Shabbat Parshat Beshalach - 5762

"The Day the Depths Turned to Dry Land"

Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi is rightly considered the "Poet Laureate" of the Jewish People and of Jewish History. He lived during the time of the Crusades, and witnessed much suffering. According to Rabbi Yehudah Even-Shmuel, pre-eminent contemporary translator of the "Kuzari," perhaps Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi's magnum opus, in which he raises the understanding of the Jewish Religion to great heights, HaLevi wrote of the great loves. They were and are love of life, the love of a man for a woman, the love of friendship, the love of Nature, the love of Art, the love of the Jewish People and of the Land of Israel, the love of human history, and especially the love of Jewish History with its great climactic moments, the most special being the stand at Sinai when the Jewish People received the Torah. 

He loved also the integrated human personality (the "chasid," the righteous person) and the perfection of the human spirit in the Prophets, and all these were united in his highest love - love of G-d. He was a true "Renaissance Man," Jewish style; more than that, he was an "Ish HaEshkolot," a term used only for the greatest of human beings, a man who embodied the "cluster" of spiritual gifts that HaShem provided the human being with when he endowed him with the "Tzelem Elokim," the Image of G-d. 

His reactions to Jewish suffering are recorded in the "Shirei Tziyon," the "Songs of Zion," recited on Tishah B'Av, the saddest day on the Jewish Calendar, when both Temples were destroyed, and many other tragedies befell the Jewish People, including the destruction of great Torah communities in Europe, during the Crusades. These "songs," incorporated into the "Kinot," the Lamentations, of Tishah B'Av, reverberate in the soul of the Jew, arousing tears for the blood spilled in the Exile, but at the same time, urging the Jew to arouse himself, and assist HaShem, as it were, in ending the Exile, by traveling to the Holy Land, and settling there. 

One of his great poems has found its way into the Jewish Prayer-Book, the "Siddur," and on holidays, the "Machzor," on two joyous occasions. These are the Seventh Day of Pesach, the Day on which HaShem performed the great miracle of splitting the Red Sea for the Jewish People, which we read about in this week's Parshah, and on the day that a Jewish baby boy is circumcised, the Day of his "Brit-Milah." The common denominator between these two occasions is that on each the Jewish nation, and the Jewish baby boy, is raised up and made potentially holy, is drawn close to the Holy One.

The following is a translation of the immortal poem, sung by Jewish congregations on the Seventh Day of Pesach and the Eighth Day of life of the Jewish baby boy.

The day the depths turned to dry land, the redeemed ones sang a new song. (The "new song" refers to the "Shirah," the song in which Moshe led the Jewish men and Miriam led the Jewish women, following the Splitting of the Sea, but also, according to Jewish Tradition, refers to the future, when a "new song" will be sung upon the arrival of the "Mashiach.") 

Because of her deceitfulness, You caused the Anamite (Egypt is called the Anamite because Anamim was a son of Mitzrayim, the ancestor of Egypt) daughter's feet to sink; but the footsteps of the wholesome one (a reference to the "Song of Songs" (7:1-2), a metaphorical love-song between HaShem and the Jewish People, many of the images of which are drawn from the Exodus) were beautiful in shoes - 
The redeemed ones sang a new song.

All who see Yeshurun (a title representing Israel in its state of righteousness and spiritual exaltation, based on "yashar," upright) will sing in My Majestic Home: "There is none like the G-d of Yeshurun," and our enemies are the judges -
The redeemed ones sang a new song.

May you raise our banners over the survivors; (this term, "survivors" has taken on new and special meaning in the era of the Holocaust; to Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi, it meant the survivors of Jewish History) and may You gather the scattered ones as one gathers sheaves -
The redeemed ones sang a new song.

Those who come with You into the covenant of your seal, and from the womb they are circumcised for Your Name's sake -
The redeemed ones sang a new song.

Display their signs to all who see them, and on the corners of their garments they will make fringes (the reference is to the Command to make "Tzitzit" (four fringes of wool, as a reminder of the Commandments) on the corners of one's garment) -
The redeemed ones sang a new song.

Whose is this Torah, inscribed with Commandments? - Please recognize the truth! Whose is the signet and whose are the threads? (The reference is to the account in Chapter 38 of Bereshit of the relationship between Tamar and her father-in-law, Yehudah, who saved her life when she was about to be burnt for the crime of living with a man outside the family of Yehudah. In this context, the song asks HaShem to recognize that it is His Torah for which the Jewish People has shed rivers of blood, and for which it has shown undying loyalty.) -
The redeemed ones sang a new song.

Betroth her again, and drive her out no more; let her sunlight rise and let the shadows flee -
The redeemed ones sang a new song.

The beloved ones exalt You, with song they come and greet You; who is like You, HaShem, among the mighty ones -
The redeemed ones sang a new song.

For the sake of the forefathers may You save the offspring and bring redemption to their children's children.

In our time, we ask the Almighty to "betroth us once again," to "raise the banners" of our salvation, assist us as we try to unite our People, not drive us out of His Holy Land, but rather allow us to prove our loyalty, and restore the Temple to Yerushalayim, the Holy City, where we will sing a new song and "serve You in reverence, as in days of old, and ancient years."

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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