Parshat Beshalach5 min read

The Sea Ran From God, Not From Moses' Staff

Moses stretched out the ancient sapphire staff over the water and the sea refused him, standing firm until the King Himself appeared at the shore.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Purple Seller Who Fell Silent Before the King
  2. The Staff That Waited for Moses in Jethro's Garden
  3. The Sea Refused Moses Until the King Appeared
  4. The Passover the Patriarchs Observed Before Egypt

Moses held the staff that had been made at the twilight before the first Sabbath, handed down from Adam through every patriarch to Jethro's garden, and the sea said no.

The Sea Ran From God, Not From Moses' Staff Click for full size

He commanded it to split in the name of the Holy One. The water stood firm. He held up the staff that had turned the Nile to blood and called down ten plagues on Egypt. The sea would not budge. Moses stood at the shore with the most powerful object in creation in his hand, the word of God in his mouth, and an army behind him, and the water refused to move.

The Purple Seller Who Fell Silent Before the King

Before the sea, before the plagues, before the commission, Moses at the burning bush had said: I am not a man of words. The sages explained his silence with a parable. A merchant walks through the street calling out that he has purple for sale, the rarest color in the world, the color of royalty. The king hears him and summons him. What are you selling? Nothing at all, the merchant says. When the king presses, the merchant finally explains: it is purple, my lord, but next to you it is nothing. So it was with Moses. Standing before the Holy One who fashioned the very mouth and the gift of speech, Moses could only confess that whatever words he had, they were nothing before the Source of all speech. But next to Israel, that same Moses became these are the words, the opening of Deuteronomy. Eloquence is relative. The man who was silent before God was eloquent before the people.

The Staff That Waited for Moses in Jethro's Garden

The staff God told Moses to take was no ordinary shepherd's rod. The sages traced its ancestry to the sixth day of creation, fashioned at twilight in the last hour before the first Sabbath, along with other objects whose making the world had not yet been ready to receive. It passed from Adam to Enoch, from Enoch to Shem, from Shem to Abraham, from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob, who carried it down into Egypt. From Jacob it went to Joseph, and when Joseph died his household goods were scattered and the staff ended up somewhere in Pharaoh's palace.

Jethro, then serving as a court magician, saw it, coveted it, and carried it home. He planted it in his garden. After that, no one could pull it free. Every hand that tried, the staff resisted. It stood in the garden like a planted thing until a stranger from a distant land walked in, read the letters engraved along its length, reached out, and lifted it as if it had been waiting for him. Jethro knew then who Moses was. He gave him his daughter and released him, because the man who could lift the staff was not a man to hold by any other means.

The Sea Refused Moses Until the King Appeared

A king owned two gardens, one nested inside the other. He sold the inner one to a buyer. When the buyer came to take possession, the gatekeeper barred him. The buyer invoked the king's name: no effect. He produced the king's signet ring: still nothing. He showed the deed of sale: the gate stayed shut. Only when the king himself walked up to the gate did the gatekeeper turn and flee. The buyer called after him: all day I spoke in your king's name and you ignored me, so why run now? The gatekeeper answered: I am not fleeing from you. I am fleeing from the king himself.

So it was at the sea. Moses' words, Moses' staff, Moses' authority were all real, but the sea did not move for any of them. The sea had been created with a prior condition, sealed into it on the first day of creation, that it would split when the time came. But the time had not been sealed to Moses' staff. It had been sealed to the appearance of God. When the Holy One arrived at the shore, the sea ran, not from the prophet or the instrument or the name invoked in the prophet's mouth. The sea ran from the King.

The Passover the Patriarchs Observed Before Egypt

The midrash notes that Moses spent three days at the burning bush, which corresponded to yesterday and the day before. The rabbis read those three days as the three days Moses needed to consult with the elders, travel, and return to Egypt. And the conversation at the bush lasted as long as the first Passover observance that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had each kept in their own generations, in secret, before Israel existed as a nation, before the name of the feast had been given to the calendar. The festival was older than its occasion. The Passover the patriarchs observed and the Passover Israel would observe in Egypt were different performances of the same divine appointment, made at the same moment in the sacred year.

Yalkut ShimoniMosesRed SeaStaffPassoverRedemption
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From the tradition

Sources

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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.

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 172:7Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

Another interpretation: To what may the matter be compared? To one who was selling purple cloth and was crying out, saying, "Here is purple!" The king peered out and heard his voice, called him, and said to him, "What are you selling?" He said, "Nothing at all." He said to him, "I heard your voice saying, Here is purple, and you say nothing at all?" He said to him, "My lord, it is purple, but next to you it is nothing." So too Moses: next to the Holy One, blessed be He, who created the mouth and speech, he said, "I am not a man of words"; but next to Israel, "These are the words." All seven days the Holy One, blessed be He, was speaking with Moses from within the bush, as it is said, "neither yesterday nor the day before, nor since You spoke" (Exodus 4:10). And it was the season of Passover, and at that same time the following year, on the fifteenth of Nisan, Israel went out from Egypt. On the fifteenth of Nisan Isaac was born. On the fifteenth of Nisan Sarah was given the good tidings. On the fifteenth of Nisan it was spoken with Abraham our father at the Covenant Between the Pieces, as it is said (Exodus 12:41), "and it came to pass at the end" - one end for them all. On the fourteenth they slaughtered their Passover offerings, and it was the fourth day of the week. On that night the firstborn were struck. The next day they journeyed from Rameses, and on the fourth day, "and it was told to the king of Egypt" (Exodus 14:5). On the fifth and sixth they pursued. At dawn they sang the Song, and it was the fourth day of the week, and it was the last festival day of Passover.

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Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 173:3Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

"And take this staff in your hand" (Exodus 4:17). The staff that was created at twilight was handed to Adam in the Garden of Eden, and Adam handed it to Enoch, and Enoch handed it to Shem, and Shem handed it to Abraham, and Abraham handed it to Isaac, and Isaac handed it to Jacob, and Jacob brought it down to Egypt, and Egypt to Joseph. When Joseph died, all his household goods were scattered and were placed in the palace of Pharaoh. Now Jethro was one of the magicians of Egypt, and he saw the staff and desired it in his heart, and he took it and brought it and planted it in the midst of his garden, and no one could draw near to it, until Moses came to the land of Midian and entered the garden of his house and saw the staff and read the letters that were upon it and stretched out his hand and took it. Jethro saw this and said, "This is the man who is destined to redeem Israel from Egypt." Therefore he gave him Zipporah his daughter as a wife, as it is said, "And Moses consented" (Exodus 2:21). And Moses shepherded and led the flock of Jethro with that staff forty years, and no beast of the field bereaved them, and they were exceedingly fruitful and multiplied; and of them Scripture says, "like a flock of holy ones" (Ezekiel 36:38). "And he led the flock" until he came to Mount Horeb, and there the Holy One, blessed be He, was revealed to him out of the bush. Rav Yehuda bar Ami said: the staff weighed forty se'ah, and it was of sapphire, and the ten plagues were engraved upon it, and by the mnemonic [acronym] DeTzaKh, ADaSh, BeAChaB. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "This staff will bring the plagues upon him."

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Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 234:1Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

(Exodus 14:21) "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea." The sea began to stand against him. Moses said to it: Split, in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, but it did not accept this upon itself. He showed it the staff, but it did not accept this upon itself. They offered a parable. To what is the matter comparable? To a king of flesh and blood who had two gardens, one within the other. He sold the inner one. The buyer came to enter it, but the keeper would not let him in. He spoke to him in the name of the king, but the keeper did not accept it; he showed him the signet ring, but he did not accept it, until the king himself proceeded and came. As soon as the king proceeded and came, the keeper began to flee. The buyer said to him: All day I have been speaking to you in the name of the king and you did not accept it, and now why do you flee? He said to him: It is not from before you that I flee, but from before the king. So too Moses came and stood at the sea and spoke in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, but it did not accept it; he showed it the staff, but it did not accept it, until the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself upon it in His glory. As soon as the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself upon it in His glory, the sea began to flee, as it is said, "The sea saw and fled" (Psalms 114:3). He said to it: All day I have been speaking to you in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, and you did not accept it, and now, "what ails you, O sea, that you flee?" (Psalms 114:5). It said to him: It is not from before you, son of Amram, but "from before the Lord, tremble, O earth" (Psalms 114:7).

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