BESHALACH 1991

In the Torah portion Beshalach we learn how after Pharaoh expelled the Jewish people from the land of Egypt G‑d did not lead them to the land of the Philistines even though it would be the closest way because G‑d said, "Lest the people repent when they will see war and they will return to Egypt." So G‑d, therefore, took the Jewish people in a circuitous route in the desert and did not take them the shortest route to the land of Israel.  He was afraid that the Jewish people once they would see battle would decide that they wanted to return to Egypt.  The rabbis say that the Jewish people were armed.  The Jewish people did not have to fear battle because they did not have the correct armaments.  They did.  They took them with them from Egypt, but G‑d did not want the Jewish people to see battle.  Yet, a few weeks later before they even came to Mount Sinai ,o receive the Torah they were attacked by Amalek.  Then G‑d had them fight.  We learn how Moshe sent Yehoshua with a chosen army and how they fought against Amelek.  Why in that instance could they fight but yet when they left Egypt G‑d did not want to take them on the route which would allow them to meet the Philistines because they would see battle? They saw battle anyway.  What's more, why is it that when the Egyptian army advanced and trapped the Jewish people on the peninsula that they did not fight the army? Instead it said, "G‑d will fight for you, and you shall be quiet." The rabbis say "Tachareeseem" can also mean to "divide strategism, to be a craftsman".  In fact, the rabbis say that at that particular time the Jewish people had many different groups within them.  There was a group who said we should commit suicide, like the Jewish people later were to do at Masada.  That, of course, is not a Jewish way of confronting a person's problems.  The rabbis did not like the story of Masada because we are not supposed to commit suicide.  We are supposed to figure out some way to overcome our oppressors even though momentarily they may enslave us.  There was another group who wanted to fight the Egyptians.  There was another group who wanted just to pray and another group who wanted just to protest their fate and bemoan their fate.  To all these G‑d said to be quiet and I will fight for you.  Why in this instance did G‑d fight for the Jewish people? Why didn't He have the Jewish people fight for themselves?

Perhaps the answer to this problem is because when the Jewish people left Egypt they were not united.  That's why it says, "And it was when Pharaoh sent out the people".  It does not say "Israel" but "the people".  The people were composed of all these rival groups which could not unite, and the Jewish people unless they can unite cannot overcome their enemies.  That's why, too, at the Red Sea when the Jewish people were still filled with all these divisions G‑d said, "You be quiet.  I will do the fighting for you and you will see that you will gain a huge triumph." After the Jewish people were successful, after they had crossed the Red Sea and G‑d caused the waves to cascade back on the Egyptians and the Jewish people were safe then it says, "And Israel saw", not "Am", but "Israel saw the great hand which G‑d had done against Egypt and the people all feared G‑d and then they believed in G‑d and Moshe, His servant.  Even later each group now had decided that they believed in G‑d and in Moshe, His servant, and they were united and because they were united then from then on they could conquer all their problems.  They could now defend themselves.  That is why the Jewish people broke into song.  When they broke into song it starts with the words Oz Moshe, then Moshe sang.  The rabbis ask what does Oz stand for? It stand for an Aleph and a Zion, and Zion in Hebrew means weapons.  When the Jewish people are Aleph, when the Jewish people are one, then they have the power to overcome their enemies.  Then they have the strength to prevail in battle.  That is why the first part of the Shira is the praise of G‑d for destroying the Egyptian army, but the second part has nothing to do with the Egyptian army.  The second part has to do with the surrounding peoples.  It says, "The peoples have heard.  They trembled.  Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.  Then were the chiefs of Edon frightened and the might men of Moab trembling taking hold of them.  All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away.  Terror and dread falleth upon them.  By the greatness of Thy arm they are as still as stone.  Till Thy people pass over, 0 Lord, till the people pass over that Thou hast gotten.  Bring us the men and plant us in the mountain of Thine inheritance, the place, 0 Lord, which Thou hast made for thee to dwell in the sanctuary of G‑d which Thy hands have established."

The second part of this great poem said because of this great victory the people around Israel were now going to make peace with them.  After all, the Jewish people had two problems.  One problem was how to get out of Egypt and the other problem was how to be accepted by the peoples in which they were going to live.  We have that same problem today.  We are getting Jews out of Russia, but how will the Arab nations accept us? Will they accept us? Are they going to accept us? Of course, we see now, too, when we have a great power fighting for us that perhaps there will be a chance after this war is over that the Arabs will realize that when the United States gives its word it means it and that there is no hope for them anymore of destroying Israel and they will come to make peace with Israel.  When the nations in the ancient times say that the Jewish people had a great power behind them, when they saw that G‑d was standing behind the Jewish people they made peace with the Jewish people.  They made room for the Jewish people.  The Jewish people lived in peace and serenity for many, many years.  Let us hope that that will be the same today in the Middle East.

When Amalek attacked the Jewish people they were told to defend themselves because they already knew how to be united.  At the Red Sea they learned how to be united.  It is true that after the miracle of the Red Sea all of a sudden the old divisions came back among the Jewish people.  All of a sudden you had one group who wanted to go back to Egypt, another who said they should plunge on.  There was fighting among themselves.  They argued they did not have enough good food.  The manna that G‑d gave them was not sufficient, not good enough.  There were all sorts of complaints against Moshe.  They did not have good water, etc.  In fact, in this Torah portion we learn how Moshe was supposed to strike the rock and water came forth, but G‑d now said, "You Jewish people know how to be united.  You have your fate in your hands.  Be united." Therefore, when Amalek attacked the Jewish people the Jewish people were already trained how to battle against their enemies.  Moshe told Yehoshua to go fight against Amalek, but Moshe also went on top of the mountain.  He took with him Aaron and Chur.  One was to stand on one side and hold up a hand and the other was to stand on the other side and to hold up his hand.  When Moshe's hands were held up high the Jewish people prevailed, but when Moshe's hands came down the Jewish people lost because Moshe was a symbol of Jewish unity, and when the people saw that they were all together, that his hands were being held up by Chur and Aaron because Chur stood for the physical aspects of life.  He stood for the property and the money and the ingenuity and the resourcefulness.  When they saw these things being held up, the technology of the Jewish people, the strength of the Jewish people, the wealth of the Jewish people, and on the other side where they saw Aaron holding up a hand, which stood for the spiritual things of the Jewish people, love, spirituality, prayers, when they saw rachmones, mercy and compassion, when they saw neshoma, the soul, then they knew that the Jewish people were united.  We Jewish people when we get in trouble must all come together and help each other.  We must be concerned.  We must write letters.  We must follow the news.  Our neshoma must go out to Israel, but, more than our neshoma, also our material things, our money, our physical things, our time, our energy must also go out to make sure that the Jewish people prevail because only when we are one, when we are united will we be able to prevail.  That is, of course, what happened with Amalek.  When Moshe's hands came down, when the Jewish people were not united, the lost but when his hands were raised, even though he had to sit on a hard stool on a piece of rock, even though he had to endure much travail yet as long as he was united, as long as the Jewish people had hope that they would always be united, then the Jewish people prevailed.

I am reminded of the story they tell about Moshe, a Bubba V'Chosed, who lived in the town of Levuv, how he loved to go to Rabbi Halberstein's table.  The Bubberver's last name is always Halberstein and the Bubber Rebbe used to sing such a beautiful nigan for Oz Yosheer.  Then Moshe would sing the song.  He loved that song.  It talked about the strength of the Jewish people when they united, when they loved each other and cared for each other, when they support and help each other.  Then the Nazis came into his town.  On July 25, 1941 they took the rebbe and most of the Chassidim and they had them dig a trench outside the town and they shot him.  The rest of the people they took to Auschwitz.  Moshe stayed there until the spring of 1944 when he was sent to Mauhaussen.  There he was in the slave labor airplane factory.  When he worked in the quarry he got strength from that song that the rebbe sang.  He knew that he could not give up, that he should not give up because the Jewish people were going to survive this, and united the Jewish people were going to build anew and united the Jewish people were going to overcome even this slavery, too.  In December 1944 the Germans roused everybody up and said this is a delousing day and for them to go to the showers.  They took off their striped pajamas that served for a uniform and they went to the showers and were to be issued new pajamas, new striped garments.  All of a sudden in the middle of the shower they heard the word "Zalopel, Zalopel", rollcall.  Everybody had to run out of the shower into the below freezing temperature and they had to stand at attention while the Germans took a rollcall.  They took the rollcall once and said someone was missing.  They took it a second time and a third time and a fourth time and a fifth time.  Slowly the wet bodies started to freeze and people dropped on the right of him and on the left of him.  Moshe did not know what to do.  He started to think of that song of the rebbe's.  With the Jewish people together if nobody is missing we can overcome.  We can prevail.  Slowly his feet started to move up and down in harmony with the melody.  He could hear the ice crack and feel the blood of his soles oozing out onto the ground.  As he stood with his legs going back and forth finally he heard the call to go get dressed.  The missing man had been found.  That melody had allowed him to continue.  He knew that with Jewish unity we could overcome everything.  Nobody should be missing.  Everybody should be there.  If everyone does his duty, if everyone helps especially in this time of trouble Israel every way we can, after all, Israel is only asking for our money.  In Hebrew the same word for blood is the same word for money.  They are shedding their blood.  At least we can give our money to help them.  Every patriot missile battery costs 3 million dollars and every time they shoot a patriot it is a million dollars.  If you have ten incoming missiles you have to shoot two at each missile, 20 million dollars was spent just last night alone shooting down those SCUDS.  Israel needs our help.  We will prevail, but we will only prevail if we are united.  Let us all be united so that quickly Israel will prevail, the Allied armies will prevail, and the Mashiach will come.  Amen.