Sunday, January 21, 2024

The sea was not split. It was torn.

 


Micrography by Menachem Boas. Uses entire book of Shemot. 




עברית


Pronoun chant, group and solo

Amidah




Ivan Aivazovsky  (1817–1900) Passage of the Jews through the Red Sea

Videos: TTC, POD, TNT

 

Text:  Splitting

Videos:  seiche,   the Chief

 

Shemot 16

11Adonai said to Moshe, 12"I've heard the B’nei Yisrael complaining. Tell them, 'At dusk you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat all the food you want. Then you will know that I am Adonai your God.'"

13That evening quails came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14When the dew was gone, the ground was covered with a thin layer of flakes like frost on the ground. 15When the B’nei Yisrael saw it, they asked each other, "What is this?" because they didn't know what it was. Moshe said to them, "It's the food Adonai has given you to eat. 16This is what Adonai has commanded: Each of you should gather as much as you can eat. Take an omer[1]  for each person in your tent."

 17So that is what the B’nei Yisrael did. Some gathered more, some less. 18They measured it by the omer. Those who had gathered more didn't have too much. Those who had gathered less didn't have too little. They gathered as much as they could eat. 19Then Moshe said to them, "Don’t keep it overnight until morning." 20But some of them didn't listen to Moshe. They kept part of it until the next morning, and it was full of worms and smelled bad. Moshe was angry with those people. 21Each morning everyone gathered as much food as they could eat. When the sun grew hot [i.e. when it got closer to noon], it melted away.

22But on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omer per person. All the leaders of the community came to Moshe and told him about it. 23He said to them, "This is what Adonai said: tomorrow is a day of resting, Shabbat Kodesh to Adonai. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Save all that's left over, and keep it until tomorrow morning." 24So they saved it until the next morning as Moshe had commanded, but it didn't smell or have worms in it. 25"Eat it today," Moshe said, "because today is Shabbat for Adonai. You won't find anything in the field today. 26You can gather food on six days, but on the seventh day, Shabbat, you won't find any."`

27On the seventh day some people went out to gather food, but they didn't find any. 28Adonai said to Moshe, "How long will you refuse to do what I have commanded and instructed you to do? 29Remember: Adonai has given you the Shabbat. That's why he gives you enough food on the sixth day for two days. On the seventh day you do not need to leave your place. Nobody should leave their place on Shabbat." 30So the people never worked on the Sabbath day.

 

TALMUD BAVLI, YOMA, 75a

(במדבר יא, ה) את הקשואים ואת האבטיחים רבי אמי ורבי אסי חד אמר טעם כל המינין טעמו במן טעם חמשת המינין הללו לא טעמו בו וחד אמר טעם כל המינין טעמו טעמן וממשן והללו טעמן ולא ממשן

The Gemara returns to the same verse, in which the Jewish people said about life as slaves in Egypt: “We remember…the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic” (Numbers 11:5). Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi debated the verse’s meaning. The first  said: They tasted the flavor of almost all types of food in the manna, but they cried because they could not taste the tastes of these five foods that they mentioned. And the second said: They tasted the flavor of all types of food, as well as their textures. The sensation was so strong that it seemed to them like they were eating those very foods. However, with the foods they listed, the people tasted only their flavor but not their texture, and so they complained about the manna.

 



[1] Around 3 liters by volume. Some say less, some say more. 


Shemot 16

11Adonai said to Moshe, 12"I've heard the B’nei Yisrael complaining. Tell them, 'At dusk you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat all the food you want. Then you will know that I am Adonai your God.'"

13That evening quails came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14When the dew was gone, the ground was covered with a thin layer of flakes like frost on the ground. 15When the B’nei Yisrael saw it, they asked each other, "What is this?" because they didn't know what it was. Moshe said to them, "It's the food Adonai has given you to eat. 16This is what Adonai has commanded: Each of you should gather as much as you can eat. Take an omer[1]  for each person in your tent."

 17So that is what the B’nei Yisrael did. Some gathered more, some less. 18They measured it by the omer. Those who had gathered more didn't have too much. Those who had gathered less didn't have too little. They gathered as much as they could eat. 19Then Moshe said to them, "Don’t keep it overnight until morning." 20But some of them didn't listen to Moshe. They kept part of it until the next morning, and it was full of worms and smelled bad. Moshe was angry with those people. 21Each morning everyone gathered as much food as they could eat. When the sun grew hot [i.e. when it got closer to noon], it melted away.

22But on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omer per person. All the leaders of the community came to Moshe and told him about it. 23He said to them, "This is what Adonai said: tomorrow is a day of resting, Shabbat Kodesh to Adonai. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Save all that's left over, and keep it until tomorrow morning." 24So they saved it until the next morning as Moshe had commanded, but it didn't smell or have worms in it. 25"Eat it today," Moshe said, "because today is Shabbat for Adonai. You won't find anything in the field today. 26You can gather food on six days, but on the seventh day, Shabbat, you won't find any."`

27On the seventh day some people went out to gather food, but they didn't find any. 28Adonai said to Moshe, "How long will you refuse to do what I have commanded and instructed you to do? 29Remember: Adonai has given you the Shabbat. That's why he gives you enough food on the sixth day for two days. On the seventh day you do not need to leave your place. Nobody should leave their place on Shabbat." 30So the people never worked on the Sabbath day.




[1] Around 3 liters by volume. Some say less, some say more. 

 

TALMUD BAVLI, YOMA, 75a

(במדבר יא, ה) את הקשואים ואת האבטיחים רבי אמי ורבי אסי חד אמר טעם כל המינין טעמו במן טעם חמשת המינין הללו לא טעמו בו וחד אמר טעם כל המינין טעמו טעמן וממשן והללו טעמן ולא ממשן

The Gemara returns to the same verse, in which the Jewish people said about life as slaves in Egypt: “We remember…the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic” (Numbers 11:5). Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi debated the verse’s meaning. The first  said: They tasted the flavor of almost all types of food in the manna, but they cried because they could not taste the tastes of these five foods that they mentioned. And the second said: They tasted the flavor of all types of food, as well as their textures. The sensation was so strong that it seemed to them like they were eating those very foods. However, with the foods they listed, the people tasted only their flavor but not their texture, and so they complained about the manna.




 SHEMOT 14: THE TEARING OF THE SEA

The king of Egypt was told that the people fled,

and Par’oh’s heart and [that of] his servants changed regarding the people, they said:

“What, what have we done, that we have sent free Israel from serving us?”

He had his chariot harnessed,

while his (fighting-) people he took with him,

and he took six hundred selected chariots and every [kind of] chariot of Egypt,

teams-of-three upon them all.

And Adonai made the heart of Par’oh king of Egypt strong-willed, so that he pursued Bnei Yisrael,

while Bnei Yisrael were going out with a high hand.

The Egyptians pursued them and overtook them encamped by the sea,

all of Par’oh’s chariot-horses, his riders, and his army,

by Pi ha-Hirot, before Baal-Tzefon.

As Par’oh drew near, Bnei Yisrael lifted up their eyes:

right here! Egypt marching after them!

They were exceedingly afraid.

And Bnei Yisrael cried out to Adonai,

they said to Moshe:

“Is it because there are no graves in Egypt

that you have taken us out to die in the wilderness?

What, now, have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?

Is this not the very word that we spoke to you in Egypt,

saying: Let us alone, that we may serve Egypt!

Indeed, better for us serving Egypt

than our dying in the wilderness!”

 

Moshe said to the people:

“Do not be afraid!

Stand fast and see

Adonai’a deliverance which he will work for you today,

for as you see Egypt today, you will never see it ever again!

Adonai will do battle for you, and you—be still!”

Adonai said to Moshe:

Why do you cry out to me?

Speak to Bnei Yisrael, and let-them-march-forward!

And you—

hold your staff high, stretch out your hand over the sea

and split it,

so that Bnei Yisrael may come through the midst of the sea upon the dry-land.

While I,

here, I will make Egypt’s heart strong-willed,

so that they come in after them,

and I will be glorified through Par’oh and all his army,

his chariots and his riders;

and the Egyptians shall know that I am Adonai,

when I am glorified through Par’oh, his chariots and his riders.

The messenger of God that was going before the camp of Israel moved on and went behind them;

the column of cloud moved ahead of them

and stood behind them,

and came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel.

Here were the cloud and the darkness,

and it lit up the night;

this one did not come near this one all night.

 

Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea,

and Adonai caused the sea to go back

with a fierce east wind all night,

and made the sea into firm-ground;

thus the waters were torn.

 

The Children of Israel came through the midst of the sea upon the dry-land,

the waters a wall for them on their right and on their left.

But the Egyptians pursued and came in after them,

all of Par’oh’s horses, his chariots and his riders,

into the midst of the sea.

 

Now it was at the daybreak watch

that Adonai looked out against the camp of Egypt in the column of fire and cloud,

and he panicked the camp of Egypt;

he loosened the wheels of his chariots and made them to drive with heaviness.

Egypt said:

“I must flee before Israel,

for Adonai does battle for them against Egypt!”

Then Adonai said to Moshe:

Stretch out your hand over the sea,

and the waters shall return

upon Egypt—upon its chariots and upon its riders.

Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea,

and the sea returned, at the face of daybreak, to its original-place,

as the Egyptians were fleeing toward it.


And Adonai shook the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

The waters returned;

they covered the chariots and the riders of all of Par’oh’s army that had come after them into the sea,

not even one of them remained.

But Bnei Yisrael had gone upon dry-land, through the midst of the sea,

the waters a wall for them on their right and on their left.

So Adonai delivered Israel on that day from the hand of Egypt;

Israel saw Egypt dead by the shore of the sea,

and Israel saw the great hand that Adonai had wrought against Egypt.

The people held Adonai in awe;

they trusted in Adonai and in Moshe his servant.

 



 

 They fled toward it?  What does that mean? 

Rashi on Exodus 14:27:3

נסים לקראתו FLED TOWARDS IT — because they were thrown into confusion and were bewildered and on that account ran towards it.

 

Ibn Ezra on Exodus 14:27:3

FLED AGAINST IT. I have already explained that the Egyptians in fleeing thought that they were returning to dry land when in actuality they were going toward the sea.

 

Rabbeinu Bahya, Shemot 14:27:4

ומצרים נסים לקראתו, “and the Egyptians were fleeing towards it.” We would have expected the Torah to write that the Egyptians were fleeing מפניו, “on its account,” or “from it.” However, the meaning of the words is that they were fleeing on account of the sea in order to escape it. The water kept coming at them in spite of their attempts to run away from it. This is what the Torah means when it wrote: ”G’d poured the Egyptians into the sea.” Our sages understood this verse as “He poured them into the sea as one pours meat into a pot.”

 

Chizkuni, Exodus 14:27:2

נסים לקראתו, “fleeing toward it;” at the beginning the waters of the sea had frozen; when the Egyptians saw that the solidity of the water offered them a chance for escape they tried to use it as a route of escape seeing that climbing to the shore was too strenuous. When the waters started to melt, they realised that they had been fleeing in the direction of where the waves came from.

 

Or HaChaim on Exodus 14:27:4

ומצרים נסים לקראתו, while the Egyptians were fleeing towards it. Although the Egyptians were fleeing from the onrushing waters, they found that the sea was coming towards its original place. As a result they found themselves fleeing towards the waters regardless of which direction they were headed for.

 

 

 


 

 


No comments:

Post a Comment