פרשת בשלח

(1) .וחמושים עלו בני ישראל , “the Israelites were armed when they came out of Egypt.” The plain meaning of the words is that when the Israelites left Egypt they were like the vanguard of an army preparing for battle. This was contrary to the rule that the Jewish people are not like the Gentile nations in that they have to make only the first motions of doing things in a regular manner before miraculous forces intervene to help them. (Compare Nachmanides on Numbers 13,2). For instance, we find that although G’d commanded Joshua (Joshua 8,2) to prepare an ambush against the people of Ai, we could ask that if the people of Israel, and especially their leader Joshua, were such experts in invoking miracles to help them, why did they need to lay an ambush, something perfectly natural? The answer is that G’d wants us to do whatever is possible in a natural way, following accepted norms. Anything beyond that we have to leave to celestial forces. Solomon confirms this principle in Proverbs 21,31: “the horse is readied for the day of battle; but victory comes from the Lord.” In other words, men have to do their share before G’d will do His share. This is why it was essential that the Israelites take weapons with them when they left Egypt. (2) A Midrashic approach: (Tanchuma Beshalach 1) The word חמושים means “one out of five.” Four fifths of the Jewish people died during the plague of darkness so as not to give the Egyptians the satisfaction of knowing that these Israelites had not been found worthy of redemption. Some say that the word חמושים refers to one in fifty Israelites only being redeemed. Some even claim that only one out of 500 Israelites was found worthy of redemption. (3) It may pay to make the following calculation. In 14,7 the Torah speaks of שלישים being on each of the chariots which pursued the Israelites. Some say this means that for every Israelite at least three Egyptians were in pursuit. Others claim that thirty Egyptians were in pursuit of each Israelite. Still others (all using the word שלישים) argue that 300 Egyptians pursued each Israelite (on each chariot?). The commentators who understood the word חמושים as referring to the number five also consider the word שלישים as referring to the number three. Those who consider the word חמושים as a reference to five hundred, obviously are the ones who also considered the word שלישים as referring to three hundred. The words על כלו at the end of 14,7 are understood as referring to “each Israelite,” not to “each chariot” According to the first opinion then there had been three million male adult Israelites in the service of the Egyptians prior to the plague of darkness. Assuming three hundred Egyptians pursued each Israelite the number of Egyptians drowned at the sea would have amounted to nine hundred million as they had thought that three million Jews had left their country (not knowing that most had died). In fact we do find a Midrash Hagadol according to which when G’d descended to Egypt nine hundred million angels of destruction descended with Him. Most of the sages are agreed that the Egyptians who went in pursuit of the Israelites numbered ninety million regardless of whether they held that one out of five Israelites left Egypt or one out o fifty or one out of five hundred. They all arrived at the number by combining it with the word שלישים. It is agreed that G’d dispatched nine hundred million destructive angels against that force, i.e. one angel against one thousand Egyptians. This is the meaning of this Midrash. You will observe that the word chamushim though read as if it were spelled חמושים, is actually spelled without the letter ו, i.e. חמשים “fifty.” This teaches that Torah which was given to the Jewish people on the fiftieth day after the Exodus was the purpose for which they left the bondage and Egypt. (compare Zohar volume 2 page 46). Furthermore, there is the fact that the Exodus has been mentioned in the written Torah a total of fifty times.