"Bigdei Kahuna" Parsha page by Rabbi Yehuda Katz

BESHALACH

"And the water was a wall for them, on their right and on their left." (14:29)

The Daas Zekeinim brings down a very interesting Medrash, as follows: In order for the Red sea to split, the Angel Gavriel declared, " Let the waters in front of the Israelites move aside for the nation that performs circumcision. The waters to the right of the Israelites should likewise defer to the nation that received the torah from G-ds right hand.The waters to the left should move for the nation that puts Tefillin on the left arm, and the waters behind them should move away before the nation that dons the Talis and thus casts the tzitzit over their shoulders." A question can be asked on this Medrash. The Israelites at this point in time have not as of yet received the Torah and Mitzvath,so how could Gavriel have used the Israelite's Mitzvath observance as a means to ellicit merits for the Israelites so that the Red Sea should part for them? We also know that G-d judges a person in the present, not what will be in the future as seen from Yishmael in Genesis (21:17). Rashi on that verse comments that G-d had judged Yishmael at that moment in time when Yishmael was righteous, not according to his future misdeeds. (Please refer there for further elucidation. Its beyond the scope of this Parsha sheet to deal with that episode in depth. In short, when Abraham had removed Yishmael from his house, Yishmael was lying ill in the desert. G-d had told Hagar (Yishmael's mother) that Yishmael's prayers have been heard in his present state. Since the verse states "in his present condition", the Rabbi's interpret it to mean in Yishmael's present spiritual state, not his future unrighteous state.) Anyhow , we find G-d judges a person in his present spiritual condition not what his state might be in the future! I would like to perhapes, Bezrat Hashem, propose an original answer. The Sages tell that when the Israelites received the Torah, they declared before G-d " Naasa Venishma" which in english translates to mean "We will do, and then we hear , or understand." This means that the Israelites had so much trust in G-d that they had accepted the performance of G-d's commandments before they even had a chance to know , or examine what they actually were. I would venture to say that this attitude was also present when the Israelites left Egypt, and especially when they were confronted by the Red Sea. They had accepted upon themselves unconditionally to perform all the Mitzvath. In the introduction to Sefer Samak (A book about the 613 Mitzvath.),Rabbi Moshe Mikirbil Z'l states based on various sources that eventhough a person might not be confronted with a particular Mitzvath presently as long as the person has the intent to perform this very Mitzvath when encountering it, it's as if the Mitzvath were performed. Once the Israelites were in the "Naasa Venishma" state of mind, it was as if they had received the Torah and performing Mitzvath. Therefore as a result,the Angel Gavriel was able to ellicit merit for them before the Red Sea with various Mitzvath. We can learn a tremendous lesson about what our attitude should be towards the Mitzvath. A person has to trust and trully believe that the Mitzvath contain great merit, even if we do not presently understand or comprehend the reasons. This is where we demonstrate our true belief in G-d Almighty. Thus, the Angel Gavriel was able to extract the power to perform great miracles for the Israelites. Have a good Shabbos