אז ישיר, “Then Moses sang, etc.” According to Bereshit Rabbah the Torah introduced the subject of man committing idolatry (Enosh) with the word אז (Genesis 4,26) and according to tradition G’d reacted with flooding one third of the surface of the earth. Moses, as an act of restoring G’d’s glory therefore commenced his song with the word אז, seeing this time the drowning of part of mankind had worked for the benefit of the Jewish people. Another reason why he may have commenced his song with the word אז is because he himself had challenged G’d’s masterminding the history of His people by claiming thatמאז באתי אל פרעה, “ever since I came to Pharaoh (in Your name to lighten the burden of the Jewish people) he has made their burden harsher, etc”. (Exodus 5,23) It was Moses’ way of apologizing for having been too rash in criticizing G’d’s ways.

כי גאה גאה, “for He is exalted above the arrogant.” He is higher than the horse which deems itself to be above all those around it as well as its rider, who has a feeling of superiority, arrogance.

עזי וזמרת י-ה, “My might and His cutting down.” Ibn Ezra says that the word עזי is part of what precedes it, as well as part of what follows it, as if the Torah had written עזי וזמרת עזי י-ה וגו', so that its meaning would be “my power, and my glory with which I sing a song of praise to Him is directed exclusively in His praise. It is only He Who has been my salvation.”

זה א-לי ואנוהו, “this is my G’d and I will erect a residence for Him (on earth).” He is my strength and I will enthrone Him in an appropriate residence.” This has also been the G’d of my father and I will aggrandize Him by telling of His exploits. Our sages say that the visions revealed to a simple kitchen maid at the crossing of the sea of Reeds exceeded by far the revelations that the prophet Ezekiel and other prophets were granted. [our author adds of his own that the visions granted to these other prophets compared to what the kitchen maid saw, compare to someone seeing the finger of a person as opposed to someone who sees the whole person. Ed.] According to the plain meaning of the text it is perfectly in order to use the descriptive word זה for something inherently invisible, just as the people who demanded from Aaron that he make them a visible image for “this man Moses, etc.” when Moses was presumed to have died on Mount Sinai and was quite invisible. (Exodus 32,1)

ימינך ה' נאדרי בכח, “Your right hand Hashem is glorified with strength.” According to Rashi [who offers three explanations of this phrase, the one he calls the plain meaning, Ed.] is that the same right hand that is exalted by beautiful strength, is also the very hand which smashes the enemy when the need arises.

וברוב גאונך, “and in Your abundant grandeur, etc.” a grandeur superior to anything known on earth, You are able to destroy anyone and anything that might want to offer opposition to You.”

אמר אויב ארדוף אשיג, “the enemy had said: “I will pursue and catch up, etc.” Rashi says that Moses quoted the words used by Pharaoh to encourage his people to join him in pursuit of the Israelites. This is also the understanding of our verse by Onkelos who translates אשיג as סגאה, progressing, marching. Nachmanides writes that it seems to him that the verse, basically, is a repetition of the theme of the beginning previous verse and does not refer to the decision made in Egypt to pursue the Israelites, but to the decision made at the sea to enter into the sea that had been split and stood like walls of ice. Pharaoh ignored or misinterpreted G’d’s having worked this miracle and that it was reversible and that these very waters would spell their doom. The end of verse 8 had explained that the whole phenomenon was an outgrowth and demonstration of G’d’s anger at the Egyptians.

נשפת ברוחך, “You blew with Your wind.” Ibn Ezra, pointing out that the meaning of the root נשף is used to describe the evening, claims that G’d’s making the walls of frozen waters collapse was caused by a wind blowing in the evening. My sainted father, the רא'ש, said that the reason that the Torah wrote the line וברוח אפיך נערמו מים before, while here the Torah writes נשפת ברוחך, [two phrases describing activities of רוח, Ed.] is intended to make the miracle appear as even greater than meets the eye at first glance. אף and רוח אף always suggests something hot. Anger is the result of a person becoming “heated.” When the result is that water turns to ice, as was the case here, this is an even greater anomaly. On the other hand, the רוח הפה, [the רוח associated with נשף without the word אף nose, is the exhaling which is an integral part of speech. Ed.] dissolved these ice-cubes.

צללו כעופרת, “they sank like lead.” They descended into the depths as if they had been lumps of lead. The reason Moses makes mention of this is to tell us that this was a deliberate act of G’d. Although many of the Egyptians did know how to swim, this did not help them at all. No doubt many of them were quite near the shore when all this happened, and yet, not a single one of them managed to escape. Most horsemen would normally be able to save themselves in such conditions, as horses float on the surface of the water, but on this occasion not a single one did. This is the meaning of the line וינער ה' את מצרים בתוך הים, “the Lord poured the Egyptians into the middle of the sea.” (14,28)

מי כמוך באלים, “who is comparable to You among the celestial powers?” Rashi simply explains the word אלים as חזקים, powerful terrestrial forces. Nachmanides writes that while it is true that this is generally the meaning of the word חזקים, in this verse, seeing that the comparison has been made to the Lord, there would be no point if the Torah would only describe the Lord as mightier than terrestrial forces; ordinary celestial forces are known as אלים as opposed to the Lord Who is described as אל עליון, the supreme celestial force. Rather, Moses compares G’d as superior to the mightiest angels.

מי כמוך נאדר בקודש, “who is comparable to You, mighty in holiness.” In the domain of holiness there is no one who can compare to You.

נורא תהלות, “too awesome for praise.” Rashi explains that G’d is too awesome for us to begin praising him, lest we omit some praises and become guilty of belittling Him. Nachmanides explains that being awesome in praise means being praised for having performed awesome deeds. The reason why Moses chooses these comparisons is because this is the way Kings of flesh and blood are praised. We do not possess the yardsticks to praise G’d in terms of celestial norms, seeing we have no access to that region. What is described is that G’d is praised by people who observe how He pays back people who have oppressed others and treated them violently.

נטית ימינך תבלעמו ארץ, “as soon as You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them.” Our sages deduce from this that all the people drowned in the sea did enjoy the privilege of being brought to burial. Nachmanides writes that according to the plain meaning the words “hand” and “right” being stretched, do not imply that these organs are necessarily being used in the execution of vengeance. Therefore, it appears that we need to understand what happened as the Egyptians first being drowned and their bodies then being tossed on to the shore as is customary in cases of bodies drowning in the sea. The earth of the dry land, not the bottom of the sea, then swallowed these corpses so that in the end “dust returned to dust.” Although no grave diggers were involved, the surface of the earth after the dissolution of the bodies of these drowned Egyptians could not be told apart from the way it had looked before this had occurred.

נחית בחסדך עם זו גאלת, “In Your kindness You have guided this nation whom You have redeemed.” Ibn Ezra mentions that the past mode employed by Moses here about events that have not yet happened, is typical of the usage of future events that are being described by prophets, as they consider the future as real as the past.

תפול עליהם אימתה ופחד, “fear and trembling gripped hold of them.” According to Ibn Ezra the words תפול עליהם do no refer to the Canaanites, even though they were relatively close to the Israelites, but they refer to the Edomites. Ibn Ezra’s argument is supported from the verse following where the leaders of the Kingdom of Edom are described as confused, frightened. Moses tells us this so that we should know that when the Israelites did not engage in battle with Edom when that kingdom refused the Israelites passage trough its territory, the reason was not that the Israelites were afraid, they knew well that the Edomites’. posture was only for show. The reason the Israelites detoured around the territory of Edom was that G’d had commanded them to. (Numbers Numbers 20,14-21) The Edomites had legitimate reason to fear the Israelites, as their land lay squarely on the route the Israelites now set out to travel.

ה' ימלוך לעולם ועד, “The Lord will rule forever more.” The meaning is that at this time Hashem had demonstrated that He is the true ruler in this universe. He can take care of all those that serve Him, and He can dispose of all those that oppose Him.

כי בא סוס פרעה, “for when Pharaoh’s cavalry came, etc.” Ibn Ezra claims that this verse is still part of Moses’ victory song of praise to the Lord, and that the whole people sang this verse with him also. Nachmanides claims that this is not correct, for it is not styled in the poetic manner the previous verses have been styled, and it does not contain any element of prophesy. He also claims that Moses had composed and sung the Shirah on the same day as the Israelites had emerged from the sea bed, and that he had not waited until the day following. [He seems to imply that according to Ibn Ezra the song was composed on the day after the miracle. Ed.] According to Nachmanides the words:אז ישיר משה לבני ישראל כי בא סוס פרעה וו' need to be understood as one sentence, the poem being inserted between these two halves of one verse. Alternatively, “after Pharaoh and all his army had drowned in the sea while the Israelites were still marching on the bed of the dried out sea, Moses already began this song.” Accordingly, upon hearing this, Miriam immediately took the drum, etc, and continued leading the women in song.

אחות אהרן, “Aaron’s sister.” The reason Miriam is described thus is because both Moses and Miriam had already been mentioned in a “single breath,” as it were in connection with the song, the Torah looked for a way to also have Aaron mentioned in this context. It was a way of giving honour to Aaron, her older brother. After all, Aaron too possessed the rank of being a prophet. It is also possible that it is the norm of Torah verses to relate women to their brothers, as for instance in Genesis 36,22 ואחות לוטן תמנע, “Timna was Lotan’s sister.”

ויסע משה, “Moses caused Israel to journey, etc.” Ibn Ezra writes that originally the cloud used to travel in front of the Israelites and the pillar of fire would travel behind them. After the Egyptians had been drowned, and the people no longer were in a state of fear from pursuers, and they no longer traveled at night also, the cloud departed and Moses instructed the people which way to move forward in accordance with directions he received directly from G’d. There were only 6 journeys all the way to Mount Sinai. The climate at that time of year was pleasant in that region, neither too cold nor too dry so that those that did not have tents of their own did not even need tents to sleep in at night. When they came to the region of Mount Sinai they made tents for themselves, as they expected to remain in the same location for a number of nights until the Tabernacle would be ready. [According to the Torah’s report they remained encamped at Mount Sinai for 11 months and 20 days. Ed.] Moses had informed them that they would remain there until the Tabernacle would be built. This was the reason why they had brought the shittim beams with them out of Egypt. In order to provide a visible symbol of these, Moses commanded them to construct the huts on the Sukkot festival, as the Torah says in Leviticus 23,43 כי בסוכות הושבתי את בני ישראל, “For I have house the Israelites in huts, etc.” They certainly could not very well have dwelled in the clouds for all this time. [a reference to the tradition that the Israelites “dwelled” in tents in the desert. Ed.] There is no comparison between “huts” and “clouds.” Once the Tabernacle had been constructed, G’d made a cloud take up position above that Tabernacle. (compare Exodus 40,38 “for the cloud of the Lord would be above the Tabernacle by day, and fire would be on it at night, before the eyes of all of the Children of Israel throughout their journeys.”) Whenever the cloud would move, this was the signal for the Israelites to commence journeying once they had left Mount Sinai, and this is why the Torah describes two pillars traveling with the Israelites, one by day and one by night. These two pillars would alternate with one another by day and by night respectively. If the report is based on historical tradition that these clouds were identical with the ones commonly known as the ענני הכבוד, the clouds proving the Presence of a Divine Presence, שכינה, we will abandon our rational approach to the subject and accept that tradition. Our sages explain the unusual wordויסע as proof that Moses had to make the Israelites travel in the direction of the desert against their will. One reason was that the loot they garnered at the sea was many times more than what they had taken with them from Egypt. Other commentators hold that this was not a criticism of the Israelites, but a compliment to them; they had been so enthralled by the spiritual uplift during their miraculous salvation that it had caused them to exclaim “this is My G’d, let me build Him an appropriate residence,” (15,2) that they could not entertain the thought of leaving a location where they had such a wonderful vision.

ויורהו ה' עץ, “Hashem showed him a tree.” Nachmanides writes: seeing that I do not know of a single instance in which the root להורות means something other than “to teach, to instruct,” (as in Proverbs 4,4 and all other examples) I believe that according to the plain meaning of the text the tree the Torah speaks about here would convert bracken water into sweet water upon contact. This was a beneficial property of that kind of wood, a phenomenon found in nature. G’d taught Moses some lesson in botany. According to our sages we are dealing with a miracle, in fact a miracle within a miracle, as the instrument used to perform it was naturally bitter instead of sweet. G’d either told Moses where to find this marvelous tree, or He invented it for the purpose of the miracle.

שם שם לו חוק ומשפט ושם נסהו, “there He established a decree and ordinance for His people, and there He subjected it to a test of faith.” According to Rashi [based on the Talmud Sanhedrin 56.Ed.] the Jewish people were given a partial list of the laws pertaining to the observance of the Sabbath, the commandment to honour father and mother, purification rites by means of the red heifer, and a number of laws governing inter-personal relations. Nachmanides wonders why the Torah would not have spelled out some specifics, introducing them by the time honoured introduction: “G’d said to Moses, ‘say to the Children of Israel, etc.?’” According to the wording in Rashi it appears that Moses taught the people laws that would later on be revealed to them as part of the Torah, and he did it in a manner similar to Avraham, who is reputed to have known all the laws of the Torah. What he did when he taught his converts was to teach them what he knew to be the wishes of G’d in his respect. Neither Avraham nor Moses had at that time been authorized to reveal these laws as already being operative, and in the case of Moses, having done so would have robbed the revelation at Mount Sinai of part of its momentum. The reason why the Torah adds that this was in the nature of a test of their faith, was that G’d/Moses tested the reaction of the people to such laws, and if they welcomed them with joy. According to the plain meaning of the text, upon entering the desert, Moses asked himself by which rules he should lead the Israelites pending their arrival in the promised land, at which time the entire Torah would become applicable. Rules of behaviour are generally known as חק, statute. One example of the use of that word in this context is found in Proverbs 30,8 הטריפני לחם חוקי, “feed me with the bread allotted to me.” משפט, on the other hand, is the term used to describe generally acceptable conduct, as in Samuel I Alternatively, the meaning of the expression ושם נסהו, refers to the all the tribulations which wandering in the desert involved, especially to test if the people were willing to put up with the discomforts and deprivations without complaining. In this context the word משפט would mean that the people would understand and willingly submit to the need to love their neighbours, honour the aged, be modest and undemanding in their general behaviour, and be welcoming to people who came to the camp to offer their wares to the Israelites.

ושם נסהו, the Torah recorded that G’d deliberately led the people into regions which lacked basic survival needs, and when He brought them to a place that had water, the water turned out to be unfit to drink. All this is part of “being tested.” Moses referred to this at the end of forty years, when he said: ויענך וירעיבך, “He subjected you to oppressive conditions and He starved you.” (Deut. 8,3) G’d did so in order that the people should better appreciate how He responded to their complaints, and provided constant comforts for them.

ויאמר אם שמוע תשמע, “He said: ‘if you will surely listen, etc.” According to Ibn Ezra this formulation means: “if you will endeavour to understand the rationale underlying the legislation, etc.”

והישר בעיניו תעשה, “and you will do what is right in His eyes, etc.” A reference to the positive commandments.

והאזנת למצוויו, “and you will give ear to His commandments;” a reference to the negative command-ments. In the Mechilta the words והישר בעיניו תעשה, are understood as a reference to “your business ethics,” the reason being that anyone who practices fair business ethics will be beloved both by his peers as well as by his G’d. He is perceived as having observed the entire Torah.

כי אני ה' רופאך, “for I the Lord, am your healer.” According to Rashi the previous lines can be summed up as if a person would introduce himself to his patient as a doctor, and would tell him that as long as he would obey his warnings not to eat certain foods, etc., he would not need to be concerned about contracting certain illnesses. Nachmanides disagrees, saying that this is not the straightforward meaning of these verses at all. The reason why he disagrees is that it is not the nature of a master to assure his servants that if they perform their duties he would not strike them with a fatal disease. There cannot be found a single parallel in the entire Torah which substantiates that this is the type of assurance G’d hands out to His subjects. What our verse does portray is the assurance that if the Jewish people, as opposed to the Egyptians, will hearken to the instructions of G’d, they will not be struck down as had the Egyptians who had maintained a consistently rebellious posture against G’d. G’d confirms this with the words: “for I am the Lord your healer,” making the point that all the diseases which struck the Egyptians were not due to the caprice of natural forces, but to the active intervention of G’d against people who refused to obey His instructions. G’d goes beyond this, promising that in response to the people’s obedience He would even heal those afflictions which would be the result of the caprice of natural forces in the universe. Ibn Ezra writes that the first miracle confirming what G’d had just said was the changing of bitter water to drinkable sweet water, which was the exact reversal of the first of the ten plagues that had changed life-sustaining drinking water to blood. It is G’d’s ability to be effective both by doing one thing and by doing its opposite, which makes Him so unique. This is why you are well advised to always be in awe of Him, not rebel against Him so that He will not quarrel with you. Moreover, you have every reason to love Him, for He will prove benevolent to you, just as He did when He cured the bitter waters.

ושם שתים עשרה עינות מים ושבעים תמרים, “and there were 12 wells of water there as well as 70 date palms.” Nachmanides holds that this was not something so special, as there are may oases in the desert where sweet water wells are found, wells that are surrounded by fruit-bearing palm trees. Rashi writes that the number 12 is allegorically significant, as it represents a separate well of water for each of the 12 tribes. The number 70, i.e. seventy palm trees, is a hint at the 70 elders. I do not know whether Rashi meant to imply that the wells, their number, and the palm trees, as well as their number were phenomena that came into being miraculously for that occasion. There is even a commentary on our verse in the Mechilta that both phenomena had been created during the six days of creation and that they had awaited being able to serve a useful purpose until that time. Ibn Ezra is of the opinion that our verse simply tells us that after having encountered an oasis that had first been disappointing, the waters having been bracken, now they found an oasis that offered all the advantages commonly associated with such places in the midst of a desert. When they saw the date palms they knew immediately that the wells provided drinking water, as otherwise the date palms could not have grown there successfully.