The sea was not split. It was torn.

 

Micrography by Menachem Boas. Uses entire book of Shemot. 

עברית

 

Exercise: https://www.studystack.com/picmatch-3362462

https://www.studystack.com/picmatch-3132102

Amidah

  fried whaaa? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANADcsaNzxI

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

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqCTq3EeDcY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX83ed0Tg6g   at 1:26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzRrEgkfhG8

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c3QvBYx6qI

and part two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCIbQ3BSvJk

 

 They don't just happen on Lake Eire

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ-9FpISSls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYI1zIjJr4g

The Chief!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xo7Y1nn1cE

SHEMOT CH. 14: THE TEARING OF THE SEA OF REEDS

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, just 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….

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’s 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….

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Questions on the Tearing of the Sea (the Hebrew means tear, not split).

 

1.    Our Ancestors complained “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt  that you have taken us out to die in the wilderness?”   What do you know that is famous about Egypt ( when it comes to graves) that would make this complaint very sarcastic?

 

2.    When in the Torah did our ancestors actually tell Moses “Let us alone, that we may serve Egypt!  Indeed, better for us serving Egypt  than our dying in the wilderness!” ?

 

3.    What is different about the tearing of the sea here in the Torah that differs from the presentation in the movies?

 

4.    What else does God do that slows the Egyptians down?

 

5.    What did our ancestors see on the other shore of the sea that let them know they were not going back to Egypt and finally free to serve God? 

6.   What does it mean that as the sea returned to it’s place, the  Egyptians fled toward it?

 

COMMENTATORS:

Rashi on Exodus 14:27:3

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

 

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.  

 

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.

 

 

 

  

Shemot 16-  Hamotzi Lechem Min Hashamayim

Adonai said to Moshe,  "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.'"

That evening quails came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  When the dew was gone, the ground was covered with a thin layer of flakes like frost on the ground.  When the B’nei Yisrael saw it, they asked each other, "Maan Hu?/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.  This 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."

 So that is what the B’nei Yisrael did. Some gathered more, some less.  They 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.  Then Moshe said to them, "Don’t keep it overnight until morning."  But 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.  Each 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.

But 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.  He 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."  So they saved it until the next morning as Moshe had commanded, but it didn't smell or have worms in it.  "Eat it today," Moshe said, "because today is Shabbat for Adonai. You won't find anything in the field today.  You can gather food on six days, but on the seventh day, Shabbat, you won't find any."`

On the seventh day some people went out to gather food, but they didn't find any.  Adonai said to Moshe, "How long will you refuse to do what I have commanded and instructed you to do?  Remember: 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."  So the people never worked on the Sabbath day.

 

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[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.

 

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