Moses Cries Out and the Bitter Waters Turn Sweet

"And he cried out to the LORD" (Exodus 15:25). From here you learn that the righteous are not slow to accept, and along our way we have learned that the prayer of the righteous is brief. It once happened that someone passed before the ark in the presence of Rabbi Eliezer and drew out his blessings at length. His disciples said to him, Master, did you see so-and-so who lengthened his blessings so that people would say he is a master of blessing? He said to them, He did not lengthen more than Moses, as it is said, "And I fell down before the LORD as at the first, forty days and forty nights" (Deuteronomy 9:18). And again it happened that someone passed before Rabbi Eliezer and shortened his blessings. His disciples said to him, Master, did you see so-and-so who shortened his blessings so that people would say he is a scholar? He said to them, He did not shorten less than Moses our teacher, who said, "O God, heal her now, I pray" (Numbers 12:13). For there is a time to be brief and a time to be long: "O God, heal her now, I pray" is being brief; "And I dwelt on the mountain forty days and forty nights" (Deuteronomy 9:9) is being long. "And the LORD showed him a tree." Rabbi Yehoshua says, this was a tree of willow. Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in says, this was a tree of olive, for you have nothing more bitter than olive. Rabbi Natan bar Yosef says, this was a tree of cardamom, and some say also the roots of the fig and the roots of the pomegranate. The expounders of hidden meanings say, He showed him words of Torah, which are compared to a tree, as it is said, "She is a tree of life to those who hold fast to her" (Proverbs 3:18). Rabbi Yishmael son of Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka says, come and see how different are the ways of flesh and blood from the ways of the Omnipresent. Flesh and blood heals the bitter with the sweet, but He who spoke and the world came into being is not so; rather He heals the bitter with the bitter. How so? He puts a thing that corrodes into a thing that corrodes in order to work a miracle within a miracle. Similarly you say, "And he went out to the spring of the waters and cast salt there and said, Thus says the LORD, I have healed these waters" (2 Kings 2:21). Were the waters not good? Yet when salt is put into them they at once turn foul. How so? He put a corroding thing into a corroding thing to work a miracle within a miracle. Similarly you say, "And Isaiah said, Let them take a cake of figs and rub it on the boil, and he recovered" (Isaiah 38:21). Is living flesh not such that when figs are placed on it the flesh corrodes? Rather He put a corroding thing into a corroding thing to work a miracle within a miracle. "And he cast it into the waters and the waters became sweet." At that hour Israel were pleading and pressing before their Father in heaven like a son who fawns before his father, like a disciple who presses before his master. They said before Him, Master of the world, we have sinned in that we complained about the water. "And the waters became sweet." They had been bitter for a moment and were made sweet, the words of Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in says, they were bitter from the start, as it is said "waters, waters" two times. "There He set for them a statute and an ordinance." "Statute" is the Sabbath, and "ordinance" is honoring father and mother, the words of Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in says, "statute" refers to the forbidden unions, as it is said, "And you shall keep My charge, not to commit any of these abominable customs" (Leviticus 18:30); "ordinance" refers to the laws of damages by force, of injuries, and of fines. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says, why did the laws of judgment come before all the commandments? Because when there is a dispute between a man and his fellow there is strife between them, and once the case is decided peace is made between them. And so Jethro says to Moses, "If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace" (Exodus 18:23). "And there He tested him." There a test was made of Israel, as in the matter that is said, "Evil-merodach king of Babylon lifted up the head of Jehoiachin" (2 Kings 25:27, reading the word as 'tested'), thus the words of Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in said to him, but the word for Babylon's 'lifting' is spelled with a sin, while here it is only with a samekh. What then does "and there He tested him" teach? There the Omnipresent tested Israel. Another interpretation: "and there He tested him" means there our fathers tested the Omnipresent.