Before the Sea Split

by Braha Bender

Sometimes the Torah reads like a comedy. Can you imagine? The Jewish People are standing there on the banks of the Red Sea, surrounded on all four sides by more or less certain death, and what do you think they’re doing?

They’re Jewish! They’re arguing!

Cue laugh track? Not really. It’s funny in hindsight, but it wasn’t that funny at the time. To one side were packs of wild animals – lions and tigers and bears, oh my! – heading straight towards them. To the other side was a desert filled with snakes, scorpions and mass dehydration. Behind them roared the Egyptian army. (A few days after the Jewish People had packed up and left, it seems that Pharaoh suffered a change of heart about his lost slave nation.)

Perhaps the worst of all was that directly in front of them was the Red Sea, crazed with windstorms on this particular day, foaming and heaving as massive waves licked wild white caps towards the heavens.

What were they supposed to do? I know what you’re thinking – “Not argue!” – but did you have a better solution? In fact, there were four different camps of opinions about how to handle the situation, and none of them were right.

Political Pity Parties

They had only left Egypt a few days ago and now the fledgling nation was stranded.

Those who fancied themselves as warriors wanted to engage the Egyptian army in battle. But seriously, battle? What battle? Even the warrior-types themselves knew that the Egyptians would slaughter them all. They just thought it would be better to die as heroes. Vive la revolution! Well, kind of.

The “diplomats” proposed a plan to raise international awareness to exert pressure on the Egyptian people. Huh? This was the ancient Middle East. Things have never worked that way. But somehow, they thought that maybe, one day, if enough world leaders protested the actions of the Egyptian government, the Jews would be freed from oppression and slavery…again. After peaceably acquiescing to the Egyptian’s demands just for the moment, of course. Ehem.

Still others, convinced that neither physical nor verbal engagement would yield any benefit against their enemies, voted for surrender. Why bother fighting? Why bother hoping at all? The abdicators felt themselves to be realists: nothing could stop the Egyptians. It never had. It never would. According to their “realistic” forecast, no choice was left but to wave the white flag, go back to Egypt in chains, and return to the slave labor they had grown wearily accustomed to.

Group number four just plain called out for mass suicide. “Let us drown ourselves in the sea,” they cried. Anything would be better than returning to the torture that they had been subjected to under Egyptian rule, or at least so they thought, that is if they were thinking at all. Despair is a powerful drug and can be blinding.

Invisible Factor

The problem was that none of these ways of thinking had any bearing on reality. Gathering around Moshe (Moses), the four factions tried to convince their leader to accept their plans. His response spoke to every one of them.

“Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand fast and see the salvation of Hashem that He will perform for you today; for as you have seen Egypt today, you shall not see them ever again! Hashem shall make war for you, and you shall remain silent.’” (Shmos-Exodus 14:13)

“Do not fear”: Despair is not the answer.

“As you have seen Egypt today, you shall not see them ever again!”: Surrendering and returning to Egypt is not the answer either because, believe it or not, the events of this day will forever destroy the Egypt you knew. So much for the abdicators.

“Hashem shall make war for you”: There is no need to take up arms and engage the Egyptians in battle. Stupidity is not courage, it’s just stupidity. The warrior mentality will only get you so far.

“You shall remain silent”: You want to approach the Egyptians with diplomacy? First of all, who are you kidding? Second of all, get with the program. In case you haven’t noticed, this is the exodus from Egypt, people. Much greater things are afoot.

All of Moshe’s answers pointed out a simple truth that none of the people seemed to have remembered. Despite the seeming urgency of the situation, there was more than what met the eye in the picture. Much more. There was this little, invisible factor the Jewish People forget to take into account, but He never forgot them – the Almighty. He was right there.

Many Questions, One Teshuva

As they say in Israel, she’elot yesh harbeh, teshuva yesh rak achat – there are many questions, but just one teshuva. The Hebrew word teshuva literally means both answer and the process of returning to one’s Jewish roots, as in “doing teshuva”.

Challenging situations demand more than our subjective, human solutions. If we want real answers to real questions, we need to be willing to go deeper, search harder, and let go of our preconceived notions. It’s not about our prefab, knee-jerk “personal truths”. Nature and nurture can only take us so far.

When it came to the conflict at the banks of the sea, none of the Jewish People’s solutions took them further than their own personalities. Fighters, diplomats, so-called realists – none of these were the answer, because none of them took the Jewish People outside of themselves. None of them took the Almighty into account.

Looking to the Almighty doesn’t mean closing your mind, it means opening it. After all, look at what happened back then. I’m sure no one expected it, but now we know better. Moshe was right in advising them to trust in the Almighty. A few moments later, their sea split.

All of our stormy seas can split. Anything can change in an instant. Judaism doesn’t advocate relying on miracles, but when all else fails, just don’t forget Who else is in the picture. He’s the One running the show all along.