Torah Stories By Hannah Beshalach

Now when Pharaoh let the people go, G-d did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer, for G-d said, “The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.” So G-d led the people roundabout, by way of the wilderness of the Sea of Reeds.

Now the Israelites went up armed out of the land of Egypt. And Moshe took with him the bones of Yosef, who had exacted an oath from the children of Yisrael saying, “G-d will be sure to take notice of you: then you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”

They set out from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, at the edge of the wilderness. HaShem went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, that they may travel day and night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

HaShem said to Moshe: Tell the Yisraelites to turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. Pharaoh will say of the Yisraelites, ‘They are astray in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.’ Then I will stiffen Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue them that I may gain glory through Pharaoh and all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am HaShem.

And they did so.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his courtiers had a change of heart about the people and said, “What is this we have done, releasing Yisrael from our service?” He ordered his chariot and took his men with him; he took six hundred of his picked chariots, and the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in all of them. HaShem stiffened the heart of Pharaoh King of Egypt, and he gave chase to the Yisraelites. As the Yisraelites were departing defiantly, boldly, the Egyptians gave chase to them, and all the chariot horses of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his warriors overtook them encamped by the sea, near Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.

As Pharaoh drew near, the Yisraelites caught sight of the Egyptians advancing upon them. Greatly frightened, the Yisraelites cried out to HaShem. And they said to Moshe, “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt saying, Let us be, and we will serve the Egyptians, for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness?” But Moshe said to the people, “Have no fear! Stand by, and witness the deliverance which HaShem will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. HaShem will battle for you; you hold your peace!”

Then HaShem said to Moshe, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Yisraelites to go forward. And you, lift up your rod and hold out your arm over the sea and split it, so that the Yisraelites may march into the sea on dry ground. And I will stiffen the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his warriors, his chariots and his horsemen. Let the Egyptians know that I am HaShem, when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

The Angel of HaShem, who had been going ahead of the Yisraelite army, now moved and followed behind them; and the pillar of cloud shifted from in front of them and took up a place behind them, and it came between the army of the Egyptians and the army of Yisrael. Thus there was the cloud with the darkness, and it cast a spell upon the night so that the one could not come near the other all through the night.

Then Moshe Held out his arm over the sea and HaShem drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split, and the Yisraelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians came in pursuit after them into the sea, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen. At the morning watch, HaShem looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He locked the wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Yisraelites, for HaShem is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Then HaShem said to Moshe, “Hold out your arm over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians and Upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.” Moshe held out his arm over the sea and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal state, and the Egyptians fled at its approach. But HaShem hurled the Egyptians into the sea. The waters turned back and covered the chariots and the horsemen – Pharaoh’s entire army that followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Yisraelites had marched through the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

Thus HaShem delivered Yisrael that day from the Egyptians. Yisrael saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea. And when Yisrael saw the wondrous power which HaShem had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared HaShem; they had faith in HaShem and His servant Moshe.

Then Moshe and the Yisraelites sang this song to HaShem. They said:

I will sing to HaShem for He has triumphed gloriously;

Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea.

HaShem is my strength and my might;

He is become my deliverance.

This is my G-d and I will glorify Him;

The G-d of my father and I will exalt Him.

HaShem, the Warrior –

HaShem is His Name!

Pharaoh’s chariots and His army

He has cast into the sea;

And the pick of his officers

Are drowned in the Sea of Reeds.

The deeps covered them;

They went down into the depths like a stone.

Your right hand, Oh HaShem, glorious in power,

Your right hand, Oh HaShem, shatters the foe!

In Your great triumph You break Your opponents;

You send forth Your fury, it consumes them like straw.

At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up,

The floods stood straight like a wall;

The deeps froze in the heart of the sea.

The foe said,

“I will pursue, I will overtake,

I will divide the spoil;

My desire shall have its fill of them.

I will have my word –

My hand shall subdue them.”

You make Your wind blow, the sea covered them;

They sank like lead in the majestic waters.

Who is like You, Oh HaShem, among the mighty;

Who is like You, majestic in holiness,

Awesome in splendour, working wonders!

You put out Your right hand,

The earth swallowed them.

In Your love You lead the people You redeemed;

In Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode.

The peoples hear, they tremble;

Agony grips the dwellers in Philistia.

Now are the clans of Edom dismayed,

The tribes of Moab – trembling grip them;

All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast.

Terror and dread descend upon them;

Through the might of Your arm they are still As stone –

Till Your people cross over, Oh HaShem,

Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed.

You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain,

The place You made to dwell in, Oh HaShem,

The sanctuary, Oh HaShem, which Your hands established.

HaShem will reign forever and ever!

For the horses of Pharaoh, with his chariots and horsemen, went into the sea; and HaShem turned back on them the waters of the sea; but the Yisraelites marched on dry ground in the midst of the sea.

Then Miriam the prophetess, Aharon’s sister, took a tumbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her in dance with tumbrels. And Miriam chanted for them:

Sing to HaShem, for He has triumphed gloriously;

Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea.

Then Moshe caused Yisrael to set out from the Sea of Reeds. They went out into the wilderness of Shur; They travelled three days in the wilderness and found no water. They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; that is why it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moshe saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to HaShem, and HaShem showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water and the water became sweet.

There He made for them a fixed rule, and there He put them to the test. He said, “If you will listen to HaShem your G-d diligently, doing what is upright in His sight, giving ear to His commandments and keeping all His laws, then I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians, for I HaShem am your healer.”

And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there beside the water.

Setting out from Elim, the whole Yisraelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. In the wilderness, the whole Yisraelite community grumbled against Moshe and Aharon. The Yisraelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of HaShem in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death!”

And HaShem said to Moshe, “I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion – that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not. But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they have brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day.” So Moshe and Aharon said to all the Yisraelites, “By evening you shall know it was HaShem who brought you out from the land of Egypt; and in the morning you shall behold the Presence of HaShem, because He has heard your grumblings against HaShem. For who are we that you should grumble against us? Since it is HaShem,” Moshe continued, “who will give you flesh to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to the full, because HaShem has heard the grumblings you utter against Him, what is our part? Your grumbling is not against us but against HaShem!”

Then Moshe said to Aharon, “Say to the whole Yisraelite community: Advance toward HaShem, for He has heard your grumbling.” And as Aharon spoke to the whole Yisraelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and there, in a cloud, appeared the Presence of HaShem.

HaShem spoke to Moshe: “I have heard the grumbling of the Yisraelites. Speak to them and say: By evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I HaShem am your G-d.”

In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp; in the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp. When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance , as fine as frost on the ground. When the Yisraelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” – for they did not know what it was. And Moshe said to them, “That is the bread which HaShem has given you to eat. This is what HaShem has commanded: Gather as much of it as each of you requires to eat, an omer to a person for as many of you as there are; each of you shall fetch for those in his tent.”

The Yisraelites did so, some gathering much, some little. But when they measured it by the omer, he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no deficiency: They had gathered as much as they needed to eat. And Moshe said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” But they paid no attention to Moshe; some of them left of it until morning, and it became infested with maggots and stank. And Moshe was angry with them.

So they gathered it every morning, each of them as much as he needed to eat; for when the sun grew hot, it would melt. On the sixth day they gathered double the amount of food, two omers for each; and when all the chieftains of the community came and told Moshe, he said to them, “This is what HaShem meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Shabbat of HaShem. Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moshe had ordered; and it did not turn foul, and there were no maggots in it. Then Moshe said, “Eat it today, for today is a Shabbat of HaShem, you will not find it today on the plain. Six days you shall gather it, on the seventh day, the Shabbat, there will be none.”

Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing. And HaShem said to Moshe, “How long will you men refuse to obey My commandments and My teachings? Mark that HaShem has given you the Shabbat; therefore He gives you two days’ food on the sixth day. Let everyone remain where he is: let no man leave his place on the seventh day.” So the people remained inactive on the seventh day.

The house of Yisrael named it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers in honey. Moshe said, “This is what HaShem has commanded: Let one omer of it be kept throughout the ages, in order that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.” And Moshe said to Aharon, “Take a jar, put one omer of manna in it, and place it before HaShem, to be kept throughout the ages.” As HaShem had commended Moshe, Aharon placed it before the Pact, to be kept. And the Yisraelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a settled land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. The omer is a tenth of an ephah.

From the wilderness of Sin the whole Yisraelite community continued by stages as HaShem would command. They encamped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarrelled with Moshe, “Give us water to drink,” they said; and Moshe replied to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you try HaShem?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people grumbled against Moshe and said, “Why did you bring us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moshe cried out to HaShem, saying, “What shall I do with this people? Before long they will be stoning me!” Then HaShem said to Moshe, “Pass before the people; take with you some of the elders of Yisrael, and take along the rod with which you struck the Nile, and set out. I will be standing there before you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will issue from it, and the people will drink.” And Moshe did so in the sight of the elders of Yisrael. The place was named Massah and Meribah, because the Yisraelites quarrelled and because they tried HaShem saying, “Is HaShem present among us or not?”

Amalek came and fought with Yisrael at Rephidim. Moshe said to Joshua, “Pick some men for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the rod of G-d in my hand.” Joshua did as Moshe told him and fought with Amalek, while Moshe, Aharon and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Then whenever Moshe held up his hand, Yisrael was winning; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek was winning. But Moshe’s hands got tired and heavy. So they put a stone under him so he could sit down, while Aharon and Hur, on each side, held up his hands; thus his hands remained in the air until sunset. And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek with the sword.

Then HaShem said to Moshe, “Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!” And Moshe built an altar, and named it “Adonai-nissi.” (HaShem is my banner) He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of HaShem!’ HaShem will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”