The Children Who Recognized God at the Red Sea First

Rabbi Yehuda says: Who was reciting accolades to the Holy One blessed be He? It was the children, those whom Pharaoh sought to cast into the Nile, as they recognized the Holy One blessed be He. How so? When Israel was in Egypt, and one of the Israelite women sought to give birth, she would go out to the field and give birth there.

When she would give birth, she would leave the child and deliver him to the Holy One blessed be He, and say: ‘Master of the universe, I did mine; You do Yours.’ Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Immediately, the Holy One blessed be He Himself would descend, as it were, cut their umbilical cord, bathe them, and smear them with oil. So Ezekiel said: “You were cast in the open field in the loathsomeness of your person [on the day you were born]” (Ezekiel 16:5).

And it is written: “Regarding your birth, on the day you were born, your navel was not cut” (Ezekiel 16:4). And it is written: “I clothed you in embroidery” (Ezekiel 16:10). And it is written: “I bathed you in water” (Ezekiel 16:9). He would place two round stone receptacles in [the child’s] hand, one from which he would suckle oil and one from which he would suckle milk, as it is stated: “He gave him to suckle honey from a stone, and oil from a flinty rock” (Deuteronomy 32:13).

They would grow in the field, as it is stated: “I caused you to grow like the growth of the field” (Ezekiel 16:7). When they had grown, they would enter the houses of their fathers, who would ask them: ‘Who tended to you?’ They would say: ‘A certain handsome, outstanding young man would descend and provide all our needs,’ as it is stated: “My beloved is clear-skinned and ruddy, more eminent than ten thousand” (Song of Songs 5:10).

When Israel arrived at the sea, those same children were there and they saw the Holy One blessed be He at the sea. They began saying to their fathers: ‘This is the One who was doing all those things for us when we were in Egypt,’ as it is stated: “This is my God, and I will glorify Him” (Exodus 15:2).11The phrase “this is my God” is taken to mean that they recognized Him.