Netvort Parshas Beshalach 5771:           Yad Chazakah Edition Present Tense
By Rabbi Joshua (presently known as The Hoffer) Hoffman      

           !!!!!!!!!!With thanks to the Almighty, beginning our fourteenth year!!!!!!!!!!

In memory of my mother, Yoninah bas Zvi Hirsch, whose Yahrzheit occurs this coming Monday night/Tuesday, the thirteenth of Shevat.  May her memory be a blessing.

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. The Torah tells us that God hardened Pharaoh's heart and he pursued the released slaves so that the Egyptians would all meet their end at the splitting of the sea.  Why was God so intent on drowning the Egyptians?  Rav Henoch Leibowitz, zt'l, in his Chidushei HaLev, cites a midrash on the first verse in our sedra, which says "God did not lead them by way of the land of the Pelishtim" (Shemos, 13:17), "which isolates the words "velo nacham Elokim" - meaning, God did not lead them, and translates the word nacham   differently, to mean 'comforted,' or changing one's mind.  The verse is telling us, says the midrash, that God did not forget the suffering that the nation had gone through in Egypt, and was determined to punish its perpetrators. Although Rav Leibowitz does not say this, it would seem that this is why, for the Ramban, God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would be punished, along with his nation, for what they had done to the Israelites.

In any case, in relating God's hardening of Pharaoh's heart at this time, the Torah says, "God strengthened the heart of Pharaoh, and he pursued the Bnei Yisrael, and the Bnei Yisroel were going out with raised hand" (Shemos, 13:8).  In 1974, when I was a student in Mercaz HoRav in Jerusalem, Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook zt'l gave a talk on this parsha, and noted that the word used for 'going out' used here is in the present tense, in contrast with the other verbs in the verse as well as the surrounding verses, which are in past tense (technically, future tense transferred by a preceding vav into past tense).  Speaking then in the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Rav Tzvi Yehudah quipped that the present tense is used here because we are still leaving Egypt! Although on its face this is a humorous comment, this observation regarding the use of the present tense here has a deeper meaning, as well, as we shall see.

One possible approach to explaining why the exodus from Egypt is described as an ongoing process is that the cause of the original exile persists among the nation. The Talmud in Shabbos (10b) tells us that it was due to the quarrel between Yosef and his brothers that things developed to the point that our ancestors descended into Egypt.  Many commentators point out that this is difficult to understand, since God had told Avraham at the covenant between the pieces that his seed would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, and that they would be enslaved and made to suffer there.  Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt'l said that had it not been for the conflict of Yosef and his brothers, the time that Yaakov spent in the house of Lavan and worked for him very strenuously would have been accepted as a fulfillment of the prophecy of the covenant between the pieces, and the only reason that did not happen was that conflict. There was, thus, a need to end any conflict among the various elements of the nation for full redemption to take place, and, until that happens, it can be said that we are still leaving Egypt.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Moshe carried the coffin of Yosef in front of the people as they left Egypt, to remind them of the cause of the exile and for the need to continuously strive to prevent a recurrence of the original quarrel.

Another way of interpreting the use of the present tense in describing the exodus of the Jews from Egypt can be extrapolated from a comment of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapiro, H'yd, the Piacezner Rebbe, in his work Esh Kodesh, to parshas Beshalach.  In a sermon he delivered for Parshas Beshalach in Warsaw in 1940, he noted a change of tense from past to present in a later verse, (Shemos, 13:21), which describes how God led the people by day with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire.  When the Torah says that God led them, the present tense is used:  "and God goes before them." Moreover, notes Rav Shapiro, the four-letter proper name of God is used here, and the midrash tells us that whenever this name is used in the Torah, it implies God together with His court, so that there was a certain kind of judgment going on.  Rav Shapiro links these two factors, the change from the use of the past tense in the previous verses to the use of present tense here, and the employment of judgment at this point, to teach an important message.  He says that God makes a judgment every day and night concerning the needs of each given individual as to his specific needs. Rav Shapiro adds that this holds true in times of suffering, such as the nation was enduring when it was in flight from the Egyptians, as well.  We must, he concludes, learn from what happened when the Jews were leaving Egypt, that we need to utilize God's judgment, even in times of suffering, to further our worship of Him, and that His judgment will, ultimately light up the darkness for us.  It serves to light up the darkness for us.  In this sense as well, we can explain the use of the present tense in the previous verse, which describes the nation's exodus from Egypt.  We need to grow in our worship of God each day and, in this sense, leave the service of man, which we engaged in while in Egypt, and intensify our worship of God, under whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, just as the Jewish nation was bidden to do when pursued by the Egyptians.

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