parshat Beshalach

A Shiur by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks for the weekly portion "Beshalach".

We recite it daily during the morning service, We speak of it again after the Shema, It was the supreme miracle of the exodus. But in what sense?

To commit suicide,to capitulate to the to go to war, or simply pray for God's help?

The Torah describes where the nation went right after being sent out of Egypt. They did not take “the path of the Land of the Plishtim” because it was too close (Shemot 13:17). They started in Rameses and Sukkot (ibid. 12:37). They continued in Eitam (ibid. 13:20). Then we find the command which took Bnei Yisrael to the place of Kri’at Yam Suf: “… before Pi Hachirot, between Migdol and the sea, before Ba’al Tzfon” (ibid. 14:2).