Parshat Beshalach: Splitting the Sea of Doubt | Rabbi Ari Kahn

okay so what we are going to get to eventually is going to be something incredibly familiar so sometimes the problem when something is too familiar so you have to say hold it is that really there and then you say am I kind of forcing my will upon the text or we just noticing something which is staring at us so as I said getting way way way ahead of ourselves but first look at what is here and then we'll try to understand if not even the problems but the the solutions again I can start with some simple things when God takes the Jews out of Egypt he knows that we have a distance he actually knows that there's going to be an issue with the Egyptians um he knows the direction he's taking is going to create some kind of drama but he knows in order to get to CI there's going to be a certain type of traveling and a certain type of traveling is going to going to take up a certain type of uh challenges let's put it that way I mean if anyone knows about armies I think it's between 880 to 90% of correspondents in all armies have to do with Logistics it's maybe probably even higher than that it's Logistics and it's food and it's travel and it's it's all the the simple things that you need to do and to take care of so I'm just saying is that this should come of no surprise that we have some issues in terms of logistics that are going to have to be taken care of and that's going to include food and drink and lodgings and whatever else we need for lots and lots and lots of people so I'm going to say it again that the challenges over here are just completely anticipated and that that's by me that's by us and now you dealing with the Divine perception perspective so then of course everything you know should be understood which then really allows us now to ask the question so why do the things in the paraa then unfold the way that they do which means if if I had to look at this week's para let's just say I took it away I don't have this week's par at all I I don't have it so what happens last week we leave Egypt what happens next week we arrive at heri okay perfectly good story reasonable story and I'll and I'll say it a little differently if there were no Intrigue then we would have no reason to tell over the story you never tell a story and everything was okay right no one ever says that right we never write articles like that and everything was okay next no no one cares when everything's okay everything's okay that's not interesting at all but I'm going to say it again it's that all the challenges that we're going to have should be completely anticipated so much so then you have to ask yourself again the question so what is the divine plan over over here because again it would seem to us that there really is in fact a divine plan so that's I think what we need to uncover over here now the first part of it to say that we're going to have the splitting of the Sea and the splitting of the sea is going to be something completely dramatic and it's going to be something which is transformative and I can keep on now on going in my description of it I think that looking from the perception again the perspective of God in all of this yes that's an important part of the story which means we fool ourselves when we count that there are only 10 plagues there is this 11th thing which takes place and the 11th thing which takes place is ultimately going to be the the end of the story and that's an important end to the story so that's certainly part of the plan but there and that's a very good and very positive part of the plan even though we could begin to question that along the ways that there are some challenges the challenges is the people's experience as they're being chased and hunted down by the Egyptians and we have the night before again with a lot of drama people not necessarily knowing how things are going to work out and feeling very very vulnerable and that's that vulnerability is quite important because I'm going to say it again apparently as part of this plan is that the vulnerability somehow gets turned into and now here I have my problem my problem is what word to use I'm going to use the Hebrew word for a second and that word is am the question is what the English word for that is I don't know but I will tell you if any of you are interested if you completely have too much time on your hands and you're somewhat masochistic then you can ask me to send you a long article that I wrote about faith and belief goes on for pages and pages and pages and pages about trying to understand faith and belief within the Jewish thought I I wasted so much time writing that article and I did it because my publisher had asked me to to because another volume came out which was a very successful volume so I'm there with all these intellectuals which ultimately means that if you uh are aital intellectual for long enough someone may get fooled I guess that's the that's the conclusion so again if you're interested I I can send this but that's part of the issue there in terms of faith and belief and what are the Hebrew words for this and are we dealing with them now are we dealing with trust some people say it's no that's are we dealing with faith are we dealing with belief and and I'll just say and this goes back to my article I think that I think that understanding in the general world we got at the Jewish World the Jewish World we have to unpack all the sources but in the general world I think these things change before and after the Scientific Revolution I think when we start to get to modernity questions of Faith versus belief tend to change and or or at least the way that they're used in certain battles against religion so we we'll leave it at that maybe now that's intriguing enough to know what I'm talking about but that's uh enough nonetheless the Jews are being chased the night before something really incredible happens and I discussed this the other day and that is the wind blows all night and suddenly there's no more water and when you're stuck probably in a peninsula with water on every side and there's no place to go so that's again completely devastating because what you see in front of you is no hope whatsoever again unless you have something else and what's that amuna so you if you have amuna then things are somehow going to work out now the question is should they should they not have emunas I don't know if I want to discuss that I could argue that after the 10 plagues maybe they absolutely should have auna but it maybe it depends on you if you're an optimist or or a pessimist you know how many how many more again everything comes back to the wisdom of O you know what else do you have in that bag you know what else can you do and have you ready run out of the Miracles that could take place what I mean this is uh this situation seems precarious and I do want to stress something I bold to the word Y and that's simply because I want to be able to double back to this later on so again the miraculous description of the splitting of the sea was not entire night where the wind blows and the water seems to somehow disappear that Pro probably looked quite naturally hit's AED would have been that mosha misled them and somehow mosha is incredibly lucky and uh somehow was uh was saved I mean that that would be that would be the idea but but again we understand that the main thing about a miracle is like the main thing about telling a joke and that is timing that you have to say the joke right before people left over here the same thing over here the miracle is you need to do this at the right time and the fact that this particular time having you know being stuck and then having the water disappearing but more importantly the more dramatic is mosha lifts up his hands and the Egyptians who had followed in now in what is now dry land and they get then covered with the water and shooken up also I don't know is that shaken not stirred is that is that what it says L air right that's what it says about them so all up that's that's what it is and God Sav salvation good word God saved Israel that day again from the word miad is interesting from the hand of Egypt so you have this playoff of the hand mosha loves his hands God Saves from the hand of Egypt and Israel now has seen that Egypt is dead you know on the banks of the river they see that again again this is finality this is over it's at this moment they really understand that the years of slavery are over Egypt is over now do you realize how many times the word Yad has been used over here in these sentences and now they see the Yad now yadah is a really interesting word because all of us rationalists would immediately call this an anthropomorphism correct so therefore right you know how to say that is that in Hebrew it's a very good word in Hebrew giving God human qualities not punishment turning God into again human qualities you don't again it's that's why the whole concept is is challenging and the rambam goes against this and the rivord argues with him about this can you even describe God within terms of uh of having a some kind of a body again if it's all metaphoric then you know perhaps but what can you do the does so it's is the interesting about uncus in a moment but the apparently it was therapeutic sometimes for uh for therapy we need to all do all kinds of extreme things apparently that I'm said by the way that's exactly my point because I said I could have ended last week's par and go straight to harini I don't need any of the stuff in the middle but apparently we do so I'm saying this finality apparently is something which needs to take place and and and excuse me closure closure but there's something else and that is and I want to go back to the scars the scars are they threw Jewish babies into the water they threw Jewish babies into the border and therefore the closure over here is when they when God judges M God judges and does the same thing to them that's something which is a very very powerful message most times in this world we don't see God's hand that's exactly the point most times in this world we don't see God's hand we don't see God's judgment we don't see how things work out we don't see how God is micromanaging and involved and over here to see that micromanaging again to the point look what they did and look what happened to them and now you all see okay that's the hand of God again that's that's exactly the point over here so continue okay again now that's really interesting they had fear of God at this point well by the way I can understand that because if you now understand that God Michel manag I would understand why that can lead to fear of God and they had now we have that word so I sugest I suspect that we're familiar with that verse we come we bump into it more than just once a year I also want to ask something else I think there's I think I'm willing to be corrected on this I think that there's some ambiguity deliberate ambiguity in the beginning of the sentence is he talking about what just now happened to Egypt or is this in retrospect now they understand what God did in Egypt so Bim over here doesn't mean to the Egyptians who are now lying on the side of the of the of the water on the banks of the water or is it talking about what God did in Egypt and as I said I'm sensing over here ambiguity and I absolutely believe that when a Divine author leaves us a text with ambiguity then there is uh it's absolutely part of the plan to have that ambiguity and therefore it suggests that that again two levels of this when R spoke about two about text sometimes having two Le two levels to it he talked about Shir shirim and then he SP said like and like in Spencer's fairy queen which of course none of the Shiva bam had ever uh heard of so I guess some guys in Gish went running over to find out what in the world the fairy queen was but um but that that's what he said but but I believe over here there are two levels to this the one level is is they see in front of them the dead Egyptians but that triggers something within them the understanding of that of everything which had happened till now and now they understand the hand of God was at every single point here along the way and that's really a great thing about emuna again whatever the word amuna means that's a great thing about it because emuna again we can always think about these issues are they present tense are they about the future or is or do they let you also reinterpret the past so I think that there's something really interesting over here about this amuna and that is that right now they they certainly have this amuna um part of the problem is going to be is is it is it sustained what's going to happen over the next couple of chapters what's going to happen over the next 40 years which means how easy is it to sustain amuna how easy is it as you move on to the Future to remember the feelings and the understanding of what happened at that particular moment if you note the tar so and again I'll say it and has to do with the past the present and the future that that that's part of what is and that understanding or observation is actually very important in terms of also everything else that we're saying today because something can happen right now and now you reinterpret the past and now you have amuna moving forward towards the future again sustaining it is not always the easiest thing the here says which is really interesting because generally the tarum moves away from anthropomorphisms it's like you know I again I just assume all of us do right for the last 40 50 years or maybe some of us missed a little but if you do it then you get this understanding of what he does and how he does it and I'll say it again just in case you w even put your finger on that he stays away from anthropomorphisms and the fact that he did not over here is really interesting which means even though again 99 out of 100 times he will not do this and over here he says and they see right they see the great hand and they believe the words of God that's interesting he added the words and the prophecy of motion so again normally he's word for word and quite literal but over here you see in the second half of the verse he he does understand that this is somewhat metaphoric and therefore he gives a little bit more and he turns it into into concrete Concepts as aide from something which is more morphous in terms of Visions but but it's Concepts you can argue with my use of morphus theil source number three says so great was Thea do you have this desire yet for me to translate into English or are we good with the Hebrew you say that we not ref first to past and future in this time always true I don't know I think potentially I think potentially because again because you can correct me and say no amuna has do it this moment right now but the question is at this moment you when you have that amuna that means anything in the past now you've reinterpreted because of the present experience and at this moment you have faith in the future as well so I I think that amuna is about the past present and future and I I'll say it again the challenge of sustaining it over time is going to be a whole another challenge are gey has to be the proving such a strong word I'm suggesting says so great was the that they had in who spoke and the world came into being now that's really interesting because we can just begin to question okay they know that there is a God they know that there's one monolithic God they know that this one monolithic God has involved in history they know that this one monolithic God has taken that of Egypt but how much do they know about the Theology of creation you can respond to me and say well that's obvious if there's one manol with the God then again by extension creation as well but I just find this comment about creation really interesting so let's file that on aside for a moment because it could have said that they believed in this God who just now saved them from Egypt which means now you've extrapolated and gone back and again going back to the past you're taking the present situation and now you're saying hold it if this is God who's all powerful then hold it where did the world come from so God must be involved in that as well and I'm going to admit something I'm I'm working too hard right now because I think it's just a general turn a phrase that one would refer to God as God as but nonetheless it is fair because you can refer to God in various ways the fact that this midash chose to use this turn of phrase to describe God I think is significant but then it tells us something out of the reward that they received for thises so just like we saw unist suggesting a moment ago that now they had emuna in moshe's Prophecy in the word of God in moshe's Prophecy which also we realize there's a correlation that at this moment they had reigned upon them this ability to have r that moment which suddenly they're seeing things in a way which normally people don't see M so therefore it's understanding thisa is connected with this it it's seeing something Divine and it's suggesting that to see something Divine means that you right now have R Kesh now I'm going to say it again this is really interesting if you need me to strengthen this a little bit I'll strengthen this by saying that when they start to sing okay and the next words in this what's the the O is once they receive this Divine gift on them now they're able to say This Magnificent song but what what does it say in right after right that's the interesting word so it suggested if you look at the commentaries M when they say they're pointing a finger that's where we learned that was greater the vision that people had sometimes it says some the text say even the E even a servant woman had at that moment was greater than the level of yes sometimes it says yes or together that they had a greater understanding than What's called the why it's because the one word that is my God and they're pointing a finger so now if I have to go back and say oh this song with some kind of of a Divine words are coming if you want divine div ventriloquism that somehow they have this ability to say things that they should not be able to say it's because they saw something which they should not be able to see so again it's it's interesting because there's actually two stages because one stage is is that they see the hand of God the strong hand of God and the punishment of the Egyptians and in that moment they have amuna but the emuna now they're able to sing this song as well and when they sing the song it's because now they have thises they're able to point their finger and to see something which normally person would be unable to see so the description over here really is again I'll I'll say it I think it's really impressive that had and everything that AB had was because of his amuna so I'm just going to note one thing about this amuna of Abraham where is this written it's written in braa chapter 15 what's written immediately after bra in braa chapter 15 The Brit that comes immediately after this description that AB had so now you realize that you have something which is either poetic and and again theologically breathtaking you can say it's poetic Li license poetic Beauty really it's that this and that aam has and then the Brit banar going to be slaves and but I'm going to judge the people going to come out and the Judgment as we've seen is understood partially involved the punishment of the firstborn and of the splitting of the Sea and the punishing of Egyptians that's the punishment that's the the nation will be judged and they come out of thisa which is where AB was when the whole thing begins so it seems to be that this whole thing I'm not say exclusively but this whole experience from brait you know peric TV toot peric yal is all about giving over auna to his descendants and now they've walked out of it and they have that kind of emuna and therefore when we need our title for today I wna I'm going to build up to tell you the title but aam got in on the ground floor on the greatest Enterprise in history and that is the understanding that there's one God you know people can get involved in corporations on the ground floor and then make a lot of money which some people think is very important thing but Abraham it's interesting he gives over as our spiritual Legacy our inheritance is we're all let's put it this way we're all trust fund kids that's what we are but this is a different type of trust fund this is that we all inherited the trust that Abraham had we all inherited Abraham's amuna and that we see now coming you know being manifest when we get to the other side of the of the water that that we we came out of this okay we came out of of this with this emuna and I'm going to say it again the challenge of this being sustained continuing from you know even even the next couple of days you know as we as we run out of our supplies and the logistics now are going to become very challenging what's gonna happen now k fore right right dram dramatic dramatic and and that's why we said before that they needed the therapy they needed this experience on the other side rashi rashi says and again I'm reminding you that the word Yad was there one time after the other over here that so he admits the word y I'm going backwards here almost could be used in lots of different ways but he says over here it means that God's great strength God's being involved in history is what this means over here do you see what the rashbam just did he took it to the future he said that right now they had amuna that meant that they'll be okay moving forward we're going to be okay everything's going to be okay why is everything okay because of what just now happened so that's why that's why when you ask me again about okay what what tense does what does amuna affect that it's really interesting what Rashi did is in in a sense Rashi is going backwards and what or present and I think backwards and what the rashbam is doing it's almost like he's ignoring right now what does that mean that they have auna it means everything's going to be okay moving forward that's what amuna means as far as the rashbam is concerned and this reminded me of something it reminded me of yahu in Source number six peric that when you left Egypt God says I will always remember that kindness interesting word that you followed me off to the desert a place which is nothing's planted which exact that's exactly the problem we're going back to what I said in the beginning Logistics food water right lodgings going it's not the simplest thing to follow off so I'm really tempted to connect this verse in near me together with what the rasham says over here and that that's the level that they're on in this particular moment and what's interesting again he's GNA make a really broad general statement but he's saying it here right here right you'll see it what was that right so on that he has this long discourse about so he just now connected the word with the word am so when we say amain what we're saying is is that we havea we're we're we're we're confirm we're confirming we're we're agreeing I accept the words that were said by the person who said it and I agree to them and he goes on to say to really to go on to talk a bit about the great of and the importance of again commenting on on this area it'll tie things a little bit tighter than we just now saw in the M this is talking about the future that when we get towards the end of the Exile there's also a song to Be Sung so just those of you who don't immediately recognize this probably it's because you're not among those who say sh every Friday before Shabbat so in Source number nine Numan so I gave you the English translation here of what I think is the simplest level of understanding but again shirim has more than one level of uh of interpretation come with me from Lebanon my bride with me from Lebanon look from the top of Amman so you see it copped out and it decided that amama is the name of a mountain and didn't go into anything else here from the top of sneer and Heron from the Lion's Den from the mountains of leopards could be that in terms of what's going on in the world today is that maybe all of this is a little bit more significant but look at Rashi an sh and then we'll get get back to the mid when you're going to when all the Exiles will be gathered Rashi takes it right back to what we understood to be in the rashbam he says no the was right there again so essentially he's agreeing with what the rash had said on the verse that we're going forward and and then he goes on he says but no there could be a second inter interpretation as well and I'm going to leave this maybe just read it they get to the point you can see the borders of Israel I don't know what that means you can see the I don't know what he means but I like it and that turns into joy and that and that causes this incredible happiness and therefore what happens now you start to sing from the top of this mountain of belief so if you go back now to Raba you'll see that he says that in the future they're going to say on basis of what can we say that's our inheritance now we go back this is our trust fund we go back this is what AB gave to us heav what does that mean so again what's interesting is it's taking this idea of the of the as belief the importance of belief again I I I broke what I said before I don't want to translate this into English theun belief trust Faith whatever word you prefer but I'm going to say it again we keep seeing that leaving Egypt was about instilling something deep with inside of us and at that moment everything made sense walking off into a desert with God made sense everything makes sense because look what God does look what God can do look at the yadah so everything makes sense at this point I'll tell you really what the issue is the issue and I don't want to say it in the mutual exclusive way the question with in my mind is is it something which is centered on the mind or something centered on the heart or as I said it may not be mutually exclusive it could be a faith is something which is more in the heart and it could be belief is something which is more of the mind and maybe that's When We're translating it that's what's taking place what what what is more is this more of an emotion is this more of U of the intellect telling you the logical conclusion based upon all the information that you've been able to take in I will point point out that's that again I keep saying that this issue ofuna is going to travel with us all the way through and I just want to note a couple things one is by midir chapter yud Alf which is in Source 11 this as we've always noted is where things go chapter 11 chapter 11 this is where everything start everything was good till this point and sa for by midth here's where things start to go wrong the people have desire and want food and this and they start complaining but what do they complain about they complain about the man you know in this week's par we're going to have no food and the man is going to come down it's going to solve our problem and over here we find them complaining about the man and it's interesting what mosha says and that's back in at the end did I give birth to them so the question is what means Omen is like like a Nur but somebody is somebody who instills with some within a child the basic emotions and intellect that a child's going to have and I have no problem understanding where mosha says you know am I supposed to be an OM man and God's answer to that is yes and the next chapter interestingly enough it says and the word and the word omain these these are all connected and remember where did this come this came after everybody or a whole bunch of people experienced prophecy which is really parallel to what we just now saw by the Shir and then uh Miriam says you know we're also prophets and God says no you're not you also like mosha mosha is on a completely different level so again I'm just noting that there almost like bookends which are taking place the other thing is that moshe's eventual end of his career is going to come in when God when God said to speak to the Rock and he hits the rock which by the way is also in this we's par I mean it's the same episode not the same the same Motif is there in terms of talking to the Rock and so on but when that happens and and mosha hits the Rock and then what does God say to him because so the word I'm GNA say it again is just going to completely follow us moshe's job is to give people Faith moshe's job is to instill within people this type of and God sent and Mos am I supposed to give them am I the and God says yes and that's exactly what when an episode comes up and Mos does not instill within them at that moment at that point God says okay you you you no longer can continue because that's essentially what your job is so I just don't want you to think that you've understood everything yet because because again this this theme is there it's going to stay with us until the very end let's continue now so we have a problem and what's our problem going to be our problem is going to be that we're going to walk off like a love sick bride following off our we right the dams on distress is going to follow off the night and Shining Armor and then very quickly we're going to find out that he does not have a place for us to stay that he does not have food he does not have supplies and we're going to start complaining um one good thing about that complaining is is that it does say they cried out to God which is something we noted was missing during The Times They CED in Egypt they cried now they cry out to God so I think that is significant but let's go over to chapter 15 peric Source 13 three days it's all it took three days the honey moon is over there was no water they came to they couldn't drink the water because it was bitter they complained against Moshe it's interesting it doesn't say yet they complain against God they complain against mosha and they say what are we going to drink but so some kind of impressive thing takes place they take the stick and it goes in the water it sweetens the water but also this turn of phrase We Don't begin to understand why this is this is MAA and we have a tradition that at MAA we receive some laws now why I mean what is happening here this should be the beginning of our problem the beginning Plus if you're going to listen to the voice of God now I hope you noticed something which it first all it's so obvious but it's too obvious so therefore you can't really say it but it's there and then you think on I you know are my eyes playing tricks on me is my mind playing tricks on me so what am I referring to okay so what I'm referring to is that we just now had a verse talked about the water got sweetened there they got which we have no idea what it's talking about and then it continues and it says that should remind us of something what should that remind us of the second right is the second part and it says and you listen to The Commandments and again we doubling back in what we had in the previous verse then there's going to be let's really be honest over here about what we're saying but the splitting of the see we were privileged to see and what happened when we saw the we saw how do you translate that into English proportional right proportional punishment for what was done and over here we're told that if you follow the laws there will be there will be consequences then so it's talking again about or else say perform mitv there will be it's about continue next chapter Source 14 peric Ted Zion they travel from there and they arrive so now you realize that was three days and now right all together now we one month has gone by so they carried out apparently enough matah for a month so what's worse than matah month month old matah so I guess they had matah Bri for a while um the and they complain so this is the first time we're g to we hear something is it the first time you know had we only died first time was you know you know what are we going to drink now is had we only died we used to eat we had so much food and we ate it to the point of being saded and you taken out of this place one of the opinions is you say one of the opinions you say I said that's one of the op what you say so one of them is some say some say right because it it is failing on some side no because of this p over here um when you get M and maybe depends what you imagine it to be when you get M you'll let me know and we'll uh we get them on we'll figure it out but yet yes yes that's really interesting him low so God just showed his hand in such an interesting way what did I say from the very beginning I said two things one as I said it could have taken us directly from leaving Egypt to Haren and we never would have noticed anything was missing I mean that's the thing and they arrived I see I that's it but then I said the other problem that we have is is because the problem of logistics and the problem of supplies and but it say said something really interesting that this whole thing is about not what you thought it was God is saying that there is an educational objective to this there's a religious objective to this and this word le anenu in order to test you it could be to lift you now the important thing to me is that the word Torah is being mentioned over here again we have and you say what are you talking about we don't get the Torah till SII what are we doing over here talking about Torah over here and God tells that on the sixth day there will be this double and you will know again here it goes from you will know that God it was God who took out of Egypt you're going to see again the glory of God and so on so we're going to skip a little bit more over here and we get to and God's glory appear appeared in the N which by the way we're back to the zeel vanu kind of thing now there's this Glory verce 15 which takes us to the next chapter what happens on Friday lo and behold double amount Falls and what does Moshe say who hasem shabon shabbes it's Shabbat now this for us is a little bit perplexing because know this is what God had told so presumably in simplest level that mosha had been told already there'll be a double portion on Friday and presumably because Shabbat the M factory is closed right Union right no M factory no MFS on Shabbat and I am going back to my point about what knowledge do they have in terms of creation and other things but let's just continue a little bit and we know that what happened with the m again we can read through all this description here is that if they took too much then it went bad overnight and now they're told to take double and nothing's going to fall in the morning and mosha says right six days you'll gather until now even they they refus to follow my laws and my Torah and again my perception would have been skip over all of this go straight to CI we get the at CI but we're seeing something really interesting and that is we are receiving Torah beforehand but in a really compelling kind of way what I mean is that it's not an abstract oh yeah by the way six days SE no this is six days of the month Falls they're experiencing this seventh day it doesn't fall if you took too much on Wednesday there was nothing it would all be spoiled on Thursday you took too much on Friday you took double on Friday then you have food to eat on Shabbat they receiving instruction in Shabbat in a in a very real way and apparently that's what's needed right now as we move further now I'm going to say what I said in the beginning there's a much larger issue over here which is taking place I still want to try to identify it give me a couple more seconds and we're GNA try to we're gonna try to get there there's a reason why they had to experience Shabbat before get the Torah that explain why the context word and that's what it sounds like and that's what and that's and that is indeed what it what it sounds like seems yes yes had spoken about this in terms of talked about this in terms of mar um at the very end they're told about the future like take them and put them in the time capsule again if you want to talk about anticipation of the future completely completely over here okay so as I said we still now have to try to work a couple of things out thein 16 says that it saysat God explained the reason for Shabbat if you look at the robag in 17 that the Shabbat is not just about Shabbat in terms of itself it's about Shabbat in in terms of a a much broader context God is Creator God who did create the world so now you see the rabag actually is reading that in right now because over here it's about they're experiencing it but it says no you haven't followed my MIT instructions the mitv and the instruction so what is it they're both again ibben Ezra and the rag are understanding it's not just about performance it's about understanding it's about theology it's about that God created the world it's about you were slaves in Egypt and therefore this command is being introduced it's also it's also going to ultimately be a command which is connected to amuna but as let me just think we will uh we will pause on that for now 18 and 19 discuss a little bit you know when exactly they were told about creation at least according to Rashi and that's what I have in Source 19 he claims that this happens when they get to seni but according to this it gets pushed back a little bit earlier that in terms of this whole Shabbat experience which means I don't want to call it experience what I want to call this is that the trip between Egypt and seni was an educational trip which had within it all kinds of messages and all kinds of experiences and they were faith building experiences or imuna building experiences and it was one that they that Shabbat became a part of who they were so let's just go now a little bit further and I I hope I can tie all of this up in in Source number 20 we get to a problem and what's the problem that once again they don't have water so I I know did this earlier they don't get water and they start complaining again and mosha is told to go go up by The Rock and he's going to speak to he's going to hit the rock and so on but now the questioning is God Among Us or not which you realize now that we've just now gone backwards considerably and that's part of the problem it's part of the problem OFA is sustaining it and sustaining it in the face of uh of of difficulties in the face of challenges certain in the face of tragedy how does one sustain amuna is something which now we see is part of the issue and what comes immediately afterwards and what's gonna happen now is that he takes the MIM in his hand and moshe's hands are once again going to become a part of the narrative Kim M it's going to be successful when his hands get heavy and then of course course it's going to say right afterwards in what's it going to say you with me it's going to say so we have the word emuna coming right back into this again which is as I said again it's really where we had started and then we're told to write this down put this like M dor talking about God's hand so in order to really try to make all kinds of sense all out of this let us and it's at this point we're going to move a little bit quicker so I apologize so but just note the following who is a Malik amalik is obviously the descendant of Asa what is the anger that asov has towards yov it goes back to something which is called the B who is the firstborn Asa has no interest in being in the firstborn part of being a firstborn I would presume on the one hand the firstborn is going to get a double portion of the land of Israel or maybe even inherit the land of Israel but being the firstborn is also going to be maybe to also become the one who's going to work as a cohain the one who's going to serve in in the bet mdash with mishan um nonetheless all of the benefits over here seem to be far in the future and ASV is not really one who's interested in the future ASV is much more interested in the here and now now that that that's important because one of the things we've been talking about in terms of amuna is is how it impacts your attitude towards the future aaham Zuna was right there immediately before the Bim which talks about a 400-year deal so how many people are really going to be able to sustain that type of Muna for 400 years but that's exactly what we realize is the issue over here but as of really backs around for but he has he apparently has sellers regret because that's why Amal comes back but I'm saying just realize now that the Bor is in the background so the various themes that we've had all the way througha we've had the theme of the Yad the Yad we've had the theme of the first born and I think that that is enough to now note Source 21 Yakov selles the B so that's again the background of the whole of the whole hatred of course it continues for other reasons taking the BR good verse 22 is right before we started it was the end of last week's para peric gimmel the now stop I hope that you realize now that if at the end of this section we have am coming back to fight with yakob the Bor was never that far behind us now the reason why you wouldn't have seen this is because you would have focused on the Bor of MIT but part of what happens in all this is that the becomes holy it's a sanctification it's the so the the is the right and so on but how does that section end up a couple verses later and there somehow this morphs into right how to F get into this Torah should be on your mou so we you know as I said let's go straight toi but we need to do some things to get toi which means if you're gonna ask me why do we we filling and the answer is to remember that God took us out of Egypt with a strong hand why would I say such a thing because the Torah just said it that that that's what it said right afterwards we have a second para of shma right you think about the four par in the sorry of thein one was next one it's about the land of Israel so one is about the of the now is about the Isel right you're gonna go in that God took us out with a strong hand and then so I'm gonna say it again what's the purpose of the of thein to remember that God took us out with a strong hand at least partially then now there are two par the starting point of my whole sh today was my remembering this something I heard some 40 years ago more or less about the rashbam in Source number 23 this is the rashbam was my starting point so what is it that the rashbam says what does the rashbam do he argues that this is not really talking about filling over here but rather it says it's talking about a concept that we need to teach why it's about giving over information so the way it was taught to me was that we didn't have the other two pario yet it can't be in instruction to where it's filling it would have been lopsided filling they didn't have the two missing pario what are the two missing Parma and those are not introduced until so therefore the Russ again that was explanation is movie said no you just tell over this stuff because it can't really be about implementing a Mitzvah which is not possible so as I said that was my starting point into all of this so now with two minutes left more or less I want to consider the following one is the two missing Parma sha I hope you noticed as I was talking today appeared in the beginning of par in Source 24 we're told we should recognize those verses right that's right you know where were we were at whenever you say you need to talk about again when you're know what is what do we need it for right going back to going back to the idea of splitting of the sea all these things need to be said whenever you say they have to be part of the why well the answer should be obvious sooner rather than later and we're gonna skip a little bit but I hope that you're understanding the theme when we get to when we get to Source 25 that'sa and you notice of course in it it talks about the are there as well right in source 26 which is really could have been before themma and after begins with which is a statement I guess this greatest statement OFA that we have at the end end of the in Source 27 Rashi explains towards the bottom understands that again theun that they just now got was towards the future rash so as I said I just ran the risk of uh of everyone not understanding about what it is that I wanted to say so let me uh make sure that you do inash we have this we have a by the way what do we do when we say the we cover our eyes and why do we cover our eyes because there a it's because the when we say the shma it's such a powerful prayer that the comes right there it's like when the we cover our our eyes as well over here we cover our eyes because the the is there is something which causes a over over here as well by the and then it's this understanding that that God is God is king forever when we say say that that means that we we know it now but it's going to be manifest all over the world right which means what exactly is the it's that's what it is understand that God is king that's the reason why you say all the what's the final one it's the one that doesn't have this me but that's Mal is knowing that there's one God now it's interesting some of your will have the end of some will have it in parenthesis and some won't have it now some of the commentators will say oh it's a mistake it was there from rash at the end right after this it may not be a mistake because the purpose over here is the same purpose and what is it we're missing two par of what are they one is that happens with the splitting of the sea so what's the other thing that we're still missing and what do we have throughout the rest of the par together with which means we we already had an introduction to ones right reward and Punishment right there when we saw the splitting of the sea that was manifestes in front of us and then what happens afterwards what happens afterwards is God is teaching us a lesson in which is that other chapter of shma which what I'm saying is is that once the Fillin were introduced whether they put them on at that point or not it's that the message of the fill in with all four parot are actually here right now the first two were they WR clearly right about the first born about ER those are clear those are there but the next two are actually the next couple of topics which are being discussed one is to the point that again I'm not going to say you cover your eyes not but you see Z they see God manifest but there's also this other issue about which is also staring at them and then it's the of mitv together with and that takes us right through with the things that t and most important in Shabbat they get they're taught about Shabbat in terms of this idea of Kabal mitv with the absolute logic to it of that God will give you for six days the seventh but they're also told to be to be taught it that's what was what the rag said teach them why we have shabat teach them that God created the universe teach them that you was that you were slaves in Egypt and go God meaning put God back into history which becomes something which becomes completely manifest in your understanding because that's ultimately what emuna is ma is we'll go back to the beginning and MAA is seeing something in the present reinterpreting everything that happened in the past and then having complete understanding in faith belief trust moving forward into the future