Parashat Beshalach

In this week's portion we read the Song of the Sea, the climactic moment of the Exodus from Egypt, after the great miracle in which the sea split and a nation of slaves saw its enemies drowning in the depths. The Midrash relates that in this miraculous event "a maidservant at the sea saw what Yechezkel ben Buzi did not see," describing how the simplest of the people saw what prophets and holy ones would not merit to see. This is that very spiritual flash of which Rav Kook speaks, a sudden repentance that strikes a person all at once, illuminates his soul, and shakes his world from within. Alongside the great wonder, Rav Kook seeks to be precise: this is not the essence of Judaism. Miracles are not what constitutes the Jewish everyday, and faith is built on constant labor and construction and not on mystical wonders. That same maidservant who saw the miracle of the Red Sea vanished from consciousness a moment later. Already at the first step after the miracle the sin of Marah is described. For what comes easily goes easily. By contrast, what comes through hard labor remains, is absorbed, and seeps into the depths.

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