Parshas Beshalach 5763 Free At Last
By Rabbi Joshua (independently known as TheHoffer) Hoffman

In memory of my mother, Yoninah bas Zevi Hirsch, whose yahrzeit is this Thursday, the 13th of Shevat. May her memory be a blessing.

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beginning Our Sixth Year ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the Passover Haggadah, there is a paragraph which recounts all of the kindnesses that God did for us for which we owe Him praise, beginning with the exodus from Egypt and ending with the building of the temple in the Holy Land. Apparently, then, the building of the temple is considered as the final stage in the process of redemption from Egypt. It is, therefore, remarkable to note that the first time the temple is mentioned in the Torah is in this week's parsha, in the 'shiras hayam,' the song that the nation sang in praise of God after the miracle of the splitting of the sea. In that shira, the people said, "You will bring them and implant them on the mountain of Your heritage, the foundation of Your dwelling place that You, God, have made - the Temple, my Lord, that Your hands established." (Shemos 15:17). Interestingly, Rashi on Maseches Sukkah and Maseches Rosh Hashanah cites this verse as a source for the tradition that the third temple will descend from heaven, fully built. We need, then, to understand why the building of the Temple was not mentioned earlier, and why, if it is a mitzvoh for the people to build it, is the first reference of it in the Torah in a verse that speaks of God as building it. I believe that each of these two questions can help answer the other.


The Sefas Emes, in his commentary to parshas Beshalach, advances the idea that is further developed by Rabbi Chaim Ya'akov Goldvicht in his Asufos Ma'arachos to Bo and Beshalach - that there were two stages to the redemption process. The first stage occurred in Egypt itself, initiated by God and accompanied by the ten plagues that eventually led Pharaoh to release the slaves. The end of that stage is reflected in the first verse of our parsha, "And it happened when Pharaoh sent out the people" (Shemos 13:17). This verse, actually, begins with the word 'vayehi' - and it occurred. Rav Zadok HaKohen of Lublin, subject of the recently published book 'Thinking God...' by Dr. Alan Brill, points out that, according to the rabbis, this word always indicates some kind of pain or distress. What kind of pain could have been involved in the nation leaving Egypt? Wasn't it a joyous event? Rav Zadok explains that the pain came as a result of the fact that it was Pharaoh who sent the people out, and not the people themselves who initiated the exodus. Rav Zadok himself goes on to say that even the splitting of the sea came through the merit of our forefathers, rather than through our own efforts. The Sefas Emes, however, writes that the nation, after leaving Egypt, began a process of self - elevation, that culminated in the belief that they achieved at the splitting of the sea.

While the Sefas Emes brings kabbalistic sources to support his explanation, Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz, in his Chidushei HaLev, brings a midrash to advance a similar idea. On the verse, "And Yisroel saw the great arm that God inflicted upon Egypt :  And the nation feared God, and they believed in God and in Moshe His servant" (Shemos 14:31), the Midrash Rabbah comments that because of the belief that they attained, they were able to sing the song of praise to God, the shira. So, too, continues the midrash, must each person purify his heart before he prays to God. Rabbi Leibowitz explains that the belief attained by the people at the splitting of the sea came about through a serious process of introspection and consideration of all they had been through since they had been in Egypt. Although they saw many miracles performed there, seeing miracles will not change a person unless he reflects on their deeper implications. This was a process that the people had to go through to achieve a deep, genuine belief in God, as well as a love and fear of Him. 

Based on the teachings of the Sefas Emes and Rav Leibowitz, we can understand why the Temple is not mentioned until the shira that was said after the splitting of the sea. The Ramban to parshas Korach writes that the Jewish people in the time of King David were punished because they did not demand that the Temple be built. Had they told their leaders, sometime over the course of years, that they desired the Temple, it would have been built long before King David asked for divine permission to do so, and before his son actually built it. This ultimate level of redemption from the confinements of slavery, and achievement of closeness to God, had to be initiated by the people themselves. Indeed, the midrash, brought in Yalkut Shimoni, Shmuel, 106, tells us that the Jewish people will not be redeemed in the future until they ask for three things: the Kingship of God, the kingship of the House of David, and the building of the Temple. The Temple is the place through which, as the rabbis tell us, God dwells within each Jew. As such, it can only be built if the nation has a genuine desire to be close to God, and expresses it through asking for the Temple. For this reason, apparently, the Temple is not mentioned in the Torah's narrative of the redemption process until the shira said after the splitting of the sea, because it was then that the people attained belief in God, as well as love and fear of Him, through their own efforts. Only after the people reached this level on their own could there be a divine directive to build the Temple.