B’tzayt yisrael mimitzraim; When Israel went forth from Egypt: We have already written above regarding the expression, “From slavery to freedom,” that there were two aspects to the enslavement of Israel. First, no slave had ever escaped from Egypt and second, the people of Israel were not only physically enslaved but spiritually enslaved as well since they worshipped the gods of Egypt. This Psalm celebrated the fact that not only did God annul these two aspects of slavery but, in fact, Israel turned these two curses into perfection by defying them. “When Israel went forth from Egypt;” – even though no one had ever done this before. “The house of Jacob from a foreign nation;” – Israel went forth from the midst of another nation even though the Israelites had become idol worshippers just like the Egyptians. The Israelites are called the “House of Jacob” here because they did not obey the will of the Omnipresent (they were rebellious just as Jacob was). But now, miraculously, all had been turned into a good quality. How so? “Judah became His holy one,” – the rebellious Jacob was transformed into Judah. We are told that whoever denies idolatry is known as a Yehudi (Jew). This title comes from the word Yehudah (Judah). “Israel from his government,” – the people of Israel escaped from the government of Egypt, something that no one had ever done before. Another interpretation of Psalm 114: The author of the Korban Pesach follows the interpretation of Rashi about the term “House of Jacob.” Rashi says that this expression refers to the Israelite women. The Egyptians corrupted the Israelites by physically dominating their women. We are also taught that God never performs miracles for those who act falsely. We should explain the passage this way: “When Israel went forth from Egypt; the house of Jacob from a corrupting nation,” – that is, the Egyptians tried to corrupt the Israelite women by claiming that the women offered sexual favors to the Egyptians. “Judah became their holy one,” the word kadesh has a connotation of prostitution in some places in the Bible, so that “Israel was under his domination (mamshilotav),” But if that was the case then the miracles at the sea would not have been possible. Certainly the people of Israel remained faithful to their ancestors. Another interpretation: “When Israel went out of Egypt,” a corrupt land full of lustful people. One might think that the people of Israel, especially the women, were corrupted through sexual immorality “from a nation of corruption,” that is, a nation that sought to corrupt the people through sexual immorality. But now Scripture comes to contradict this contention. “Judah (hayita) was His holy one.” As it is written elsewhere, “Israel is holy unto the Lord.” Wherever we find someone resisting sexual temptation we find holiness. They are considered holy because they resisted temptation. Since the verb in this verse, hayita, is feminine “She,” it must be a reference to the house of Jacob, the Jewish women. “Israel was under His dominion,” that is, the men of Israel were also under the dominion of God and resisted temptation as well. Why do we refer to God’s dominion? Because without the help of God they could not have resisted temptation and would have given in to their evil inclination...

Another interpretation: “Judah (hayita) was His holy one.” We have already explained why the verb hayita is feminine. But why is the word mamshlotav, “his dominions” plural? This is a reference to the statement of the sages: among all the tribes there were kings and judges except from the tribe of Shimon, because Zimri who consorted with Kozbi came from the tribe of Shimon. What the verse means then is, Judah produced only one (sinner) – the word hayita refers to Shlomit Bat Dibri, the unworthy mother of the person who blasphemed God. “Israel came forth from His dominions.” The people of Israel produced many governments, judges and kings because there was only one unworthy person from the tribe of Judah – Shlomit bat Dibri – the only one the Torah saw fit to mention by name. The sea saw and fled – The sea saw the holiness of Israel and it stood back before them just as the Jordan river did. If the Red Sea stood back and split, how much more so did the Jordan do so when the Israelites entered the Promised Land? From the moment that the Red Sea split, the Jordan knew that it too would spit when the time came.

The sea saw and it fled; the Jordan would turn back: What did the Red Sea see that caused it to split before the Israelites? It saw the casket of Joseph. Anyone who is able to resist sexual temptation is worthy of having a miracle performed on his behalf. Since Joseph resisted the temptation of the wife of Potiphar, the sea split. This is true for the living but it is even truer for the dead, for the righteous are “even more beloved in death than they are in life!” If the great sea split before the sarcophagus of Joseph how much more so would the Jordan River (which is smaller than the Red Sea) split even before it saw the sarcophagus! Why did the sea, ‘flee.’ The word for flee in the text is vayanos, and it fled: it is a play on the word neys, a miracle. Concerning the Jordan River the Psalmist uses the expression, yisov l’achor, ran backwards. Why the different expression in each of these cases? When God split the Red Sea, He caused it to flee to the right and to the left. Thus, God formed twelve isles for the twelve tribes to cross through the sea. In the case of the Jordan, which is a moving river, the back water was cut off from the moving water and as a result the water flowed backwards, as in the expression, “ran backwards.

The other verses in the psalm continue with this line of interpretation: The four distinctions in the opening verses of Psalm 114 express what it was that the ‘sea was able to see’ that caused it to flee and split. The word “see” in the verse refers to the events described above. First the sea witnessed the condition which God made at the time of creation that would cause the sea to split during the redemption of the Israelites. We are told, “At daybreak the sea returned at its l’aytano, normal state...” L’aytano means ‘at the time that was designated’ for it during the creation. During the creation God also decreed, “Let the waters below the sky be gathered into one place.” Later when Jacob returned to the land of Canaan, the Torah says, “For with my staff alone I crossed the Jordan…” These are both signs given to our ancestors for later generations. Jacob was able to cross the Jordan with just his staff because he caused the river to freeze with it and crossed over just as the Israelites did when the entered the land of Canaan. What did the sea see? It saw the staff in the hands of Moses, and it remembered the promise made at the time of creation and through a sign in the generation of Jacob. Therefore the “sea fled” and the Jordan “flowed back.” The mountains danced like rams, the hills like lambs… What did the mountains see? The mountains saw how Moses struck the rock and water came forth from it. When they saw this they began to quake and dance in fear! And even before Moses struck the rock the Mountains knew that this had been decreed from the very beginning of the universe – one of the ten things which God decreed on the eve of the Sabbath on the last day of the creation was pi habe’er, the mouth of the well. Therefore the mountains knew they would be struck by Moses and they ‘danced about in terror’ when the time came. In this verse the mountains are compared to rams and the hills to lambs because in both cases one is larger than the other. The Psalmist now puts a question in the mouths of the sea, the Jordan, the mountains and the hills; each answers according to its experience: “Sea, why did you flee? Jordan, why did you retreat? Mountains, (why did you) dance like a ram? Hills (why did you) dance like lambs?” The sea fled “because of the master, who created the world.” The Jordan retreated because of the “God of Jacob” who was the first to freeze the Jordan River. The mountains answered, “He turned rock into pools of water.” And the hills answered, “(He turned) the flint into fountains of water.” Thus the mountains and hills each give a similar answer just in different words reflecting their relative size.