Oh, Ye of Little Faith

Kriyas Yam Suf (USA Today)

As we approach the final days of Pesach the focus turns to Kriyas Yam Suf - the splitting and crossing of the Red Sea. The Torah tells us, that after our ancestors, the Bnei Yisroel, walked out of Egypt, they encamped on the banks of the Red Sea. At that point Pharaoh regretted letting them go and called up his elite forces to chase them down. He thought he had our ancestors trapped between his formidable army and the Red Sea.

But as we all now, that did not work out too well for Egypt. Those elite Egyptian soldiers drowned chasing our ancestors down into the sea. They probably figured if the Jews could walk on dry land in the middle of the sea, why couldn’t they? 

There is an interesting contradiction in the Torah’s narrative about the crossing of the Red Sea. In its first reference to this great event (14:22) the Torah tells us that the children of Israel ‘went into the sea on dry land’.

And yet when the children of Israel sang about it in ‘Oz Yoshir’ (15:19) the order was reversed – saying that the children of Israel ‘went into the dry land in the sea’.

The question is, ‘Why was the order reversed?’  What is the Torah trying to tell us? 

The answer is that there were two distinct groups of people that left Egypt. One was the actual Bnei Yisroel. The other was the Erev Rav. These were the non Jews that wished to join Israel in their journey out of Egypt – sensing there was something special about this people having witnessing the miracles at the hand of God that gave them their freedom after 210 years of enslavement.

The difference between the two is in their level of belief in God. Those whose commitment to God was total were led by Nachshon who jumped first immediately into the sea before there was any dry land visible. They trusted that God would not forsake them and had complete faith that they would come out OK well before the sea actually split. So they jumped into the Red Sea immediately.

The Erev Rav on the other hand was of little faith. They were the worriers and complainers, never fully trusting that God would save them from the variety of obstacles they encountered in their long journey they hesitated - waiting till they saw dry land.  The former narrative speaks of those with complete faith in God. The latter narrative speaks of those of little faith - the Erev Rav who wanted to first see dry land before they wnt forward. 

It is with this short D’var Torah that I wish all of my readers and commentators a happy rest of YomTov.

Chag Sameach

*adapted from Torah L’Daas