The Morning Watch and the Mercy That Heals Where It Strikes

"And it came to pass in the morning watch" (Exodus 14). The morning of Abraham had already preceded them, as it is said, "And Abraham rose early in the morning" (Genesis 22:3); the morning of Isaac, as it is said, "And the two of them went together" (Genesis 22:6); the morning of Jacob, as it is said, "And Jacob rose early in the morning" (Genesis 28:18); the morning of Moses, as it is said, "And Moses rose early in the morning" (Exodus 34:4); the morning of Joshua, as it is said, "And Joshua rose early in the morning" (Joshua 3:1); the morning of Samuel, as it is said, "And Samuel rose early in the morning" (1 Samuel 15:12); the morning of the prophets who are destined to arise over them, as it is said, "They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:23); the morning of the world to come, as it is said, "O LORD, in the morning You will hear my voice" (Psalms 5:4). And so you find that when the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts payment from the wicked, He exacts it from them only in the mornings, as it is said, "In the mornings I will destroy all the wicked of the land" (Psalms 101:8). "And the LORD looked out upon the camp of Egypt." Unlike the measure of flesh and blood is the measure of the Omnipresent. Flesh and blood, with the very thing it strikes, cannot heal; rather it strikes with a scalpel and heals with a bandage. But the Holy One, blessed be He, with the very thing He strikes, He heals. When the Holy One, blessed be He, blessed Israel, He blessed them only with looking out: "Look out from Your holy dwelling and bless Your people Israel" (Deuteronomy 26:15); and when He exacted payment from the wicked, He exacted it only with looking out, as it is said, "And the LORD looked out upon the camp of Egypt." "In the pillar of fire and cloud." The pillar of cloud would turn the sea to mud and the pillar of fire would make it boil like pitch, and the hooves of the horses would slip, the male above and the female below; and so it says, "Then the horses' hooves pounded from the galloping, the galloping of his mighty ones" (Judges 5:22). "And He threw the camp of Egypt into panic." He confounded them; He took away the officers among them and they did not know what they were doing. Another interpretation: "And He threw into panic"—panic means nothing other than plague, as it is said, "And He shall throw them into great panic" (Deuteronomy 7:23).