This Shabbat has a special name. It is called Shabbat Shirah, because it contains the famous Song of the Sea. The Sidra takes its name from the second word which means when he expelled. The Israelites were now in the desert. We are told that God decided not to take them on the short route, which would have taken them through the country of the Philistine’s. Instead he took them on a much longer route. The road towards the Philistine territory led to Beer Sheva in the Negev where the Philistine people were living throughout the period of the Patriarchs. We recall that both Abraham and Isaac had extensive dealings with these people and lived in their neighbourhood. God decided on the longer route because he knew that the Israelites were not ready to fight major wars in order to invade Canaan. This became obvious a year later when the 12 spies were sent and 10 of them reported that it was impossible to win a war against the Canaanites. The Israelites, who had been slaves for 210 years, had lost the skills which were required to wage wars. Only the following generation was able to achieve this under Joshua’s commanding leadership.
We are now told that Moses took Joseph’s bones with him in accordance with the oath that Joseph made his brothers take just before he died. Our rabbis say that Joseph was rewarded for the care he took to observe the oath that his father had made him take, before he died which was to bring his bones back to the holy land. Moses himself was rewarded for his act of supreme kindness at a time when he was concerned with a great number of complicated issues. He himself was buried by God.
40 years later, when the Israelites arrived in the land of Canaan, they buried Joseph near the city of Shechem, Nablus. Today his tomb is regarded as a sacred meeting place and Jewish people gather there regularly for prayers. It is located in one of the places in the Holy Land, which, unfortunately, is currently very dangerous and Jews have often been attacked there by Palestinians.
The Children of Israel travelled in the direction of the Red Sea and the Sinai Peninsula. The new route took them even further away from the Land of Canaan. They travelled in a south- easterly direction, whereas the land of Canaan is north of Egypt. The Torah stresses that the Israelites came out ‘Chamushim’. This is a most unusual Hebrew word. On the basis of Arabic, it is assumed that it means that they were organised as a military camp. It stresses that they did not leave like a normal group of slaves, fleeing from their masters in disarray, but in an orderly fashion.
The Israelites arrived in a place called Eitam, which was on the edge of the desert. They were then instructed to turn around and stop travelling in the direction of the South East, into the desert, but to turn around in a South Western direction just on the edge of inhabited land, between a place called Migdol , which means a tower, and the sea. This is what the Torah calls in Hebrew, Yam Suf. We normally translate it as the Reed Sea. It is known as the Red Sea. Yet, more recently, scholars have suggested that the Hebrew name may be connected with the Hebrew word SUFA, which means storm. Accordingly, it is possible that that part of the sea was so named because of its turbulence and the storms that took place, very frequently, in that area. Its identification is crucial in order to establish exactly where the miracle of the splitting of the sea took place. The issue regarding the precise location of the miracle has not been completely resolved. But scholars assume that the miracle took place in one of the Bitter Seas, North of Suez, which, at the time, was connected with the western branch of the Red Sea.
Pharaoh’s ministers informed him that there were clear signs that the Israelites were not intending to worship God in the desert, as Moses had said in his negotiations, but that they had actually fled. So Pharaoh changed his mind. He now regretted that he had chased them out. He was encouraged by the fact that he believed that they had lost their way in the desert, since they had changed the direction of their travel. But the contrary was correct. The first Kohen portion ends on an extremely confident note. It is a most beautiful ending. It says: the children of Israel went out with their arms held high, with courage and openly demonstrating that they had no intention of going back.
But, unfortunately their optimism changed very quickly when they saw the Egyptians pursuing them. All their confidence melted away. They were frightened. They blamed Moses for their predicament. They used sarcasm to criticise him. Their criticism was extremely harsh. But Moses remained firm. He didn’t answer back. He tried to encourage them and said to them that they didn’t need to do anything because God is like a man of war and he would fight on their behalf.
In the next section we come to the miracle of the splitting of the sea. It is one of the greatest miracles in biblical times. The most miraculous element in this episode is the brilliant timing. The storm occurred just at the right time. The Jewish people were able to jump in and get out on the other side whereas the Egyptians drowned. Before they drowned their chariots got stuck in the mud. Earlier, there was another miracle that is not normally highlighted. As the Egyptians were pursuing the Israelites, hoping to catch up with them, a huge black cloud came between the camps, so that the Egyptians became powerless. The Torah calls this cloud the Angel of God, because it acted as God’s emissary.
The song of the sea is the highlight of the reading. It is read in a special tune. In the Torah it is written in two columns, side by side, representing the two walls, formed by the water as the Israelites crossed. It is one of only two occasions in the year when the entire congregation stands up to listen. It is customary to call up the most eminent member of the synagogue to this section of the reading.