ON THE PARSHA
          Parshas B'Shalach

          by Dovid Lipman, Jerusalem


The World Of The Supernatural

     (14:16) "...take your staff and stretch out your hand..."
The famous secularist and rasha, Moses Mendelsohn, discussed a
strange-propertied stone with some baffled fellow scientists.
Said Mendelsohn, "Let's see if the great leader of the religious
Jews can discover its mystery." They sent the Gaon a sample, and
he soon responded, "The stone is Sanpirion, mentioned by the
gemara in Yerushalmi; it combines with water to form a gas." Not
to be impressed, the rasha wrote the Gaon, teasing, "Well, now we
know how Moshe split the Red Sea! His staff must have been made
of Sanpirion (as the Midrash indeed says)!"
     "Am Ha'Aretz! (Ignoramus!)" thundered the Gaon. You don't
know even the simplest meaning of the pasuk. 'Harem', the word
used for 'take', means 'remove', like in the word 'terumah'. It
was NOT with the staff that the sea was split, but through Moshe's
hand alone! -And this was only done precisely to silence claims
like yours!" (See Kli Yakar, who brings Midrash to the same effect.)

A Time To Laugh

     (13:17) "For it is too close." The problem of the closeness
was the fear that it would be all to easy to return to Egypt. This
should be a lesson to those who leave home to study Torah. Leave
some distance from your home! If you're too close, it will be much
too tempting to run home when the learning is going rough!

Worthy Of Note

     (15:20) "Miriam the prophetess, Aharon's sister, took..."
Rashi brings the famous gemara in Sotah that she had been a
prophetess since when she was ONLY Aharon's sister, when she
predicted that her mother would give birth to the redeemer of the
Jews. Why is this taught now? The Rambam writes that we accept a
propet's instructions only if he was shown to be a prophet by
previous correct predictions. So Miriam became a "registered
prophetess" only after the completion of the redemption through
her brother bore out her prophecy.

From the Gemara

     (15:16) Berachos 4a - The two 'until the nation shall cross
over' phrases hint to the two times we came to the land of Israel.
Only our sins prevented the 'second coming' from being as miracle-
filled as the first.
     (15:26) Beracos 5a - As the pasuk states plainly, anyone who
studies Torah properly willl be saved from all pain.
     (16:21) Berachos 27a - It is only considered 'morning' until
the sun begins to 'heat up', about four hours into the day, which
is why the correct time for Shacharis is during that period.

Rare And Unusual Words

     (15:18) "Va'ed" Anywhere this term is used, something
uninterrupted is involved, for example, here, "Hashem rules
eternally, 'Va-ed'."

Mitzvah Digest

24)One may not leave the "Shabbos boundaries" (usually about a
half a mile out of the city) on Shabbos, as a form of rest.