Background: Avivah Zornberg grew up in a world of rabbinic tradition and scholarship (her father - the head of the beit din in Glasgow, Scotland) and received a Ph.D. in English literature from Cambridge University. The Particulars of Rapture (2001), the sequel to her award-winning study of the Book of Genesis (1995), takes its title from a line by the American poet Wallace Stevens about the interdependence of opposite things, such as male and female, and conscious and unconscious. Her quest in this book, as she writes in the introduction, is "to find those who will hear with me a particular idiom of redemption," who will hear "within the particulars of rapture . . . what cannot be expressed."
(יט) וַיִּסַּ֞ע מַלְאַ֣ךְ הָאֱלֹקִ֗ים הַהֹלֵךְ֙ לִפְנֵי֙ מַחֲנֵ֣ה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיֵּ֖לֶךְ מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶ֑ם וַיִּסַּ֞ע עַמּ֤וּד הֶֽעָנָן֙ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֔ם וַיַּֽעֲמֹ֖ד מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶֽם׃
(19) The angel of God (Elohim - the name attributed to God as 'Judge'), who had been going ahead of the Israelite army, now moved and followed behind them; and the pillar of cloud shifted from in front of them and took up a place behind them,
וילך מאחריהם. לְהַבְדִּיל בֵּין מַחֲנֵה מִצְרַיִם וּבֵין מַחֲנֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל וּלְקַבֵּל חִצִּים וּבָלִיסְטְרָאוֹת שֶׁל מִצְרַיִם. בְּכָל מָקוֹם הוּא אוֹמֵר מַלְאַךְ ה' וְכָאן מַלְאַךְ הָאֱלֹהִים, אֵין אֱלֹהִים בְּכָל מָקוֹם אֶלָּא דַּיָּן, מְלַמֵּד שֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל נְתוּנִין בַּדִּין בְּאוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה אִם לְהִנָּצֵל אִם לְהֵאָבֵד עִם מִצְרַיִם (שם):
The name אלהים really denotes, wherever it occurs, “Judge” (lit., “judgment”). Therefore the use of this term here teaches us that Israel was, at that moment, arraigned in judgment, whether to be saved or to be destroyed together with Egypt (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 14:19).
"How is it possible to sing, to praise God for acting both cruelly and kindly? Indeed, this problem (of the relation between din and rachamim, hard-justice vs mercy) is a central theme of the Song of the Sea.
The complex reality that is celebrated in the Song -death and life, suffering and joy, justice and mercy-transcends a simple split between 'us vs them': the suffering and fear as the enemies portion, the joy and elation of the Israelites.
The Mei HaShiloach says: "If there is no wisdom, there is no fear, but if there is no fear, there is no wisdom" (Pirke Avot). The Sea symbolises fear and prayer, the dry land indicates strength and confidence, as in the mastery of Torah, which is Israel's strength. One knows one's prayer is answered if one can move out of prayer and into the study of Torah. Likewise, one know that one's study of Torah is true if, together with the Torah study, there is a cry of prayer in the heart. For one must connect the two, prayer and Torah - fear and confidence." -pg.217
The complex reality that is celebrated in the Song -death and life, suffering and joy, justice and mercy-transcends a simple split between 'us vs them': the suffering and fear as the enemies portion, the joy and elation of the Israelites.
The Mei HaShiloach says: "If there is no wisdom, there is no fear, but if there is no fear, there is no wisdom" (Pirke Avot). The Sea symbolises fear and prayer, the dry land indicates strength and confidence, as in the mastery of Torah, which is Israel's strength. One knows one's prayer is answered if one can move out of prayer and into the study of Torah. Likewise, one know that one's study of Torah is true if, together with the Torah study, there is a cry of prayer in the heart. For one must connect the two, prayer and Torah - fear and confidence." -pg.217
בתפים ובמחלת. מֻבְטָחוֹת הָיוּ צַדְקָנִיּוֹת שֶׁבַּדּוֹר שֶׁהַקָּבָּ"ה עוֹשֶׂה לָהֶם נִסִּים וְהוֹצִיאוּ תֻפִּים מִמִּצְרַיִם (מכילתא):
Faith in God tampers fear of the future and nihilism of the present:
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).
The men needed to be reintroduced to their own fragility to appreciate redemption. The men had adapted to their slavery and were ready to live this way indefinitely. They thought they had nothing to lose. So God placed them under the water to help them remember that slavery is like a wave crashing over the soul - they were fragile and their situation in Egypt could get worse.
While the men were thinking "why rock the boat" - preserve the status quo; women in a famous midrash had to convince her husbands to have hope for a life that is better than their current status quo, had to convince them to have children. The women didn't adapt to the conditions of slavery - all along they knew that there were better days ahead and thusly weren't as impacted by the crashing waters as the men. Why not? For they already knew that they were living in a spiritual storm and this was not news to them.
While the men were thinking "why rock the boat" - preserve the status quo; women in a famous midrash had to convince her husbands to have hope for a life that is better than their current status quo, had to convince them to have children. The women didn't adapt to the conditions of slavery - all along they knew that there were better days ahead and thusly weren't as impacted by the crashing waters as the men. Why not? For they already knew that they were living in a spiritual storm and this was not news to them.
Said R. Shimon b. Ḥalafta: What did the Israelite women do? They would go down to draw water from the river. Whereupon the Holy One Blessed be He prepared small fishes for them inside their jars. They would cook some, sell some and buy with the proceeds wine and go out into the fields and feed their husbands there, as it says “with all work of the field” (Exod. 1:14)
(Midrash Tanhuma)
(Midrash Tanhuma)
Not only did women imagine a life better than slavery, but they envisioned a better life altogether:
"Rabbi Kalynomous Epstein focuses on the midrash about the ultimate dancing circle of the righteous: he reads the women's dance at the Sea as the type of this ultimate choreography of the human relationship to God. The circle is a kabalistic image for equality: all points on the circumference are equidistant from the centre, hierarchies disappear. All basic models of higher and lower are modelled on the linear. By contrast, the circle express the eschatological future, where all will see God's light equally, and all categories, including the division of masculine and feminine, will become irrelevant. R' Epstein quotes Jeremiah: "a woman shall encircle a man" and "no longer will they need to teach one another for all of them from the least of them to the great shall know Me, says God."
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"Rabbi Kalynomous Epstein focuses on the midrash about the ultimate dancing circle of the righteous: he reads the women's dance at the Sea as the type of this ultimate choreography of the human relationship to God. The circle is a kabalistic image for equality: all points on the circumference are equidistant from the centre, hierarchies disappear. All basic models of higher and lower are modelled on the linear. By contrast, the circle express the eschatological future, where all will see God's light equally, and all categories, including the division of masculine and feminine, will become irrelevant. R' Epstein quotes Jeremiah: "a woman shall encircle a man" and "no longer will they need to teach one another for all of them from the least of them to the great shall know Me, says God."
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