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The Last Israelite Left the Sea as Egypt Entered

The last free foot hits dry sand as the last Egyptian boot enters the path. Heaven reaches for beetles and armies at once.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Last Foot and the Last Boot
  2. Beetles in the Path
  3. The Sea Turned Over
  4. Arms That Hold Worlds and Rivers
  5. Salt on the Tongue
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The Last Foot and the Last Boot

The last Israelite put his heel on sand that still smelled of salt and mud. Behind him the corridor of water stood upright like two walls of glass, and through that corridor the last Egyptian horse forced its way in. Rabbi Yudan would later measure the timing down to a breath. One foot free. One boot trapped. The whole of Egypt still pouring into a path that had already finished serving freedom.

Spray hit faces. Children clung to baskets. A woman dropped a sandal and did not turn back. On the far bank someone laughed the high laugh of a person who has not yet decided whether he is saved. The sea had not closed. The sea was waiting for a count only Heaven held.

Under the everlasting arms the world hangs, and those arms are not soft metaphors. The tradition later says the right arm bears the heavens and the left cradles the earth, and under the left arm rest one hundred twenty thousand worlds of the World to Come. Length of arm equal to the length of this world. Width equal to its width. Radiance like the sun in Tammuz. That same reach was already inside the water.

Beetles in the Path

Rabbi Yudan asked a question that sounds small until the water is cold on a walker's ankles. What about the beetles? Creatures no one names in the victory songs. Creatures that crawled the wet floor of the miracle. Where did they go when the walls would fall?

He answered from the psalm. "He drew me out of many waters" (Psalm 18:17). The drawing was not only for princes and prophets. A hand came down for what was almost invisible. Beetles plucked from foam. The same arm that would later be sung as refuge in (Deuteronomy 33:27), "underneath are the everlasting arms," bent low enough to lift what Egypt would never count.

God does not only split seas. God inventories the small lives that travel with the large ones. The last free foot and the least beetle share one rescue schedule.

The Sea Turned Over

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish refused a tidy picture. He said the sea was turned upside down, a chaos of water and desperation, chariot wheels spinning in reverse light. In that swirl the Presence did not stand on the bank as a spectator. The Presence was inside the overturned water, shaping the path while the path was still breaking.

Israel walked a road that was also a judgment. Egypt entered a road that was also a grave. The difference was not the width of the corridor. The difference was which foot the arm of God was holding.

A man near the rear heard Egyptian shouts grow closer and still the walls did not fall. He wanted them to fall now. He wanted them to wait. Both wants lived in one throat. That is what a close call feels like when it is also a liturgy.

Arms That Hold Worlds and Rivers

The same tradition that measures God's arms by the span of the world also places one hundred twenty thousand worlds of coming rest under the left arm alone. The sea of reeds is not too small for that geometry. A refuge measured in galaxies can still reach for a beetle. A power that carries prior worlds under its arm can still time a last boot against a last heel.

When the walls finally folded, they folded like a book snapping shut. The psalm's "send from heaven and save me" was no longer abstract. Heaven had already sent a hand into the water, into the spray, into the underside of the path. The people on the bank felt the ground stop trembling only after the last Egyptian cry vanished mid-vowel.

Someone counted family members. Someone counted cattle. No one counted beetles. Heaven had already done that.

Years later a student would learn that underneath are the everlasting arms and picture not only comfort but a logistics of rescue, beetle and army and world stacked under one left arm until the count was complete.

Salt on the Tongue

A boy licked salt from his lip and thought it was sweat. His mother pulled him higher on her hip and did not correct him. Behind them the corridor still held shape. Ahead of them the bank held people who had already begun to believe the ground would stay ground.

An Egyptian driver shouted a command that the water swallowed halfway. The arm that holds worlds did not need that command. It had already chosen which column of feet would finish the crossing and which column would learn what upright water does when it is done serving.

Rabbi Yudan's later question about beetles was not comic relief. It was the refusal to let mercy become selective in memory. If the psalm says many waters, the many includes what the victory songs omit. The last free heel and the least shell shared one clock, and the clock struck only when both were clear.

ExodusSea Of ReedsEgyptPsalmsDivine ArmMiracles
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From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tehillim 18:18Midrash Tehillim

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology · CC-BY

The ancient rabbis certainly understood that feeling. They saw it mirrored in the story of the Exodus, in the dramatic moment when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and the pursuing Egyptian army was swallowed whole. But they also saw something more: a God who reaches down, even from the heavens, to pull us back from the brink.

Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, offers a fascinating glimpse into how the rabbis grappled with this pivotal moment in Jewish history. (Psalm 18:17) reads, "He will send from heaven and save me." It's a powerful image of divine intervention. And the rabbis, in their wisdom, weren't content to just let it sit there. They wanted to understand the how of it all.

Rabbi Yudan paints a vivid picture. He suggests that the last Israelite had barely stepped onto dry land when the last of the Egyptians emerged from the sea. Can you That close call?

Then Rabbi Yudan asks a truly bizarre question: What about the beetles? Beetles? In the sea? Where did they go? It seems like a strange detail to focus on, but it highlights the rabbinic commitment to accounting for every single element of the story. No detail is too small for consideration. His answer is equally striking: God, in his infinite power, simply reached out and plucked them from the water. "He drew me out of many waters," the verse says, and Rabbi Yudan extends that saving grace to even the humblest of creatures.

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish takes the image even further, offering a truly mind-bending vision. He says that the sea was turned upside down, a chaotic swirl of water and desperation. But amidst this chaos, God was present, actively shaping the events. According to Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, God held up one pillar of water for the Israelites with His right hand, allowing them to pass through safely, while simultaneously using His right hand to sink a pillar of water onto the Egyptians! As it says in (Exodus 15:6), "Your right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power, Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy." It's a powerful reminder of God's strength and unwavering commitment to His people.

And even for those Egyptians who managed to reach dry land, there was no escape. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish continues, explaining that God brought the sea crashing down upon them, trapping them, sealing their fate. "He brought the sea over them and covered them," the verse states, leaving no room for doubt about the completeness of their defeat.

This midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) isn't just a historical account. It's a reminder that even in the midst of chaos and despair, even when we feel like we're drowning, there is a power greater than ourselves that can reach down and save us. It's a message of hope, of resilience, and of the unwavering presence of the divine, even in the most turbulent of times. And sometimes, it's a reminder to think about the beetles.

Full source
Hagigah 12bTalmud Bavli, Hagigah

Translation of the source text.William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic · CC-BY-NC

It was taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yose says: Woe to the creatures, who see and do not know what they see; who stand and do not know upon what they stand. Upon what does the earth stand? Upon the pillars, as it is said: "He who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble" (Job 9:6).

The pillars stand upon the waters, as it is said: "To Him who spread out the earth upon the waters" (Psalms 136:6). The waters stand upon the mountains, as it is said: "The waters stood above the mountains" (Psalms 104:6). The mountains stand upon the wind, as it is said: "For behold, He who forms the mountains and creates the wind" (Amos 4:13).

The wind stands upon the storm, as it is said: "Stormy wind fulfilling His word" (Psalms 148:8). The storm is suspended upon the arm of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said: "And underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27).

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