Biblical Passages
1. Exodus 14:1-21-25
2. Exodus 15:20-27
מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל בשלח - מסכתא דויהי פרשה ה
... זה אומר איני יורד תחלה וזה אומר איני יורד תחלה שנאמר סבבוני בכחש אפרים וגו' (הושע יב א) מתוך שהיו נוטלין עצה אלו ואלו קפץ נחשון בן עמינדב ושבטו אחריו לתוך גלי הים לפיכך זכה למלכות שנ' בצאת ישראל ממצרים בית יעקב מעם לועז היתה יהודה לקדשו (תהלים קיד ב)...
Mechilta DiRabbi Yishmael BiShalach- Masechta Vayehi Parsha 5
...to descend into the sea first. And he (one) said, 'I'm not going to go in first to the sea,' ......Since they (Bnei Yisrael) were standing and taking advice/debating/arguing (over what course of action they should take), Nachshon ben Amminadav jumped (into the Red Sea) and he fell into the sea. The pasuk says, "Save me, O G-d, for water has come up to my soul," (Tehillim 69:2). And he said, "I have sunk in muddy depths and there is no place to stand; I have come into the deep water, and the current has swept me away." (Ibd. 69:3)...
One said, 'I'm not going in first," and another said, 'I'm not going in first," as it says, "Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceipt," (Hoshea 12:1). Since they (Bnei Yisrael) were taking advice/debating/arguing (over which course of action to take), Nachshon ben Amminadav jumped (into the Red Sea), and his tribe followed him into the sea. Therefore, he merited to have the kingdom (was zocheh), as it says, "When Israel left Egypt, the house of Yaakov [left] a people of a strange tongue, Yehuda became His holy nation," (Tehillim 114:1-2)...
פסקא יא אות יג (יג) ר' יוחנן הוה יתיב דרש כיצד היו המים עשויין לישר' כחומה דרש ר' יוחנן כאילין קנקילייא אדיקת שרח בת אשר ואמרת תמן הוינא ולא הוון אלא כאילין אמפומטא
(11:13) Rabbi Johanan sat [in the teacher's seat] and expounded how the waters [of the Red Sea] became like a wall for Israel. Even as Rabbi Johanan was explaining that the wall of water looked like latticework, Serach bat Asher looked down and said, "I was there, and the waters were, rather, like shining windows."
(1) ותקח מרים הנביאה AND MIRIAM THE PROPHETESS TOOK — But where had she prophesied? When she was THE SISTER OF AARON alone — before Moses was born she said, “My mother will at some time bear a son who will deliver Israel etc.”, as is stated in Treatise Sotah 12b (cf. Megillah 14a). Another explanation of אחות אהרן, the sister of Aaron: because he jeopardised his life for her by entreating on her behalf and so possibly incurring God’s displeasure when she was stricken with leprosy, she is called by his name (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 15:20:1; cf. Rashi Genesis 34:25). (2) את התף A TIMBREL — an instrument for a particular kind of music. (3) בתפים ובמחלת WITH TIMBRELS AND WITH DANCES — The righteous women in that generation were confident that God would perform miracles for them and they accordingly had brought timbrels with them from Egypt (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 15:20:2).
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