Comentario sobre Exodo 15:12

נטית ימינך THOU INCLINEST THY RIGHT HAND — When the Holy One, blessed be He, inclines His hand the wicked cease to be and fall — because everything is held in His hand and consequently falls when He inclines it. Similarly it states, (Isaiah 31:3) “When the Lord inclineth His hand, he that helpeth shall stumble and he that is helped shall fall”. A parable: it may be compared to glass vessels held in a man’s hand: if he inclines his hand a little they fall and are shattered to pieces (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 15:12:3).

THOU STRETCHEDST OUT THY RIGHT HAND — THE EARTH ‘TIVLA’EIMO’ (SWALLOWED THEM). The meaning is that “after you blew with Your wind and the sea covered them, You stretched out Your right hand and Your arm,²⁰³Verse 16: By the greatness of Thine arm… and the earth swallowed them.” The purport thereof is that after they drowned, the sea cast them out as is the custom of the seas, and so Scripture says, And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore.²⁰⁴Above, 14:30. There, [on the sea-shore], their bodies decomposed and they returned to the dust upon the earth as they were,²⁰⁵See Ecclesiastes 12:7. and thus they were swallowed up and destroyed [by the earth]. The usage of the word tivla’eimo is similar to the expressions: Together round about, ‘vativla’eini’ (Thou dost destroy me);²⁰⁶Job 10:8. The Eternal ‘bila’ (hath swallowed up) unsparingly;²⁰⁷Lamentations 2:2. And the way of thy paths ‘bileiu,’²⁰⁸Isaiah 3:12. which means “they destroyed.” Our Rabbis have said²⁰⁹Mechilta on the verse here. that the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them, for they were privileged to be buried by virtue of having said, The Eternal is righteous.²¹⁰Above, 9:27. [Thus, according to this Midrash of the Rabbis, the bodies of the Egyptians were not totally destroyed, for they even merited a place for burial.] But the expression of G-d’s “outstretched right hand or arm,” [as stated here. Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand], is used in Scripture only as indicating vengeance and destruction! Perhaps the Rabbis [of the above-mentioned interpretation] will explain the verse as follows: “Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand to slay them in the sea, and the earth swallowed them up after that,” this being the burial which they merited.

נטית ימינך תבלעימו ארץ, "when You inclined Your right hand the earth swallowed them." Mechilta describes the sea as tossing the Egyptians onto the dry land and the earth as tossing them right back into the sea. The dry land argued with the sea saying: "considering that I was cursed by G'd for having merely absorbed a single human being's blood, i.e. Abel's, at the time, what will G'd do to me if I will accept an entire population of human beings unless G'd swears an oath to me not to demand an accounting from me? [this is based on the meaning of "right hand" often being equated with an oath. Ed.] Targum Yonathan also explains our verse in this sense. We learn from here that the sea did not want to accept the Egyptians and tossed them out. This contradicts something we have learned in Pessachim 118. G'd is quoted as saying to the guardian angel of the sea: "spit them out onto the dry land." The guardian angel of the sea retorted: "Lord of the universe, is there then a servant who has been given a gift by his master (food for the fish according to Rashi) and the master subsequently demands the gift back?" To this argument G'd replied: "I will give you a gift worth one and a half times the original gift if you give Me back the original gift." The sea replied: "can a servant take a master to court?" G'd answered: "I will guarantee My promise by giving you the river Kishon as a pledge." Upon hearing this the sea immediately disgorged the bodies of the Egyptians onto the dry land and the Israelites were able to see that they were dead. It is clear from that story in the Talmud that the sea was quite unwilling to toss the Egyptians onto the dry land. Why then was the sea not overjoyed when the dry land refused the bodies of the Egyptians and tossed them back into the sea? Besides, why did G'd have to repay the sea from the camp of Siserah (900 chariots versus the Egyptians' 600 chariots, compare Judges 4,13)? Why did He not repay the sea personally so that He did not have to give the sea the river Kishon as a pledge?

נטית ימינך, a reference to when G’d said to Moses: נטה, “extend your hand over the sea and the waters will return, etc.” (14,26).

נטית ימינך תבלעמו ארץ, “as soon as You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them.” Our sages deduce from this that all the people drowned in the sea did enjoy the privilege of being brought to burial. Nachmanides writes that according to the plain meaning the words “hand” and “right” being stretched, do not imply that these organs are necessarily being used in the execution of vengeance. Therefore, it appears that we need to understand what happened as the Egyptians first being drowned and their bodies then being tossed on to the shore as is customary in cases of bodies drowning in the sea. The earth of the dry land, not the bottom of the sea, then swallowed these corpses so that in the end “dust returned to dust.” Although no grave diggers were involved, the surface of the earth after the dissolution of the bodies of these drowned Egyptians could not be told apart from the way it had looked before this had occurred.

נטית ימיך תבלעמו ארץ, “when You inclined Your right hand the earth swallowed them.” Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer chapter 17 use this verse to prove that the Egyptians were granted burial in the earth. This was in recognition of their having accompanied Yaakov on the long journey to the land of Canaan at the time he was buried. Mechilta Shirah section 9 adds: ”the word ימין or ימינך when referring to G’d always refers to an oath G‘d has sworn. We know this from Isaiah 62,8: ‘The Lord has sworn with His right hand.’ The meaning of all this is that whereas the sea had spat out the bodies of the Egyptians who had been drowned in it, the earth refused to accept these bodies remembering G’d had cursed it for accepting Hevel’s body at the time (Genesis 4,11). It continued in its refusal until G’d swore an oath that He would not demand an accounting from earth for accepting these bodies. This accounts for the words נטית ימינך תבלעמו ארץ, ‘after You gave a signal with Your right hand the earth swallowed them.’”

V. 12. נטה. In den vielen Stellen, in welchen diese Wurzel vorkommt, heißt sie nirgends mit Entschiedenheit: neigen, also in perpendikuläre Richtung bringen, sondern: strecken, in horizontale Richtung bringen. Auch נטה אהל heißt ein Zelt auseinander, somit horizontal, ausbreiten. Auch קיר נטוי heißt eine Wand, die sonst perpendikulär aufrecht stand und jetzt horizontal geneigt ist. Daher נטה, intransitiv: sich von einem Punkt seitlich ab bewegen. Insbesondere heißt es so in Verbindung mit Hand, daher auch זרוע נטויה. Es ist immer die tätig gestreckte Hand. Daher: נטית ימינך תבלעמו ארץ: Du strecktest uns zu Hilfe deine Rechte aus und sie verschlang die Erde. In diesen beiden Sätzen wird das ganze Gott offenbarende Erlebnis nochmals prägnant zusammengefasst. Unsere Rettung und ihre Vernichtung war eine Tat. Wie oben ד׳ ארץ .איש מלחמה ד׳ שמו, Erde, ist hier wohl nicht im Gegensatz zu Wasser zu nehmen, da sie doch eben im Meere umgekommen. Sondern im Gegensatz zur Höhe, zum Himmel. Du strecktest in der Höhe deine Rechte aus, die Erde gehorchte dir und verschlang sie.

נטית ימינך, “You inclined Your right hand;” a reference to chapter 14,26 when G-d instructed Moses to extend his arm so that the waters would return to normal.

תבלעמו ארץ THE EARTH SWALLOWED THEM — From this it may be gathered that they received the privilege of burial as a reward for having said, (Exodus 9:27) “The Lord is righteous” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 15:12:2).

נחית בחסדך, “You guided in Your love, etc.” The Israelites had three merits to their credit which helped them become redeemed. 1) the merit of performing deeds of kindness to one another. 2) the merit of Torah; 3) the merit of the sacrificial offerings. The word בחסדך in our verse alludes to the deeds of loving kindness performed by one Israelite for another in return for which You G’d repaid them with kindness.” In Deut. 30,14 the Torah refers to all three of these merits when we read כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו, “for the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to observe it.” The word בפיך, “in your mouth,” refers to Torah; the word ובלבבך refers to sacrificial service of which G’d said (Deut. 11,13) “you shall serve Him with your whole heart;” the word לעשותו, “to do it,” refers to deeds of loving kindness.

Another difficulty is the fact that generally speaking the sea does not retain either people or animals but tosses them on to the beaches either on the day they drown or a few days later. According to the view of our sages the sea would prefer to retain these bodies; Rashi and Rashbam suggest that the sea needs these bodies in order to provide food for the fish. If all this is true we must try and understand why, in the case of the Egyptians, the sea made strenuous efforts to get rid of these bodies instead of retaining them as food for the fish? Perhaps the bodies which the earth tossed back had already begun to decompose and would not only have polluted the sea but had also become unfit as food for the fish. This does not seem a satisfactory answer seeing that G'd would not have prevented the earth from providing a burial for the dead Egyptians if only in order to satisfy the commandment in Deut. 21,23 not to allow a person who has been hanged to remain unburied overnight. The shame of the people G'd had executed did not have to be perpetuated beyond the time of their death so that they should serve as a frightening example.

It is not generally our custom to explain aggadic sayings of our sages. In this instance, however, it is necessary to do so in order to understand the plain meaning of the verse, and in order not to allow the impression that different Midrashim are at odds with one another. We have already referred to a Mechilta on 14,30 where the Torah told us that the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead on the beaches of the sea. They beheld the Egyptians in their last gasps just before they died completely. This was in order for the Egyptians to see that the Israelites had been saved from the onrushing waters of the returning sea. This comment by the Mechilta throws light on the two apparently contradictory Midrashim. When the sea asked G'd not to have to disgorge the Egyptians (to give back the gift) this was because G'd had ordered the sea to toss the Egyptians out while they were still alive. G'd's reason was to cause joy to His friends the Israelites whereas the Egyptians would feel ashamed when they noticed that the Israelites had been saved. Although there is no direct mention of the fact that the Egyptians still had some life in them when they were tossed ashore, our sages relied on traditions handed down to them throughout the generations. In view of this, the argument of the sea that a master does not demand return of a gift bestowed on a servant makes good sense. The sea was anxious to be allowed to complete its task of killing those who had angered the Lord. All of G'd's creatures, be they in the celestial or the terrestial spheres, share the desire to carry out G'd's commandments seeing that compared to human beings they have so few opportunities to carry out G'd's commandments. You will find on the same folio in Pessachim that the Talmud tells of how anxious the angel Gabriel was to be the instrument which saved Abraham from the fiery furnace of Nimrod, and that G'd did not withhold his reward allowing Gabriel to save three other human beings (Chanayah, Mishael, and Azaryah) as a reward for his volunteering to save Abraham. This teaches us that it is considered a meritorious deed for angels to perform deeds of loving kindness for the righteous. The sea was similarly motivated and that is why it objected to being asked to disgorge the Egyptians prematurely. When G'd offered to compensate the sea by allowing it to acquire the merit of drowning Siserah's 900 chariots when the time would be ripe, this was certainly a fair compensation.

The sea had another reason for asking that the Egyptians be deprived of all vestiges of life while they were in the sea. It is the nature of the souls of the Gentiles to remain wherever their bodies died as we know from Kohelet 3,19 where Solomon tells us that the "souls" of the beasts descend into the bowels of the earth. Idol worshipers are compared to animals and when they happen to die while in the sea the guardian angel of the sea acquires their souls. The concern of the sea was therefore that it did not want the earth (dry land) to acquire these "souls" rather than its own guardian angel. The sea's feelings were reflected when it exclaimed: "is there such a thing as a master taking back a gift?" G'd therefore replied that at a future date He would compensate the sea handsomely. G'd meant that He would give the "sea" i.e. the river Kishon, live bodies who would drown therein. The sea had never been interested in the bodies, only in the so-called souls. Seeing this was so, it did not want the dead bodies the earth was tossing at it as the sea is not a natural habitat for dead bodies. On the other hand, earth generally is the habitat for dead bodies seeing that the bodies of human beings are composed of earth as the primary raw material. G'd therefore forced Earth to receive the bodies of the dead Egyptians, seeing it was no more than natural.

Do not ask that according to the Talmud in Pessachim the fish opened their mouths thanking G'd when G'd paid off the sea, proving that they were very interested in the bodies of the dead soldiers. It is possible that when the sea receives fully alive human bodies the fish derive some benefit therefrom. Once the bodies die the fish are no longer interested in them. The song of the fish was in appreciation of their food supply.