1998 Ohr Somayach International - All rights reserved. This publication may be distributed to another person intact without prior permission. We also encourage you to include this material in other publications, such as synagogue newsletters. However, we ask that you contact us beforehand for permission, and then send us a sample issue.