Commentaire sur L’Exode 14:28

ויכסו את הרכב ... לכל חיל פרעה AND COVERED THE CHARIOTS … AND ALL THE FORCES OF PHARAOH — in regard to the ל of לכל, this is the way of Scripture verses (of Biblical Hebrew) to write a redundant ל, as in (Exodus 27:3) “all (לכל) its vessels shalt thou make of copper”.. So, too, (Exodus 27:19) ‘‘all (לכל) the vessels of the dwelling in all the service thereof”; (Numbers 4:32) “and their pins and their cords and all (לכל) their vessels”. It is only an elegancy of style.

AND THE WATERS RETURNED, AND COVERED THE CHARIOTS, AND THE HORSEMEN, ‘L’CHOL’ (TO ALL) THE HOST OF PHARAOH. “[The word l’chol should really have been kol without the letter lamed. However], it is the normal manner of expression of many verses to write a redundant lamed, as for example: ‘l’chol the instruments of the Tabernacle;⁷⁶Ibid., 27:19. Literally: ‘to all’ the instruments of the Tabernacle, but the meaning is “‘all’ the instruments.” ‘l’chol’ the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass;⁷⁷Ibid., Verse 4. Literally: ‘to all’ the vessels, but the meaning is “‘all’ the vessels thereof.” It is only an elegance in Scriptural style.” Thus the language of Rashi.
But it is not so in this place.⁷⁸Ramban understood Rashi as explaining the chariots and horsemen as being in apposition to all the host. Therefore Rashi had written that the lamed of l’chol is redundant, since the expression all the host is added by way of explanation. But Ramban interprets all the host to mean the people Pharaoh took with him besides the chariots and the horsemen. Therefore the lamed is not an idiomatic form here and is a necessary part of the verse, as is explained further in the text. Instead its meaning is as follows: “And the waters covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the⁷⁹The letter lamed in the word l’chol thus indicates the object, and is as if it were written “v’eth (and the) host of Pharaoh.” See my Hebrew commentary, p. 352. host of Pharaoh that went in after them into the sea.” The host is not identical with the chariots and the horsemen, [as is suggested by Rashi’s explanation], but rather they are his people that Pharaoh took with him,⁸⁰Above, Verse 6. just as it is said above: all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his host.⁸¹Ibid., Verse 9. Here it is clear that the host is separate from the chariots and horsemen, since it says “and the host.” A similar usage of the letter lamed in connection with the term “covering” is found in these verses: As the waters cover ‘la’yam;’⁸²Isaiah 11:9. Literally: ‘to’ the sea, but the meaning is “the sea.” And thou shalt make a covering ‘la’ohel.’⁸³Further, 26:14. Literally: ‘to’ the tent, but it means “and thou shalt make ‘the tent’ a covering of….” The term “covering” also appears [in conjunction] with the word al, e.g., The fat that covereth ‘al’ the inwards.⁸⁴Leviticus 4:8. Literally, that covereth ‘upon’ the inwards, but the word al is understood as eth, a word which indicates the direct object. There are many cases like this.

וישובו המים in great waves to the newly created trough,

לכל חיל פרעה, Pharaoh's entire army, etc. This refers to the fact that the chariots and their riders who were unable to speed up slowed down the infantry which was marching behind the cavalry. The waters simply covered them wherever they were so that not a single one of them escaped.

לכל חיל פרעה, “of Pharaoh’s entire army;” according to Rashi these words are superfluous, however, this is not an uncommon occurrence in our Scriptures. Nachmanides writes that in this instance these words are not superfluous, but that the meaning of the words לכל חיל פרעה is that part of the army described thus was the infantry, as opposed to the cavalry who were riding in chariots. The latter Pharaoh had taken with him immediately he heard about the Israelites having made a U turn at Baal Tzefon, whereas the infantry took longer to catch up with the cavalry.

הבאים אחריהם בים, “who were coming behind them in the sea.” The rule for writing a Sefer Torah stipulates that six words must be written at the beginning of a page. The easy way to remember these six words is by their respective first letters, הי'ה שמ'ו. The words in question are ב-ראשית, י-הודה (אתה יודוך)-באים (אחריהם) ש-מור ושמעת מ-וצא (שפתיך) ו-אעידה (בם) .ה- It is possible that the reason that just these six words need to be written at the beginning of a page is that they contain an allusion to a renewal of the whole process of creation which the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt represented. G’d was “riding in the highest heaven, בערבות.” The two words formed by the acrostic of the six words we mentioned are taken from Psalms 68,5: שירו לאלו-הים זמרו שמו סלו לרוכב בערבות ביה שמו ועלזו לפניו, “Sing to G’d, chant Hymns in His name; extol Him Who rides the clouds.” It is interesting to observe how the allusion in the letter ה of the acrostic בי''ה ties in with what Moses sang in his song עזי וזמרת יה. This is why he repeated the words מי כמוכה ה' twice. The letter ה in the word ביה in Psalms (68,5) and the extra letter ה at the end of the word כמוכ-ה (15,11) allude to the first and last letter ה in the tetragram respectively. The first one is at the same time the last one in the list of the ten emanations, a reference to the attribute of Justice, referred to in מי כמוכה באלם, i.e. a defective spelling of אלהים in 15,11. Moses referred to the מלאך האלו-הים who had taken up position behind the Israelites. We have discussed this in detail on 14,19. He is referred to here also as הבאים אחריהם בים, meaning that G’d’s salvation of the Israelites at the sea occurred by means of that attribute, that angel.
According to our sages in Menachot 29 the word ב-הבראם in Genesis 2,4 is equivalent to the Torah having written ב-ה בראם, that G’d created the universe with the letter ה of the tetragrammaton. Another explanation is that the re-arrangement of the word בהבראם results in the word באברהם, meaning that the merit of Avraham (in the future) was responsible for G’d creating the world. [Just as the eventual existence of Yaakov was the reason G’d saved Avraham from Nimrod’s furnace (compare Isaiah 29,22) although Yaakov had not yet been born, so G’d found it worthwhile to create the world in order for a human being of Avraham’s caliber to come into existence. Ed.] You will find that in the previously mentioned six words of the Torah which must always be written at the beginning of a page, the second letter in each of the first five of these words when read as an acrostic forms the name אברהם. The sixth word, i.e. ואעידה is used to symbolize the 6 directions in the universe, i.e. north, south, east, west, up, and down. In other words: these six directions came into existence due to the merit of Avraham. The entire concept is a brilliant illustration of the words of the psalmist (Psalms 89,3) עולם חסד יבנה, that the whole universe was founded on the concept of חסד, i.e. Avraham’s outstanding virtue.

(Exodus 14:28) "And the waters returned and covered the chariot, etc.": even that of Pharaoh. These are the words of R. Yehudah, it being written (Ibid. 15:4) "the chariots of Pharaoh and his host, etc." R. Nechemiah says: except for that of Pharaoh, it being written (Ibid. 9:16) "But, because of this I have preserved you." Others say: Pharaoh descended last and he drowned, viz. (Ibid. 15:19) "For the horse of Pharaoh came with its chariot and its riders into the sea, and the L rd turned back upon them the waters of the sea."

V. 28. Das ל vor לכל, statt dessen, wenn es nur Ergänzung des את הרכב ואת הפרשים sein sollte, es כל חיל oder וכל חיל hätte heißen müssen, sowie die Wiederholung im V. 29. ובני ישראל וגו׳ von dem, was bereits V. 22 gesagt war, lässt uns in diesen beiden Versen eine Zusammenfassung dieses einzigen Ereignisses in seinem großen, Gott offenbarenden Kontraste erblicken. Das לכל heißt: für das ganze Heer usw. Für das ganze Heer der Ägypter, die ihnen auf die Ferse folgten, stürzte das Wasser zusammen und begrub sie, und für die Söhne Israels, die ihnen unmittelbar vorangingen, blieben die Wasser rechts und links aufrecht und gewährten ihnen trockenen Durchzug; ja, es dürften beide Ereignisse gleichzeitig stattgefunden haben, während noch im Osten Israel seinen Durchzug vollendete, stürzte schon hinter ihrem Rücken im Westen das Wasser über die Ägypter zusammen!! Das ist die יד הגדולה, das ist die Größe der Gotteshand, die in diesem Ereignis offenbar wurde und die ganze physische Natur im Dienste des sittlichen freien Gottesgerichts zeigt.

לא נשאר בהם עד אחד, “not a single one of them remained.” The word עד is sometimes used as inclusive statement whereas other times it is used as exclusion, i.e. in this instance the meaning is that only a single Egyptian survived this drowning. The survivor was Pharaoh himself. We read in Psalms 106,11: אחד מהם לא נותר, “not one of them was left.” How do we reconcile this? The Torah refers to all of Pharaoh’s soldiers having perished. He himself was forced to survive and bear the disgrace of his defeat.

ויכסו את הרכב, after having shaken off the riders who had been driving these chariots.

לא נשאר בהם עד אחד, “not a single one of them survived.” Ibn Ezra explains this verse as he had explained in 9,7, i.e. “not even a single one.”

לא נשאר מהם עד אחד, “not a single one of them remained alive.” This is what David recorded in Psalms 106,11: אחד מהם לא נותר, “not a single one of them remained.”

ואת הפרשים, the riders of the cavalry.

לכל חיל פרעה הבאים אחריהם, the main body of chariots, foot- soldiers, etc, all who were not the elite but who had taken part in this war.