Jump to content

Beshalach

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Chocolatepizza (talk | contribs) at 21:58, 4 May 2007 (→External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Beshalach, Beshallach, or Beshalah (בשלח — Hebrew for “when [he] let go,” the second word and first distinctive word in the parshah) is the sixteenth weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fourth in the book of Exodus. It constitutes Exodus 13:17–17:16. Jews in the Diaspora read it the sixteenth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in January or February. Jews also read the early sections of the parshah (Ex. 13:17–15:26) on the seventh day of Passover. The parshah is particularly notable for the “Song of the Sea,” which is traditionally chanted using a different melody and is written by the scribe using a distinctive "brick-like" pattern in the Torah scroll. The Sabbath when it is read is known as Shabbos Shirah, and some communities have various customs for this day, including feeding birds and reciting the "Song of the Sea" out loud in the regular prayer service.

Sinai Peninsula

Summary

When Pharaoh let the Israelites go, God led the people roundabout by way of the Sea of Reeds. (Ex. 13:17–18.) Moses took the bones of Joseph with them. (Ex. 13:19.) God went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. (Ex. 13:21.)

Parting the Sea of Reeds

When Pharaoh learned that the people had fled, he had a change of heart, and he chased the Israelites with chariots, overtaking them by the sea. (Ex. 14:5–9.) Greatly frightened, the Israelites cried out to God and complained to Moses. (Ex. 14:10–12.) God told Moses to lift up his rod, hold out his arm, and split the sea. (Ex. 14:15–16.) Moses did so, and God drove back the sea with a strong east wind, and the Israelites marched through on dry ground, the waters forming walls on their right and left. (Ex. 14:21–22.) The Egyptians pursued, but God slowed them by locking their chariot wheels. (Ex. 14:23–25.) On God’s instruction, Moses held out his arm, and the waters covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the Egyptians. (Ex. 14:26–28.) Moses and the Israelites – and then Miriam – sang a song to God, celebrating how God hurled horse and driver into the sea. (Ex. 15.)

The Gathering of Manna (painting by Bacchiacca)

Bitter water turned sweet

The Israelites went three days into the wilderness and found no water. (Ex. 15:22.) When they came to Marah, they could not drink the bitter water, so they grumbled against Moses. (Ex. 15:23–24.) God showed Moses a piece of wood to throw into the water, and the water became sweet. (Ex. 15:25.)

Manna in the wilderness

The Israelites came to the wilderness of Sin and grumbled in hunger against Moses and Aaron. (Ex. 16:1–3.) God heard their grumbling, and in the evening quail covered the camp, and in the morning fine flaky manna covered the ground like frost. (Ex. 16:4–14.) The Israelites gathered as much of it as they required; those who gathered much had no excess, and those who gathered little had no deficiency. (Ex. 16:15–18.) Moses instructed none to leave any of it over until morning, but some did, and it became infested with maggots and stank. (Ex. 16:19–20.) On the sixth day they gathered double the food, Moses instructed them to put aside the excess until morning, and it did not turn foul the next day, the Sabbath. (Ex. 16:22–24.) Moses told them that on the Sabbath, they would not find any manna on the plain, yet some went out to gather and found nothing. (Ex. 16:25–27.) Moses ordered that a jar of the manna be kept throughout the ages. (Ex. 16:32–33.) The Israelites ate manna 40 years. (Ex. 16:35.)

Moses strikes the rock (painting by Tintoretto)

Water from a stone

When the Israelites encamped at Rephidim, there was no water and the people quarreled with Moses. (Ex. 17:1–2.) God told Moses to strike the rock at Horeb to produce water, and they called the place Massah (trial) and Meribah (quarrel). (Ex. 17:5–7.)

Amalek’s attack

Amalek attacked Israel at Rephidim. (Ex. 17:8.) Moses stationed himself on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in his hand, and whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. (Ex. 17:9–11.) When Moses grew weary, he sat on a stone, while Aaron and Hur supported his hands, and Joshua overwhelmed Amalek in battle. (Ex. 17:12–13.) God instructed Moses to inscribe a document as a reminder that God would utterly blot out the memory of Amalek. (Ex. 17:14.)

In classical Rabbinic interpretation

Exodus chapter 13

The Mishnah cited Exodus 13:19 for the proposition that Providence treats a person measure for measure as that person treats others. And so because, as Genesis 50:7–9 relates, Joseph had the merit to bury his father Jacob and none of his brothers were greater than he was, so Joseph merited the greatest of Jews, Moses, to attend to his bones, as reported in Exodus 13:19. And Moses, in turn, was so great that none but God attended him, as Deuteronomy 34:6 reports that God buried Moses. (Mishnah Sotah 1:7–9.)

Exodus chapter 15

The Tosefta deduced from Exodus 1:22 that the Egyptians took pride before God only on account of the water of the Nile, and thus God exacted punishment from them only by water when in Exodus 15:4 God cast Pharaoh’s chariots and army into the Reed Sea. (Tosefta Sotah 3:13.)

Rabbi Akiva said that he who whispered Exodus 15:26 as an incantation over a wound to heal it would have no place in the world to come. (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1.)

Exodus chapter 17

The Mishnah reported that in synagogues at Purim, Jews read Exodus 17:8–16. (Mishnah Megillah 3:6.)

The Mishnah quoted Exodus 17:11, which described how when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and asked whether Moses’ hands really made war or stopped it. Rather, the Mishnah read the verse to teach that as long as the Israelites looked upward and submitted their hearts to God, they would grow stronger, but when they did not, they would fall. The Mishnah taught that the fiery serpent placed on a pole in Numbers 21:8 worked much the same way, by directing the Israelites to look upward to God. (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 3:8.)

Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there is one negative commandment in the parshah:

  • Not to walk outside permitted limits on the Sabbath (Ex. 16:29.)

(See, e.g., Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, vol. 2, 296. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4. Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, vol. 1, 137–41. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1991. ISBN 0-87306-179-9.)

Haftarah

Deborah (illustration by Gustave Doré)

The haftarah for the parshah is:

Both the parshah and the haftarah contain songs that celebrate the victory of God’s people, the parshah in the “Song of the Sea” about God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Pharaoh (Ex. 15:1–18), and the haftarah in the “Song of Deborah” about the Israelites’ victory over the Canaanite general Sisera. (Judg. 5.) Both the parshah and the haftarah report how the leaders of Israel’s enemies assembled hundreds of chariots. (Ex. 14:6–7; Judg. 4:13.) Both the parshah and the haftarah report how God “threw . . . into panic” (va-yaham) Israel’s enemies. (Ex. 14:24; Judg. 4:15.) Both the parshah and the haftarah report waters sweeping away Israel’s enemies (Ex. 14:27–28; Judg. 5:21.) Both the parshah and the haftarah report singing by women to celebrate, the parshah by Miriam (Ex. 15:21), and the haftarah by Deborah. (Judg. 5.) And both the parshah and the haftarah mention Amalek. (Ex. 17:8–16; Judg. 5:14.)

The Gemara tied together God’s actions in the parshah and the haftarah. To reassure Israelites concerned that their enemies still lived, God had the Reed Sea spit out the dead Egyptians. (See Ex. 14:30.) To repay the seas, God committed the Kishon River to deliver one-and-a-half times as many bodies. To pay the debt, when Sisera came to attack the Israelites, God had the Kishon wash the Canaanites away. (See Judg. 5:21.) The Gemara calculated one-and-a-half times as many bodies from the numbers of chariots reported in Exodus 14:7 and Judges 4:13. (Babylonian Talmud Pesachim 118b.)

For Ashkenazim, the haftarah is the longest of the year.

The Weekly Maqam

In the Weekly Maqam, Sephardic Jews each week base the songs of the services on the content of that week's parshah. For Parshah Beshalach, Sephardic Jews apply Maqam Ajam, the maqam that expresses happiness, to commemorating the joy and song of the Israelites as they crossed the sea.

Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beshalach&oldid=128303554"