Published in Nitzachon, the Adas Torah journal.
One of the great mysteries of the redemption from Egypt is the Splitting of the Red Sea. It may be the premier supernatural event of the Exodus, but it all seems so unnecessary. His country in ruins, Pharaoh had already surrendered. The Jew were on the march to Mount Sinai, laden with the spoils of Egypt and savoring the thrill of freedom. Why ruin the party with more drama?
Make no mistake, Hashem
deliberately instigated the pursuit of the Egyptian army.
Hashem spoke to
Moshe, “Speak to the Children of Israel. They should go back and encamp… by the
sea. Pharaoh will say the Children of Israel are wandering about the land; the
desert has closed them off! I will strengthen Pharaoh’s heart and he will
pursue after them. I will then be honored through Pharaoh and his entire army,
and Egypt will know that I am God. (Shemos
14:1-4)
Had Hashem not told
the Jews to go back and camp by the sea, had Hashem not hardened Pharaoh’s
heart, he never would have taken chase. The Splitting of the Sea thus holds the
strange distinction of being the greatest miracle we didn’t need. Couldn’t we just
leave Egypt in peace? Why split the sea?[1]
Right vs. Left
After the tenth
plague, Moshe presents the mitzvah of tefillin
and repeatedly relates it to yetzias mitzrayim:
Moshe said to the
nation, “Remember this day that you departed from Egypt, from the house of
slaves. For with a strong hand, bechozek yad, Hashem took you out…
“It will be for you
a sign on your hand and a remembrance between your eyes… for with a strong
hand, b’yad chazaka, Hashem took you out from Egypt…
“It shall be a sign
on your hand and totafos between your eyes, for with a strong hand, b’chozek
yad, Hashem took you out of Egypt.” (Shemos
13:3,9,16)
If tefillin
is supposed to remind us that Hashem took us out with a “strong hand,” why do
we wear it on the left arm, typically the weaker of the two?[2] The surprising answer is that Hashem’s “strong
hand” is actually His left! The Ohr HaChaim, Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar (d.
1743), explains:
We need to
understand why Hashem didn’t choose the superior right hand for the performance
of this mitzvah. Our rabbis have said it is because the [left arm] is adjacent
to the heart which is on the left side.[3] What
they said is true, but I believe I can [also] offer a good reason based on the Torah’s
own explanation, “for with a strong hand [Hashem took you out of Egypt].” You
should know that the attributes of the Almighty, He should be blessed, have two
dimensions; one is called yad hagedola, the “great hand,” and the other
is called yad hachazaka, the “strong hand.” “The great hand” is the quality
of chesed and goodness, and the “strong hand” is the gevurah, the
divine might, that makes evildoers pay for their crimes. Now, at the time of
the Exodus, Hashem reached out with His “strong hand” and struck His enemies
with ten plagues. This is why the Almighty ruled that tefillin… should be placed on our weaker hand which is symbolic of
the “strong hand” that took us out of Egypt.
We can better
understand this teaching of the Ohr
HaChaim by quoting what he writes elsewhere:
Know that there is a
divine attribute of chesed, kindness. To help humans understand it, it
is called the “right hand”[4] and
the “great hand.” The divine attribute of gevurah and din, might
and justice, is called the “left hand”[5] and
also the “strong hand.”[6]
To summarize. As an
infinite being, Hashem obviously lacks a body and has no hands. The Torah’s
references to divine body parts are just metaphors[7] to
help us understand how Hashem relates to people: His “strong hand” refers to
His judgement, and His “great hand” refers to His kindness. Despite the fact that the strong hand is
called “strong,” the great hand of kindness is actually the stronger of the
two.[8] The
divine “great hand” is thus symbolized by our right and the divine “strong hand”
corresponds to our left.[9] This is
consonant with the Kabbalistic tradition that “right” is chesed and “left”
is din. It follows that since tefillin
is meant to recall the judgement of Egypt by the (so-called) “strong hand,” we
wear it on our left arm.
Strong vs. Great
On the one hand, the
Ohr HaChaim’s contention that “yad
hagedola” refers to chesed is consistent with the standard usage of
the word gadol.[10] On
the other hand, it flies in the face of the single place in Tanach where
the expression is actually used. The Torah tells us that after the Egyptians
drowned in the Red Sea, “the Jews saw hayad hagedola, the great hand,
Hashem used in Egypt and the Jews feared Hashem” (Shemos 14:31). The “great hand used in Egypt” is obviously a
reference to the Ten Plagues and this is why it elicited a fear response. The “great
hand” of the verse is thus not divine kindness, it is divine judgement, and
this is exactly how both Rashi and the Ramban explain it.
“The great hand –
the great gevurah performed by HaKadosh Baruch Hu” (Rashi
ad loc.). “According to the teachings of Kabbalah, the yad hagedola was
revealed to them, namely midas hadin, the divine attribute of justice,
which Hashem expressed in Egypt” (Ramban
ad loc.).
If pshat and
Kabbalah are in agreement that the “great hand” is gevurah and din,
how can the Ohr HaChaim claim that it
is chesed?!
In all fairness, the
Ohr Chaim ends his exposition on tefillin
with this caveat: “Although we do find that the “great hand” is often used [to
refer to justice], this is just the attribute of compassion agreeing with the
attribute of justice, but the primary term for justice is the strong hand [not
the great hand].” To be frank, his defense is unsatisfying. If the “strong hand”
is the primary term for justice, why does the Torah say the Jews saw Hashem’s “great
hand” in Egypt? It should say we saw His “strong hand”!
The problem here is
not only with the Ohr HaChaim. The
fact is, Hashem did take us out with His “strong hand.” Moshe said to the
nation, “Remember this day that you departed from Egypt… for with a strong
hand Hashem took you out…” (Shemos
13:3). If Hashem used His “strong hand” for the Exodus, why didn’t we see it?
Why did we see His “great hand”?
The Ambidextrous
Redeemer
After the Sea
crashes down on the Egyptian Army and the Jews are saved, they celebrate and
express their thanks to Hashem by singing the Song by the Sea. Its lyrics
include this anthropomorphism:
Your right hand is
decorated with strength; Your right hand smashes the enemy. (Shemos 15:6)
Rashi explains:
“Your right hand…
your right hand” – twice. When the Jews fulfill the Will of Hashem, the left
becomes right.
“Your right hand is
decorated with strength” – to save the Jews, and Your other right hand smashes
the enemy (midrash). In my opinion, the
very same right hand [that saved the Jews also] smashed the enemy, doing
something humanly impossible, performing two tasks with a single hand.
All of Rashi’s
comments are in agreement about the basic meaning of this verse. The two stanzas
refer to two different acts, the salvation of the Jews and the destruction of
the enemy, and both acts were performed by Hashem’s “right hand.”
Now, the idea that
Hashem saved the Jews with His right hand is understandable; after all, it was
an act of chesed and chesed comes from the right. But how can we
say that He destroyed the Egyptians with His right hand? Punishments are always
performed by the left!
The midrash tells us that the revelation at
the sea was such that even the lowest Jew saw something that the prophet
Yechezkel never saw.[11] In
what way was splitting the sea a greater revelation than prophecy? How was it a
bigger miracle than the Ten Plagues? The answer is that the plagues were indeed
miraculous, but they had a single function, to punish the Egyptians. The splitting
of the sea, however, had a dual function. At the sea, Hashem saved the Jews
with chesed and decimated the enemy with gevurah, and he did both
in the very same act. Retribution and redemption occurred simultaneously.
This revelation of achdus, Hashem’s unity, was unparalleled by the
plagues. Ordinarily, Hashem keeps His unity hidden from man. Although we know
it to be true, in our world diversity reigns and the infinite oneness of the
Creator is unfathomable.[12] At
the sea, however, Hashem revealed His achdus for all to see in a selfless
act of love.[13]
Like Creation
itself, splitting the sea was not something Hashem had to do – and that is
precisely why it was so meaningful. By definition, an act of love is voluntary,
and ideally it discloses something personal. Hashem wanted to forge an intimate
relationship with the Jewish People and that required a revelation of His
essence. This is why He split the sea.
Hashem charged into
battle like a man of war, ripping the sea in half and drowning the Egyptians,
and He did it all as a gift for the Jewish People. When they saw how much Hashem
loves them, they realized that He does not have two different hands at all. The
yad hachazaka and the yad hagedola are one and the same; Hashem’s
left hand of justice is His right hand of kindness! “The Jews saw the great
hand… and the nation feared Hashem and they believed in Hashem” (Shemos 14:31). They feared His justice, they
believed in His love, they recognized His unity, and then they began to sing.
Your right hand is
adorned with strength;
Your right hand
smashed the enemy!
Fire vs. Snow
המשל ופחד עמו, עשה
שלום במרומיו.
“Dominion and terror are with Him; He makes peace in His
heights” (Iyov 25:2).
“Dominion” – this is
[the angel] Michael. “Terror” – this is [the angel] Gavriel.
“He makes peace in
His heights” – [In His heights] fire and water mix together and the water does
not extinguish the fire. (Rashi)
The two halves of this
verse appear unrelated until you read the midrash.
“He makes peace in His heights” – Reish Lakish taught, “[The angel] Michael is
entirely snow and [the angel] Gabriel is entirely fire,[14] and
they stand next to each other without harming each other” (Devarim Rabba
5:12).
Michael is snow? Gavriel
is fire?! If not for the assistance of our trusted commentators, the meaning of
these strange statements would be over our heads. The Eitz Yosef (Rabbi
Chanoch Zundel ben Yosef, d. 1867) explains, “Michael is entirely snow – this
means he represents the attribute of compassion, which ‘cools off’ the
attribute of justice.[15]
Gabriel does the opposite.” Citing multiple sources, The Maharzu (Rabbi
Zev Wolf Einhorn, d. 1862) asserts, “Michael… is always chesed and
Gavriel is din.” The idea appears in the Zohar. “In every place,
Michael is first from the side of chesed” and “Gavriel is from the side
of gevurah.”[16] These
characteristics fit neatly with what we say in the nighttime Shema, “On my
right is Michael and on my left, Gavriel” (Maharzu ad loc.).
This may all sound like
esoterica bordering on the mystical, nonetheless, it is in the gemora. When, due to the many sins of
Israel, the time came to destroy Yerushalayim, Hashem ordered Gavriel to “fill
his cupped hands with burning coals from between the heavenly cheruvim
and throw them upon the city” (Yechezkel 10:2). Instead of taking the
coals himself, Gavriel had Michael pick up the coals first (ibid 10:7).
Rabbi Shimon Chasida
said, “Had the coals not cooled off [as they passed] from the hands of Michael[17] to
the hands of Gavriel, there would be no remnant nor survivor from the enemies
of Israel.[18]
(Yoma 77a)
To the prophet Yechezkel,
the tempering of Hashem’s justice appeared as a vision of the angel Michael cooling
off the burning coals of the angel Gavriel. This is a not a vision of God Himself,
but of the differentiation and interaction of His attributes, chesed and
din, as they make their way down into our world. The roots of divine
compassion, high above the angels, cannot be seen by Yechezkel. Unfathomable to
the human mind and impossible to depict in a vision, the higher reality is the
seamless achdus of Hashem. The unity of left and right may not be
visible to the prophets, but it was experienced by all who stood by the Red Sea
and they put the revelation to verse. “Your right hand is adorned with
strength; Your right hand smashed the enemy!” At the sea, even the
lowest Jew saw something Yechezkel never saw.
This is not a minor
theological distinction, it is night and day. The midrash is explicit.
Rabbi Eliezer said,
“At the sea, a maidservant saw something that Yechezkel and Yeshaya did not
see… For the prophets only saw prophetic visions, as the verse states, “The
heavens opened and I saw visions of Elokim” (Yechezkel 1:1). Since
they saw seraphim and holy chayos on the right and on the left
they therefore did not recognize the honor of their creator.[19]
However, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu was revealed by the sea, not angel, nor
seraph, nor holy chayos appeared with Him, and as a result, the Jews recognized
the honor of their creator with the sight of the neshama and the sight
of the heart – and it seemed to them as if they saw it with their eyes! Even
babes and the nursing young saw the honor of their creator, pointed at Him with
their fingers, and said, “This is my God!”[20]
Kaddish
Some Kabbalistic
secrets are not so secret. This one appears in the Halachic code of the Tur,
in the Laws of Kaddish.
[Then you say] “oseh
shalom bimromav,” He who makes peace in His heights. This is a reference to
the angels which are fire and water, two opposites, and neither one
extinguishes the other. (Tur, Ohr HaChaim 56)
Later in Ohr
HaChaim (123), the Tur describes the well-known ritual at the end of
Kaddish.
When saying “oseh
shalom bimromav,” he turns his face toward the left, and when saying “hu
yaaseh shalom” he turns to face toward the right.
This halacha
is based on the gemora (Yoma
53b) which adds that since we are facing Hashem when we daven, our left
is Hashem’s right and our right is Hashem’s left. After all we have learned, the
Maharsha’s comments will not surprise us.
When he says “oseh
shalom bimromav” (He who makes peace in His heights) i.e., above where
compassion is found, he turns his face to Hashem’s right, and when he says, “hu
yaaseh shalom aleinu” (He shall make peace for us) i.e., below, he turns to
face towards Hashem’s left which indicates the attribute of justice.
At the end of
Kaddish, in a powerful combination of words and movements, we make an appeal
for Shalom, for peace. We speak not of the ordinary peace between men, but of the
peace and perfection of Heaven. It is a prayer for Hashem’s unity to flow into
our world so that the flames of justice will be smothered by the cool waters of
His infinite compassion.
Hailstorm
The plague of hail
did more than knock down trees and kill the fools who remained outdoors. It
also damaged the harvest. “The flax and barley were broken, for the barley was
ripe and the flax had stalks. But the wheat and spelt were not broken because
they were afilos” (ibid 9:31-32). What does afilos mean? It might
mean “late.” Wheat and spelt grow later in the season and might have been
pliable at the time of the hail. This would explain why they did not crack when
struck like the hardened flax and barley. Rashi offers another possibility. “In
the midrash (Tanchuma) there
are sages who debate this and understand the word afilos to be a
contraction of pilei pilaos.[21]
[Hashem] performed a wonder of wonders for them that [their wheat and spelt]
were not destroyed.”
Every one of the Ten
Plagues was a great miracle. Why does the survival of some grain stand out as a
“wonder of wonders”? Because it was an act of kindness in the midst of a
plague. Here Hashem is hammering the Egyptians with a furious hailstorm and He makes
a miracle so they will have food to eat. Judgement and kindness working in
tandem is a truly wondrous thing, especially for polytheists who believe in competing
gods. The hail was a sign of the Creator, the One God in whom justice and
kindness live together in peace.
There is a second
example of miraculous coexistence in the plague of hail.
Moshe stretched out his
staff on the heavens and Hashem gave thunder and hail, and fire traveled
towards the earth. Hashem rained down hail on the land of Egypt. There was hail
and fire flashed inside the hail… (Shemos
9:23-24)
Hail is ice. How could fire burn inside hail?
Rashi explains.
[It was] a miracle
inside a miracle; fire and hail combined. Hail is water, but to fulfill the
Will of their Master they made peace with each other.
Once again, we are
faced with what appears to be a meaningless miracle. Fire and water made peace?
What for? Why is Hashem wantonly violating the laws of nature? The answer is
that the plague of hail came from a different place, a place beyond nature.
Hashem spoke to
Moshe, “Stretch your hand on the heavens and there will be hail on the entire
land of Egypt…” (Shemos 9:22)
“On the heavens” – According
to the midrash (Aggadah), HaKodosh Baruch Hu raised Moshe
above the heavens.” (Rashi ad loc.)
“Above the
heavens!” In our universe fire and water are incompatible, but the hail was not
of our universe. It came from outside, from above the heavens, from a place of
pure peace. “Oseh shalom bimromav” (Iyov
25:2). “In the heights there is nothing other than Shalom” (Ramban ad loc.).
The Gift of Plagues
The plagues were not so much about punishment as they were about religious education.
As the Ramban explains, the plagues addressed the old problem of
paganism.
From the time paganism arose in society
in the days of Enosh, man’s faith in God began to falter. Some denied God’s
existence altogether, claiming the world always existed… others denied God’s
knowledge of the details [of human behavior]… others conceded His knowledge,
but denied His providence, making man like the fish of the sea that are not supervised
by God and for whom there is no punishment or reward…
However, when Hashem favors
a community (i.e., Egypt) or an individual (i.e., Pharaoh) and
performs a wonder for them, altering the world’s ordinary course and its
nature, the falsity of all those positions becomes clear to everyone, for the
amazing wonder demonstrates that the world has a God who created it; He knows,
He supervises and He is omnipotent. (Ramban
to Shemos 13:16)
Hashem’s agenda was
to convert Pharaoh from polytheism to monotheism, and to that end, He signed Pharaoh
up for an introductory course in Jewish theology, otherwise known as the Ten
Plagues. For the seventh class, fire and ice are the instructors and the lesson
is unity, a unity unlike anything in human experience.[22] As Pharaoh
was told explicitly, the hailstorm happened “so that you will know that there is none like
Me in all the earth” (Shemos 9:14). On earth there is division
and conflict; above there is only peace.
One thing is clear.
Hashem wants Pharaoh and the Egyptians to know Him well, and according to the Ramban, it is because He favors
them. They may not have received it as such, but the plagues were actually a
gift.[23]
There is nothing better for the condition of man and society than the knowledge
of God.[24]
In light of what we know
about the symbols of fire and snow, we can well understand how the wheat
survived the hail. The hail was firewater from another world, a revelation of
the wondrous coexistence of divine justice and compassion. It destroyed the barley,
it protected the wheat, and it served as a sign that Hashem was moving forward
with His plan to end paganism and bring peace to earth though the creation of
His Chosen People. Of course, skeptics claimed it was meaningless. The wheat
was soft and pliable and it survived the hail naturally. They had a point, but
such arguments could only be entertained until the Splitting of the Sea.
Viewing the plagues
in retrospect from the revelation at the sea, “the Jews saw the yad hagedola,
the great hand, that Hashem used in Egypt” (Shemos
14:31). Great hand? We were taken out of Egypt by the yad chazaka, the
strong hand, not the great hand! This is true, but after they were saved, the
Jews had an epiphany. The yad hachazaka of Egypt and the yad hagedola
of the sea are one and the same! There was miraculous chesed concealed
within the terrible plagues – concern and caring for the welfare of both Jew
and Egyptian. Hashem’s justice and compassion, punishment and kindness, destruction
and creation, the left and the right, it is all one. This is the greatest
wonder of all.
May the One who
makes peace in His heights make peace for us and for all of Israel, and say:
Amen!
[1]
Classical commentators have addressed this question. See, for example, Ohr HaChaim 3:18 (end).
[2]
The halacha that tefillin is worn on the left arm is derived from the Torah’s use of
the word ידכה (Shemos 13:16), a conjunction of יד כהה, the weaker hand, which is the left (Menachos 37a).
[3] Menachos
37a; cf. Rambam, Hilchos Tefillin 4:2.
[4]
“Every turn you make should only be towards the right…” (Yoma 15a).
[5]
“Is there “left” above [in heaven]? Rather, there are those [angels] who “go
right,” i.e., argue in favor [of the accused in the heavenly court] and there
are those who “go left,” arguing to prosecute” (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemos 8). “A person should always push
away with the left and draw in close with the right” (Ruth Rabba 2:16).
[6]
Chefetz Hashem to Shabbos 89a. Cited by the “Yismach Moshe”
commentary on the Ohr HaChaim
(Korngot, 2009).
[7]
Rambam, Yesodei HaTorah 1:8-9
[8]
“Which divine attribute is greater, the
attribute of goodness or the attribute of punishment? It should be said that
the attribute of goodness is greater than the attribute of punishment…” (Yoma
76a). “The attribute of goodness is five hundred times stronger than the
attribute of punishment” (Tosefta Sotah 3:4).
[9]
Man was created “b’tzelem Elokim.” Although Hashem is infinite,
incorporeal and unknowable to a physical being, man was designed in a way that
enables him to have some insight into divine providence. For example, the statement that Hashem’s “eyes are always on
the land of Israel” (Devarim 11:12) only
has meaning to beings with eyes, and only someone who has experienced love can
appreciate what it means when Hashem says, “I love you” (Malachi 1:2).
The use of the left hand as a symbol of divine justice may thus allude to the
fact that Hashem prefers not to use it. “I do not desire the death of the
wicked one, but rather the return of the wicked one from his ways so that he
will live!” (Yechezkel 33:11). Nonetheless, we would do well to remember
that ultimately “the human mind is incapable of fathoming or investigating the
true reality [of Hashem]” (Rambam, Yesodei HaTorah 1:9).
[10]
“Ha’el hagadol.” “Ha’el is the creator, and He is the gadol
with chesed” (Rabbenu Bechaya to Devarim 10:17). The Jewish
Nation praying to “Elohei Avraham,” the God of the man of chesed,
is thus a fulfilment of Hashem’s promise to make Avraham into a גוי גדול (cf. Pesachim 117b).
“לך ה' הגדולה” (Divrei HaYomim I
29:11) refers to the acts of creation (Berachos 58a). The Maharsha
explains, “gedulah is the attribute of chesed, and with this
attribute the acts of creation came to be, as the verse states, “עולם חסד יבנה” (Tehillin 89:3).”
[11] Yalkut
Beshalach 244; cf. Rashi to Shemos
15:2.
[12]
See Nefesh HaChaim 3:4-6.
[13]
Chesed and din working in unison appears to be the central theme
of the Song by the Sea. Examples abound. “The strength and vengeance of
our God was our salvation” (Rashi’s translation of 15:2; see also Kli
Yakar ad loc. and Ramban,
s.v. zeh eli v’anveihu). “Hashem is a man of war; Hashem is His name”
(15:3) – “The midas harachamim also waged war… at the very same time
that Hashem waged war against the Egyptians He related to the Jews with midas
harachamim” (Ohr HaChaim; cf. Seforno ad loc.). “With the wind of
Your nostrils the waters piled up…” (15:8) – “This is the wonder: with the midas
hadin He saved the Jews and with the midas harachamim he drowned the
Egyptians!” (Chasam Sofer al HaTorah). “You stretched out your right
hand; the earth swallowed [the enemy]. With Your kindness You guided us – You
redeemed this nation!” (15:12-13). The unity of the event allows us to
understand why Miriam only thanked Hashem for destroying the Egyptians (15:21)
and did not even feel it necessary to mention the salvation of the Jews.
[14]
Gavriel said… “I am the officer of fire” (Pesachim 118a). “There is a
fire that overrides fire: [the fire] of Gavriel” (Yoma 21b).
[15]
“Originally, they tied the red string on the
inside of the door of the [Temple] Hall. When the goat reached the desert, [the
string] turned white, as the verse states, ‘If your sins are red, they will be
whitened like snow’ (Yeshaya 1:18)” (Yoma 67a).
[16]
Zohar, Vayechi 235b and Tikkunei
Zohar 455, 89a. For a
plethora of Zoharic sources about the competing natures of Gavriel and Michael,
see Margolis, Malachei Elyon, 24-31; 116-121.
[17]
The Vilna Talmud has “cheruv,” following the verse in Yechezkel,
but a shoulder note cites “Michael” as an alternative from the Ein Yaakov.
[18]
When saying something negative about the Jewish People, the sages commonly use
the euphemism “enemies of Israel.”
[19] לא היו מכירין כבוד יוצרם. [Sic!]
[20] Midrash
Seichel Tov (Buber), Shemos 15.
[21] אפילות=פלאי פלאות
[22]
“There is no other unity in the universe like the unity [of Hashem]” (Rambam, Yesodei
HaTorah 1:70).
[23]
“We know the truth that HaKadosh Baruch Hu only wants to bestow
goodness. He loves his creations like a father loves his son, but because of
this love it is appropriate that a father discipline his son for his own good
in the end, as the verse states, ‘Just like a man disciplines his son, so does
Hashem your God discipline you’ (Devarim
8:5)” (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Derech Hashem 2:8:1).
[24]
According to the Rambam, when Dovid HaMelech said “Being close to Hashem is good
for me” (Tehillim 73:28) the closeness he speaks of refers to
“knowledge, i.e., the intellectual comprehension [of Hashem], not physical
proximity” (Moreh Nevuchim 1:18). In short, knowledge of Hashem is good
for mankind (cf. The Aryeh Kaplan Anthology, Vol. I, pg. 216). Further
evidence of Hashem’s interest in the fate Egyptians can be deduced from His
dismay at their failure. After the Egyptian army is destroyed, the angels in
heaven began to sing. Hashem rebuked them, “The creations of My hands are drowning
in the sea and you are singing songs?!” (Yalkut Beshalach 233).
