Beshallach/Shabbat Shirah January 30, 2021 Cantor Jessica Epstein Some Chassidic Insights from "Speaking Torah" by Arthur Green: What Can We Learn?

לפנות בוקר לאיתנו, “towards morning, to its original state.” According to the plain meaning of the text the word לאיתנו, means “to its original power.” The word appears in a similar sense in Numbers 24,21 where it means “a strong dwelling.” A Midrashic approach (Mechilta): the word לאיתנו means the same as לתנאו, “to its (contractual) condition.” Genesis 1,9 where the Torah writes ותראה היבשה, “so that the dry land shall become visible,” hints at the same thing, i.e. the dry land shall become visible in the water. [It would appear that when the universe was described prior to the earth becoming visible as והארץ היתה תהו ובהו at the very beginning of Genesis, this was a temporary condition which was reversed on the third day. Ed.] According to another Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 5,4) G’d had made an agreement with the water at the time of creation that it would submit to being split when the Israelites would need to cross it on foot. This tradition is based on Isaiah 45,12: “it was I Who made the earth... My own hands stretched out the heavens and commanded their host. As soon as the heavens had been stretched across the firmament and all their hosts, I commanded the sea to split on account of the Israelites. I commanded sun and moon to obey Joshua’s command (Joshua 10,12) to temporarily arrest their orbits, etc. I commanded heaven and earth to remain silent when Moses would begin his speech in Deut. 32,1 and I commanded the ravens to carry bread and meat to the prophet Elijah (Kings I 17,8). I commanded the fire (heat) not to harm Chanayah, Mishael, and Azaryah (Daniel 3,27). I ordered the lions not to harm Daniel (Daniel 6,23). I ordered the whale to spit out Jonah (Jonah 2,11).” Thus far the Midrash. This Midrash is at pains to prove that all the miracles which interfere with the normal functioning of the universe which have been activated by various prophets or by G’d directly, had been provided for within the framework of the six days of creation during which G’d established the laws of nature. There has never been something which could be termed “a new act of creation” after G’d had completed the universe on the eve of the first Sabbath.
This is also the whole point of the Mishnah in Avot 5,6 which tells of the 10 miracles for which G’d laid the basis at dusk on the first Sabbath eve. When the Mishnah speaks about Bileam’s (talking) ass having been created during the last few minutes prior to the commencement of the first Sabbath, this means that at that time G’d had made provision for this miraculous phenomenon to occur when needed. The same applies to the earth swallowing Korach and supporters at Moses’ command (Numbers 16,31). When the sages spoke about the ten miracles having been נבראו, “created” at that time, they meant that the creative power for these phenomena to materialize at one time or another was part of the process of the six days of G’d’s creative activity at that time. in other words: “the miracle itself was part of nature,” though only G’d and His inert creatures involved were aware of it. That which the sages referred to as a תנאי, “a condition” which G’d imposed on such creatures of His as the water, etc., was in fact a condition that such “miracles” would be part of what is טבע, “nature,” according to G’d’s definition of this term. When we speak of something “supernatural” occurring, this is a subjective truth applicable only to the beholder of that phenomenon, not to its Creator. Whenever such miracles occur this does not mean that G’d made a sudden revision in His plans for the world and was forced to adopt measures He had not previously thought of, but that the time had arrived at that moment to activate plans He had made already during the six days of creation.

Indeed, we find various distinctions and levels in the miracles performed by various prophets and their awakenings, based upon the level to which they prepared their souls. The miracles performed by Moshe could actually transform things to their very opposite, as the Midrash teaches us (Beshalach), “‘And God showed him a tree’ (Shemot, 15:25). It was a bitter branch, and the bitter sweetened the bitter.”³⁹³Shortly after passing through the sea, the Children of Israel camped at an oasis called Marah – named so because its waters were bitter and undrinkable. G-d told Moshe to throw a tree into the waters, to sweeten them. According to the Midrash, this tree was itself bitter. So too with the brass serpent, which healed the snakebites.³⁹⁴In Numbers 21, the Children of Israel complain unnecessarily about the hardship of their travels. G-d is angered, and sends poisonous serpents to bite them. The people repent, and G-d commands Moses to forge a snake made of brass, and place it atop a pole. Whoever was bitten by a snake, yet looked upon the brass snake, would be healed. Again, that which kills and that which heals is the same. Also with the splitting of the Red Sea, where the waters congealed against the laws of nature, where (Shemot 15:8), “the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.” This, too, also an example of opposites, because water usually begins to freeze at the surface, and here it began in the middle of the sea, which, according to nature, would be the last place to freeze. The miracle of the splitting of the sea happened in the exact opposite way nature would have had it. Thus, with all of Moshe’s miracles, things were changed to their complete opposite. Moshe’s level of prophecy was greater than all of the other prophets, for he would see the Divine form at once. This is written in the Midrash Tanhuma (Hayei Sara) and in the Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 18, 32a).³⁹⁵God has no form. However, prophets receive their prophecy through a vision of the Divine body. All of the other prophets would behold a vision of a part of the Divine body. Moshe differed, in that he could see the King in His entirety. Therefore the miracles associated with him would change a thing over to its complete opposite.