Moses Pulled Israel From the Sea Into the Desert

"And Moses led Israel onward from the Sea of Reeds" (Exodus 15:22). Rabbi Yehoshua says: this journey Israel made by the word of Moses, for all the other journeys they made only by the word of the Divine Might, but this journey they made only by the word of Moses; therefore it is said, "And Moses led." Rabbi Eliezer says: they journeyed by the word of the LORD, for we find in two, three, and four places that they journeyed only by the word of the Divine Might, as it is said, "At the command of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the command of the LORD they encamped" (Numbers 9:18), and it says, "Sometimes the cloud was upon the Tabernacle a number of days... at the command of the LORD they encamped and at the command of the LORD they journeyed" (Numbers 9:20), and it says, "At the command of the LORD they encamped and at the command of the LORD they journeyed, keeping the charge of the LORD" (Numbers 9:23); this one too they journeyed by the word of the Divine Might. If so, why is it said "And Moses led"? Rather, he led them onward against their will with a staff. When they saw the corpses of the men who had enslaved them with mortar and bricks and every labor in the field, they said: it seems no man is left in Egypt; let us make an idol and return to Egypt, as it is said, "Let us appoint a chief and return to Egypt" (Numbers 14:4). One might think they said it but did not act; therefore Scripture teaches, "They appointed a chief to return to their bondage in their rebellion" (Nehemiah 9:17). Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Ilai says: idolatry was in Israel's hands, and Moses led them onward at that hour. Another interpretation: "And Moses led Israel onward from the Sea of Reeds": he led the rebelliousness out of them, the rebellion they had rebelled at the Sea of Reeds, as it is said, "They rebelled at the sea, at the Sea of Reeds" (Psalms 106:7). "And they went out into the wilderness of Shur." This is the wilderness of Kuv. They said of the wilderness of Kuv that it stretches eight hundred parasangs by eight hundred parasangs, and it is all full of snakes and scorpions, as it is said, "who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its venomous snakes and scorpions" (Deuteronomy 8:15), and it says, "the burden of the beasts of the Negev, through a land of trouble and anguish, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent" (Isaiah 30:6). The viper, when it sees the shadow of a bird flying through the air, the bird is consumed and its limbs drop away one by one. And so it says, "They did not say, where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and the shadow of death" (Jeremiah 2:6), a place where the shadow itself brings death. Rabbi Abba said: my great teacher told me this. There was a man in the Land of Israel named Merita. And why did they call him Merita [the plucked one]? Because once he went to gather wood from the mountain and saw a snake asleep, and the snake did not see him, and all his hair fell out, and no hair grew on him again until the day of his death, and so they called him Merita. "And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water." Rabbi Yehoshua says: in order to wear them out. Rabbi Eliezer the Modaite says: but is there not water beneath the feet of Israel? For the earth floats only upon the water, as it is said, "who spread out the earth upon the waters" (Psalms 136:6). What then does "and found no water" teach? In order to test them. Others say: the water they had taken from between the split walls of the sea ran out at that place, as it is said, "and found no water," and even in their vessels they found none, as in the matter said, "their nobles sent their servants for water; they came to the cisterns and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty" (Jeremiah 14:3). The expounders of hidden meanings said: these are words of Torah, which are compared to water, as it is said, "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the water" (Isaiah 55:1); because they had separated from the words of Torah for three days, they therefore rebelled. Accordingly the prophets among them instituted that they should read from the Torah on Sabbath, and on Monday and Thursday. How so? They read on the Sabbath and skip Sunday; they read on Monday and skip Tuesday and Wednesday; they read on Thursday and skip the eve of the Sabbath.