With the Egyptian army bearing down and the Red Sea blocking their path, the Israelites succumbed to terror. It was Moses who stepped forward and spoke the words that steadied an entire nation: "Do not fear" (Exodus 14:13).
The Mekhilta marvels at what happened next. Moses "inspirited them" — he filled them with courage. But the text pauses to acknowledge the sheer scale of what Moses accomplished. He stood before thousands upon thousands of people — men, women, and children, all of them panicking, all of them convinced they were about to die — and he appeased them. He calmed them. He turned raw terror into trust.
And they listened to him. This detail is not trivial. A crowd in full panic does not normally listen to anyone. Fear overrides reason, and mass hysteria drowns out individual voices. But Moses' wisdom was strong enough to cut through the noise. His words reached every ear and settled every heart.
The Mekhilta finds this feat so remarkable that it cites a verse from Ecclesiastes to frame it: "Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten rulers who are in the city" (Kohelet 7:19). Ten rulers — ten powerful leaders, each commanding their own authority — could not have accomplished what Moses achieved alone. His wisdom was worth more than all of them combined.
The teaching redefines leadership. Moses' power at the sea was not military and not political. It was the power of a wise person speaking truth to a terrified crowd — and being believed. In the Mekhilta's telling, that kind of wisdom is the rarest and most potent force in the world.