Parshas Beshalach 5779

The Quail and the Manna

The Torah writes (Exodus 16:11-15) [emphasis added]:

The LORD spoke to Moses: “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. 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 the LORD am your God.” 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 Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”—for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.

However, the Torah doesn't mention the quail again until much later where there are complaints for more meat (Numbers 11:4-7):

The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!” Now the manna was like coriander seed, and in color it was like bdellium.

Rabbeinu Bachya writes (Exodus ibid):

Both the quail and the manna appeared for the first time on a Sunday (compare our comment on verse 1 and 5). The quails formed a daily diet of the Israelites for 40 years (based on Tossaphot Erchin 15 on the word התאוו). As long as the Israelites had the manna they also had the quails. Concerning verse 38: “the Israelites ate the manna for 40 years,” (where no such particulars are given for the quails), we must assume that the same applied to the supply of quails which became available every evening. The reason the Torah only refers to the continued supply of the manna for 40 years is that seeing it was heavenly food it required a daily supernatural miracle during all those years. The availability of the quails by comparison, was a much less impressive miracle, not having required that something out of the ordinary be “manufactured” in the celestial regions. Making the quails available is described by the Torah as a more or less natural phenomenon in Numbers 11,31when the Torah reported: “a wind went out from Hashem and blew quails from the sea and spread them over the camp.” ...

Tosfos (Arakhin 15b) cites a different opinion:

Rashi explains that they wanted more which implies that the quail did not stop for them. However, R' Yosef Kara explains that the original quail stopped for them and the rabble among them had a desire for more since they did not have it, and therefore it rained the quail for a second time

(see Sefer Pesach Einayim in Arakhin for additional opinions)

Bechor Shor (Exodus ibid) explains:

The quail here is the one from [Parshas] Behaaloscha only since the manna was mentioned here, it also mentioned the quail, for you should know if Moshe saw the quail come to them once and stop, why would he say "Would enough sheep and cattle be slaughtered and found for them"?

Chizkuni writes (ibid):

the gift of quails was a one time occurrence, which explains the people’s complaint in Numbers 11,4 where they craved meat. On that occasion G-d provided them with meat a second time as stated in the Talmud Erchin folio 15. Rashi writes that the demand by the people for meat in their diet described in Numbers was more insistent. The manna was provided by G-d daily for forty years. [After the disastrous results of many people dying from overeating on meat in the second year of their wanderings, and dying as a result, we never hear of such a request again. Ed.]

Ramban (ibid 16:12) writes:

... for the quail was with them from this day going forward just like the manna .. and the Torah spends more time discussing the manna and less time on the quail because the manna was miraculous ... and the reason why they complained at Krias Tarbeh for it was not not given to them for satiety ... perhaps only the great ones gathered it, or the pious among them, and the lesser ones desired it and hungered for it...

Riva (ibid 16:13) writes that the they did not complain about lack of meat, rather they were upset about the ban of marrying certain relatives that were permitted before the Torah was given

Parshas Beshalach 5778

Who Was Pharaoh Talking To?

The Torah writes (Exodus 14:3):

Pharaoh will say to the Israelites, “They are astray in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.”

Rashi (ibid) explains:

לבני ישראל means על בני ABOUT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Similarly. (v. 14) “The Lord will fight לכם”, i. e. עליכם for you; (Genesis 20:13) “Say לי, he is my brother” i. e. say about me.

However, Targum Jonathan (ibid) explains differently:

And Pharoh said to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Israel, who had remained in Mizraim, The people of the house of Israel are bewildered in the land: the idol Zephon hath shut them in close upon the desert.

Midrashim (Midrash HaGadol Korach, Shemos Rabbah 1:29) also write that Dathan and Abiram ultimately rejoined the Jewish people prior to the Splitting of the Sea and they were the ones who complained to Moshe (2:11).

Beer Mayim Chaim writes that the Sea split for them a second time, because they cross AFTER the Egyptians were drowned and that's also explains the discrepancy of the order of the verses right before the Song.



(There is also discussion in Sefer haHefetz [2:13] that Moshe asked Hashem to save some of the Jewish children being killed, and Dathan and Aviram were choosen; also Sefer Rokeach writes that Dathan and Aviram did not die during the plague of Darkness because they believe in the Exodus)

(It is also interesting to note that Moshe's children and wife did not experience the splitting of the Sea according to the some opinions)

Why Did the Wind Blow Before the Sea Split?

The Torah writes (Exodus 14:21):

Then Moses held out his arm over the sea and the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split

The Ramban (ibid) writes:

It was G-d's will that the sea should be split with an east wind so it looked like that wind caused the splitting .... for it was because of this the Egyptians thought that the wind caused the splitting and not the hand of G-d that did it because of the Jews...

The Rashbam (ibid) disagrees:

G’d used natural means, i.e. an east wind which always brings dryness and on occasions dries out ponds and rivers.

The Sforno (ibid) explains that it wasn't for the splitting:

the east wind had frozen the mud on the bottom of the sea

(see also this journal article that describes how a land bridge could have stayed open for 4 hours due to wind)

How Was the Manna Cooked?

The Torah writes (Exodus 16:23):

he said to them, “This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy sabbath of the LORD. Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.”

However, above it says it would melt (Exodus 16:21):

So they gathered it every morning, each as much as he needed to eat; for when the sun grew hot, it would melt.

Whom Did Amalek Attack?

The Torah writes (Exodus 17:8):

Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.

The Torah writes later on (Deu. 25:17-18):

Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt - how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.

Midrash Tanchuma (Ki Seitzei 10) explains:

Rabbi Yehuda says: anyone who gave up hope was attacked; Rabbi Nechemiah says: anyone who was expelled by the cloud was attacked; And the Rabbis say: the entire tribe of Dan was expelled by the cloud for they all were idol worshippers and they were attacked

Midrash Mekhilta (17:8) writes:

R. Elazar Hamodai says: "And Amalek came": Amalek "sneaked" under the edges of the cloud, kidnapped Jews and killed them

Haftorah - How Could Yael Kill Sisera if They Had a Peace Treaty?

(This question was originally asked by my daughter)

 

Tanach writes (Judges 4:17-21):

Sisera, meanwhile, had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was friendship between King Jabin of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite. Jael came out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord, come in here, do not be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. He said to her, “Please let me have some water; I am thirsty.” She opened a skin of milk and gave him some to drink; and she covered him again. He said to her, “Stand at the entrance of the tent. If anybody comes and asks you if there is anybody here, say ‘No.’” Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent pin and grasped the mallet. When he was fast asleep from exhaustion, she approached him stealthily and drove the pin through his temple till it went down to the ground. Thus he died.

Chomas Anach (The Chidah - ibid 4:21) answers:

And Mahari z"l answers that there was peace with Jabin and no one else. And he also answers that Sisera attacked Yael and she killed him in self defense ...

The Malbim (ibid 4:17) answers:

And I say according to my opinion that the peace between Jabin and Heber was a general peace with the Kenites who dwelled in the desert of Judah ... but now that Heber separated from the rest of this brothers and pitched his tent among the Jews he was no longer obligated to keep the treaty of the Kenites for he left them.

Parshas Beshalach 5776

What is "the way of the Philistines"?

The Torah writes (Exodus 13:17):

And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said: 'Lest the people regret when they see war, and they return to Egypt.’

The Daat Mikra atlas (p. 72, p. 105) explains that there were two major trade routes in Canaan:

• The way of the Philistines (or the way of the sea [Isaiah 8:23]), went from Egypt through the Sinai desert to the sea shore near Gaza, and then ran along the shore of the Mediterranean. It's modern name is Via Maris.
• The other road called the King's Highway (see Numbers 20:17, 20:19, 21:22 and Deuteronomy 2:27), ran from Egypt through Sinai to the Gulf of Aqaba (near modern Eilat), then to the west of the Dead Sea and the Jordan river. This road went through the kingdoms of Esau, Moab and Amnon.

(Courtesy of Wikipedia, user: Ori-)

Miriam, the Sister of Aaron and not Moses?
The Torah writes (Exodus 15:20):

And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

However, when Moses's birth is mentioned earlier, she is not identified by name (Exodus 2:1-4):

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bore a son; and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.

It is only later that the Torah connects the entire family together (Numbers 26:59):

And the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt; and she bore unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

(It is also important to note that several times when the Torah mentions someone being a sister it may actually indicate a half sibling or a step sibling. For examples, see our earlier post about Serah, and Rashi [Genesis 36:12] regarding Timna, sister of Lotan)

The Talmud (Megilah 14a) asks why she is not called the sister of Moses:

Rav Nahman said in the name of Rav: Because she prophesied as the sister of Aaron [Rashi: Moses was not yet born] saying, "in the future my mother will give birth to a son who will save Israel".

Rashbam (Genesis 28:9) explains that she is mentioned that way because of age (see also Ramban [Genesis 10:21]):

The reason she is referred to in that fashion is that she was older than Moses but younger than Aaron. On the other hand, in a verse where both Moses and Aaron are mentioned together with Miriam, (Exodus Numbers 26,59) she is referred to as “their sister.”

HaEmek Davar (Exodus 15:20) explains in another way:

To teach us that her prophecy was like Aaron's prophecy but not like Moses's prophecy for it was higher than that of their family

[Published at parshapeople.blogspot.com / Comments welcome to parsha-people@publishyoursefer.com]