פרשת בשלח וענייני בטחון
This week’s Parsha describes in detail the final stage of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt and the miraculous way in which Hashem split the sea for them. After the Jews had witnessed this awesome display, the verse testifies about them, “And they believed in Hashem, and in Moshe His servant”. At this point, the Jews had reached such a high level of trust in their Master, that they all prophetically sang a song of praise to God which we repeat every morning during Pesukei D’zimrah.
However, it seems puzzling why such a powerful miracle was warranted after the Jews had just observed the incredible supremacy of God’s might during the Exodus. Were the Ten Plagues which Hashem brought upon the Egyptians not enough to convince the Jews beyond any reasonable doubt of His authority? Furthermore, every morning we are required to mention the Exodus during the Krias Shema, and then immediately afterward, we go into a blessing about the redemption which mentions the splitting of the sea. It seems that Chazal felt that just mentioning one of these events would not be sufficient. A couple of weeks ago, we deduced from these points how important it is to always be increasing one’s faith in God, but I believe that there is another crucial lesson which can be gleaned from Chazal’s behavior.
The Midrash Raba in Shemos (4:21) explains that the splitting of the sea added a certain level of trust in Hashem that no previous event had been successful in inculcating in the Jews’ hearts, and for this reason, we mention it every day in prayer in addition to the Exodus, in order to strengthen our heart in the art of faith, and then we can enter into prayer properly. What “extra level of faith” is this Midrash referring to? I once heard from a great man that although the Jews certainly reached a very high level of confidence in their Creator during the Exodus, so much so that they were willing to enter into a barren wasteland with absolutely no provisions and the prophet testified about them, “God will always remember the love of His youth when you followed Him into the infertile desert”, nonetheless there was still something lacking. Sometimes, a person reaches a high level of faith, but that faith will not necessarily withstand the test of time when a person’s life is not so pleasant. We often see that a person has a certain revelation, in which he is convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt of the voracity of the Torah, yet all too often, this conviction fades from his heart in the face of difficulty. We find that Hashem felt it necessary to lead the Jews out of Egypt in a roundabout way in order that they not be tempted to return there in despair that they would not successfully enter into the land of Israel. Indeed, shortly after their redemption, as they reached the Reed Sea, they complained to Moshe, “Were there not enough graves in Egypt that you had to take us out to die in the wilderness?” And on another occasion, they actually attempted to return to Egypt.
However, during the fantastic miracle in which Hashem split the sea for the Jewish people, they truly reached a new level of faith which could not as easily be undone. The reason for this was because they were forced to do it themselves, as opposed to having it done for them. This is evidenced from Hashem’s response to Moshe when he cried out in prayer. Hashem retorted, “Why do you cry out to me”? What kind of a response is this? Are we not commanded to pray during stressful times? Rather Hashem was instructing Moshe, that this particular miracle is not dependent upon me. Only the Jewish peoples can affect this miracle by displaying unwavering faith in Me. We see from this response of Hashem a tremendous Chidush. While Emunah, or faith in God is something which comes from external stimuli, which means that although we certainly need to choose to see it, its source is based on what Hashem shows us, and it is largely theoretical knowledge of the truth of the Creator, Bitachon on the other hand is applied Emunah, which means trusting in God and feeling confident that He will solve our problems on a practical level. This stage is one which unless we proactively apply our Emunah in God, we cannot reach.
Every thinking person knows that there is often a huge gap between what we know to be true, and what we do on a practical level. Most Jews believe in God with absolute certainty, and that He created the world, and is all-powerful. But how many of us can claim that when a difficulty comes our way, we feel absolutely no pressure? However, although this outlook is a lofty one, one should be aware that when he does reach this stage of trusting in Hashem, he is guaranteed good results as the verse says, “He who trusts in God, will be surrounded by kindness”. It is tremendously empowering to know that wherever we are, all we have to do is display an unwavering faith in our creator, and He will come to our aid. By implementing these two concepts in the daily prayer, Chazal taught us that when we contemplate the Exodus from Egypt, this will instill a deep faith in God in our minds, but when we instill in our hearts the message of the miraculous way in which Hashem split the sea for us, and we realize that this stage can only be reached by vigorous application of what we believe into action, we will truly reach the level in which we trust in God and will merit to be surrounded with all the kindness we rely on Hashem to do for us.
There is another fascinating chapter in this week’s Parsha which drives home the concept of trusting in Hashem to the Jewish people in a powerful way, and that is the chapter of the Manna. The Torah teaches us that the Manna fell every day for forty years, and this miraculous bread sustained the Jewish people for their entire sojourn in the desert. We find that if a person collected a larger amount of Manna then was necessary for his family’s daily needs, the excess would rot and become wormy. And perhaps even more wondrous, if a person collected too little, he found that there was nothing lacking. The goal of this fantastic display was to hammer in this idea to the Jewish psyche – that regardless of how hard or how little we try, Hashem has the ability to take care of us always, and nothing we do can change that. We can only imagine, that if it took the Jewish people forty years to learn this lesson, how incumbent it is for us to begin instilling this feeling of trust in our hearts in order to make sure that we feel it at all times.
I would just like to conclude with the moving words of R’ Aryeh Leib Shteinmen. We find that Hashem was doing unbelievable wonders for the Jewish people, and yet they were constantly complaining. Imagine the look on the Jews’ faces when right after they complained about their predicament at the sea, it split before their eyes. Or right after they complained about having no food, the next day the Manna fell and sustained them for forty years. We need to learn from these events that very often our salvation is right around the corner, and Hashem is only putting us in “seemingly” difficult situations so that we can put our trust in Him completely. If we have this knowledge, it will be a lot easier to put our faith in Him. If we know that He is planning on pulling the curtain back in just a few minutes, and removing us from all our difficulties, we will certainly not take any of our challenges as seriously, and we will just smile serendipitously and say to our friends, just watch how Hashem is going to get me out of this one!
May we all merit to trust in Hashem blindly, with all our hearts!