“Stop that Singing!”

 

When the Israelites left Egypt, they initially did so “with hand held high” (Exod 14:8), that is, proudly, defiantly. But then Pharaoh changed his mind. After having told the Israelites that they were free to go, he came to his senses: “What have we done, freeing Israel from serving us?” He immediately dispatched his army to go after the Israelites, and it was not long before they caught up with them camped on the shore of the Red Sea. Seeing the approaching army, the people panicked: where could they go now, trapped between the Egyptian troops and the Red Sea?

 

At this point, a guiding angel, who had apparently been inside the pillar of cloud that led the Israelites on their way out of Egypt, moved to the space between them and the Egyptians, thereby temporarily preventing the latter from attacking. As a result, the Torah says, “this one [that is, the Egyptian camp] did not approach that one [the Israelite camp] the whole night” (Exod 14:20).

 

In connection with this verse, R. Yoḥanan is cited as saying that the Holy One at that moment reproved the angels who usually sing before the heavenly throne: “My creatures are about to drown in the sea and you are singing?” The comment seems odd: where did the Torah say anything about angels singing when the Israelites were trapped at the Red Sea?

 

It all has to do with the precise wording of the verse mentioned above, “this one did not approach that one the whole night.” In Hebrew this phrase, lo karav zeh el zeh, is reminiscent of another verse that occurs in the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the heavenly throne (Isaiah chapter 6). There, the seraphim (apparently some sort of angel) “called one to another (kara zeh el zeh) ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts! His glory fills the whole earth’” (Isa 6:3). This similarity, R. Yoḥanan is suggesting, is no accident.  Every other day the angels sing God’s praises before the heavenly throne. But on that particular day, with the Israelites trapped on the edge of the Red Sea, God stopped them. “My creatures are about to drown in the sea and you are singing?” He demanded.

 

But midrash has a way of evolving and sometimes changing its meaning—and that’s what happened in this case. Instead of referring to the trapped Israelites, this midrash came to be connected to a different part of the exodus account, when the pursuing Egyptians were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea. The Israelites, having been saved, sang a song of thanksgiving to God—the great Song of the Sea in our weekly reading (Exodus 15). That was fine, but when the angels tried to join in, God reproved them: “My creatures [here, meaning the Egyptians] are drowning in the Sea and you are uttering praises?”

 

This was a strikingly new, and universalist, message: even the Egyptian soldiers were God’s “creatures” and, while the Israelites understandably rejoiced at having been saved, the angels should not have tried to join in their singing.

 

But students of midrash have demonstrated that this wasn’t at all the idea behind the original midrash, and it doesn’t fit the verse on which this original midrash depended: “this one did not approach that one” was said to when the Israelites were in danger of drowning, not the Egyptians. Nevertheless,

 

Shabbat shalom!