Parshas Beshalach 5761 Leaving Egypt                                             
By Rabbi Joshua (quadratically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
   
                              !!!!!!!!!!Beginning our fourth year!!!!!!!!!!
  
    In this week's parsha, we are told that Pharaoh, after setting the Israelites free, changes his mind and decides to lead his army in pursuit of them. After catching up to them at the sea, the Israelites, following God's command to Moshe, enter the sea. The sea splits for them and they pass through it to safety.  The Egyptians then enter, the sea returns to its original state, and the entire Egyptian army is drowned. Whether or not Pharaoh also drowned is a subject of dispute among midrashim, but the events at the sea definitely marked the end of the nation's subjugation to Egypt. It was only at this point that they sang praise to God for redemption. Interestingly, the Torah tells us that Pharaoh's pursuit of the nation was a result of God's hardening of his heart, so that in reality he did so against his own wishes. Why did God find it necessary to delay the nation's victory over Egypt until the events at the sea? Why couldn't the process have been completed in Egypt? I would like to present two answers to this question, both of which shed light on subsequent events recorded in the parsha.
  
    Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the current Novominsker Rebbe, suggested that the delayed nature of the victory over Egypt was meant to show that, until the time of the ultimate redemption, in the messianic era, any redemption we experience will be accompanied by a certain degree of suffering. As the Beis HaLevi points out, the nation was not as yet ready, on its own merits, for redemption, but it was necessary to take them out of Egypt before they were led to total spiritual ruin there. Because they did not fully merit redemption, the deliverance they experienced was accompanied with suffering. Still, there was need to give thanks to God. Rabbi Aharon Soloveichik has explained that this is the sense of the paragraph of the Pesach Haggadah known as 'dayeinu,' in which we enumerate a list of fifteen acts of kindness bestowed upon us by God beginning with the exodus from Egypt and ending with the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. As each item is mentioned, we say that had God done only that for us, it would have been sufficient. Rabbi Soloveichik explained, in a way similar to the Malbim in his commentary to the Haggadah, that each item is sufficient for us to praise God for.  We must, he continued, express our gratitude to God even for a partial redemption. This idea has obvious implications for events of the past fifty - three years, during which time God has begun to bring His people back to its land.
  
     Another explanation of the two-part victory over Egypt, beginning with the exodus from the country and ending with the splitting of the sea, is given by the Sefas Emes. He writes that the Israelites, while in Egypt, suffered both physically and spiritually, and, therefore, there was a need for a physical redemption from Egypt as well as a spiritual redemption. The physical redemption came when they left the country, and the spiritual redemption came with the splitting of the sea. As evidence he cites the midrash, brought by Rashi, that when the Torah says that the nation saw Egypt journeying after them (Shemos, 14 : 10), it means that they saw the ministering angel of Egypt travelling from the heavens to aid his nation. The idea behind this is that they saw the spirit of Egypt, of the Egyptian culture and lifestyle, pursuing them in a spiritual sense, and they needed to overcome it. When they cried out to God they were expressing their dedication to Him and their rejection of Egypt in a spiritual sense.
  
     In a way somewhat similar to the Sefas Emes, Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi, in his commentary Ma'asei Hashem, notes the wording of the Torah, at the beginning of our parsha, " It happened when Pharaoh sent the people out" (Shemos, 13 : 17). Actually, it was God who was responsible for the nation leaving Egypt. However, the perception of the nation was that Pharaoh was responsible, and they still felt indebted to him, and were subject to be influenced by Egyptian culture. Therefore, God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would pursue the Israelites with his army and suffer defeat, so that any remnants of a connection to Egypt would be obliterated from its heart. This is the meaning, he says, of the passage in the Haggadah, " And if the Holy One, Blessed be He, had not brought our fathers out from Egypt, we and our children and our children's children would still be subjugated to Pharaoh in Egypt." Surely, he asks, even if we would still be in Egypt physically, we would not be under the rule of Pharaoh! The leader of Egypt today isn't Pharaoh, but Mubarak! Rather the meaning is that if God had not clearly shown that He, and not Pharaoh, was responsible for the redemption, the nation would still be indebted to Pharaoh and his people, and subject to the influence of Egyptian culture. When Pharaoh led his nation in pursuit of the Israelites and chased them into the sea, it became clear that it was God Who redeemed his nation, and its spiritual subjugation to Egypt came to an end.
  
    Three days after the splitting of the sea, after the incident of the bitter waters at Marah, the nation was given a group of laws, as we read, "..there He gave them a statute and a law." Rabbi Avraham, the son of the Rambam, writes that the purpose of giving these laws was to remind the nation that the purpose of the redemption was for them to receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai and become servants of God. What exactly were these laws that they were given at Marah? There are various opinions, but the most popular one is that they were given the mitzvos of Shabbos, honoring one's parents and a system of civil laws. I believe that these mitzvos have at their root one or both of the ideas that necessitated the second stage of redemption, that of the splitting of the sea as I will try to explain.
   
     The mitzvah of honoring one's parents, as explained by the Sefer HaChinuch, is grounded in an attitude of gratitude to one's parents for all they have done, beginning with bringing one into the world.Cultivation of gratitude is important in our service of God, as well. According to Rabbi Bachya ibn Pekudah in his classic work Duties of the Heart, it is the ethical  basis of our obligation to Him.This idea is actually implicit in the first sentence of the Ten Commandments, "I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt," as explained in the Mechilta. The mitzvah of Shabbos, as explained by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein in his Aruch Ha Shulchan, emphasizes the uniqueness of the Jewish nation. Although Shabbos ostensibly should have relevance to all the nations of the world, since it relates to God's creation of the world, God gave it as a special gift to the Jews, highlighting His unique relationship with them. The exodus has, in fact, been viewed as a recreation of the world through the introduction of the spiritual element, the Torah. Viewed within this context, Shabbos sets off the Jewish people from the other nations in a spiritual sense. The Jewish system of justice, as well, sets off the nation from others. Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik has explained that while the purpose of  the system of justice mandated by the Noachide laws is meant to keep the peace and maintain order in society, the Jewish system of justice and  its court system are meant to inculcate higher values within society. Three days after the nation's final victory over Egypt, then, they were given a set of laws that would reinforce the messages that this victory taught them, and prepare them for the ultimate purpose of the redemption, the giving of the Torah at Sinai.