Be'she'lach בשלח

This week's portion is the dramatic peak of the Exodus story. The Israelites have been led out of Egypt, but God hardens Pharaoh's heart, again, and the Egyptian Army is right on our tails.

The Egyptian army approaches Bnai Yisrael's encampment at Baal Zephon, next to the Sea of Reeds. The people are justifiably freaking out, and crying out to Moses for help.

Exodus Chapter 14, Verse 13:

וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל הָעָם אַל תִּירָאוּ הִתְיַצְּבוּ וּרְאוּ אֶת יְשׁוּעַת יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה לָכֶם הַיּוֹם כִּי אֲשֶׁר רְאִיתֶם אֶת מִצְרַיִם הַיּוֹם לֹא תֹסִיפוּ לִרְאֹתָם עוֹד עַד עוֹלָם

Moses said to the people, Don't be afraid! Stand firm and see the Lord's salvation that He will wreak for you today, for the way you have seen the Egyptians is [only] today, [but] you shall no longer continue to see them for eternity.

Reading or listening to this passage in the Hebrew can be a bit confusing. When conjugated, the Hebrew words for "fear" and "see" sound very similar, even identical. For instance, when Moses says אל תיראו, context tells us pretty clearly that he means "don't be afraid", but this could just as well mean "don't look".

We have three more occurrences of similar words in this verseראו , ראיתם, and לראותם , with the meaning of "looking" and not "fearing."

This preponderance of the same root structure four times in one verse begs the question 'What is the connection between "fearing" and "looking?"'

To me, these two words remind us of a trusty old adagee that has a great deal of relevance in this week's parsha, as well as the Exodus story in general.

The Hebrew phrase יריאת שמיים" means literally "fear of heaven." However, the phrase is usually taken to mean "fear of god," which is similar to "belief in God." Certainly, to believe in God in the classic sense is to fear God, because we are accountable to God for our actions on this earth, and will receive the various rewards and punishments that go with that. For a elegant summation of this point of view, think of the second paragraph after the Shema.

In any case, 'fearing' is similar to 'believing' and "looking" is the same as "seeing" so perhaps this verse's subtext is reminding us "seeing IS believing."

When God speaks to Moses at the burning bush, God makes it clear that God will be hardening Pharoah's heart. While Pharaoh is not necessarily eager to let his prized slaves go, it may not take the slaying of Egypt's first born to convince him.

There is textual evidence for this. For the first five plagues, we do not read of God hardening Pharoah's heart at all, instead we read וְהַכְבֵּד אֶת לִבּוֹ He (Pharaoh) hardened his (own) heart.

It is only after the plague of boils, which struck the Egyptians and not the Israelites, do we read that God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

Now of course we can never understand God's actions and intentions, but I will argue that the fact that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and perhaps caused not-strictly-necessary plagues, tells us that God wanted to bring down the ten plagues in order to SHOW the Israelites God's might, so that they might BELIEVE in him.

Don't take it from me, take it from our parsha, Chapter 14, Verse 31, after the entire Egyptian army has been drowned.

וַיַּרְא יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת הַיָּד הַגְּדֹלָה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְ־הֹוָ־ה בְּמִצְרַיִם וַיִּירְאוּ הָעָם אֶת יְ־הֹוָ־ה וַיַּאֲמִינוּ בַּי־הֹוָ־ה וּבְמֹשֶׁה עַבְדּוֹ:

And Israel saw the great hand, which the Lord had used upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in Moses, His servant.

Seeing is believing.

This observation helps to explain a passage that has long troubled me from the Passover Haggada. During my family's passover seders, my father always wonders aloud how it is truly possible that "WE (those sitting around the table) were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt." We need to believe that WE were the ones who SAW, with our very own eyes, God's actions in Egypt." It's not enough to have been told a story, we need to SEE it, to truly believe.

The same is true in a court of law. If you have witnesses that saw the crime, this can be considered strong proof.

As humans, we really very strongly on our visual sense, whether in the classroom, in court, or in our most deeply held beliefs. As Jews in the modern age, we face twin struggles with this concept.

First off, the advent of computer-imaging tools has allowed us to "create" images of events and people that have never existed. I sat in class and watched a teacher literally take person A's face and put in on Person B's body - seamlessly and in less than ten minutes.

However, this technical problem pails in comparison to the theological one. It is unlikely that we will see in our lifetimes the likes of what B'nai Yisrael saw down in Egypt land. For us to see "hand of God," we need to look closer at the world around us, and understand it in new ways. We are not being spoon fed anymore.

How do we counteract this phenomenon? I won't pretend to have the answer, but one technique that our Rabbis recommend is prayer - exactly what we are gathered here today to do.

Even if we don't believe that each and every one of our individual petitions are each being weighed and heard, we can find deep meaning in the action itself.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says “Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God…. Prayer may not save us, but prayer makes us worth saving.”

I wish that all of us here today, and those in faith communities the world over, experience ever more powerful prayer experiences that can unite us as one. As it says in Aleinu:

וְהָיָה ה' לְמֶלֶךְ עַל-כָּל-הָאָרֶץ. בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִהְיֶה ה' אֶחָד וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָד: