The reality is that when there is a war not everyone will be fighting. If you have a population of 18 million people, for example, not all 18 million will be soldiers fighting for the army. But Torah Judaism still expects everyone to be participating to some degree. Yet the correct attitude for any war, even if physically the Jews are putting in their efforts to fight, is that it is really Hashem fighting the war for them, and the soldiers on the front line are the messengers of Hashem, going through the motions of battling the enemy. And Hashem ultimately is producing the results. There are even other times when Hashem, with open miracles, fights the fight alone without any human intervention, as we see in this week’s Torah portion of Bishalach with the splitting of the sea and the drowning of the Egyptian army. There is a mysterious and obscure pasuk in which the Mechilta brings an argument, which ultimately boils down to a question of what punctuation should be put at the end of the pasuk to understand its meaning: “ד’ ילחם לכם ואתם תחרשון” The simple translation of the pasuk is “Hashem shall make war for you and you shall remain silent” (Shemos 14:14).
The Mechilta says on this pasuk, “that not only at that time will He fight for you, rather He will always fight against your enemy.” The Malbim adds “that Hashem will fight for you and what you feel is a war that is needed Hashem will fight for you because they are fighting with you, and this is really a war of Hashem, not your war, you shall be quiet.”
The Mechilta goes on to record an argument between Rebbe Meir and Rebbe Yehuda Hanasi (known as Rebbe) on how to read the pasuk. “Rebbe Meir says ‘Hashem will fight for you’ when you are standing there quietly, Hashem will still fight for you, but all the more so when you give Him praise! Rebbe says ‘Hashem will fight for you’ He will do miracles and powerful things and you will just stand around and stay quiet? The Jews said to Moshe Rabbeinu, ‘Moshe, what should we do?’ He said back to them, ‘You should glorify, exalt, give song and praise, greatness and glory to Whom the wars are His.’ As it says ‘The lofty praises of G-D are in their throats’ (Tehillim 149:6). It also says, ‘Be exalted above the heavens, O G-D, above all the earth be Your glory’ (Tehillim 57:6). It also says, ‘Hashem, You are my G-D; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name, for You have done wondrously; Your plan from distant past we kept with firm faithfulness (Yeshayahu 25:1). At that moment the Jews opened their mouth, and they said Shira (song), ‘I shall sing to Hashem for He is exalted above the arrogant’ (Shemos 15:1).” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The Merkavas HaMishna, a commentary on the Mechilta, says that according to Rebbe Meir the pasuk is making an exciting exclamation, a kal vachomer, fortiori, which was a hint to the times of King Chizkiya. As it says in Eichah Rabba 4:15, that when Sancheriv came with his army to attack Yerushalayim, King Chizkiya was so overwhelmed that he said I don’t have the strength to sing songs of praise to Hashem . And he told Hashem I will sleep in my bed and you can wage war against the enemy. That night an angel of Hashem came and wiped-out hundreds of thousands of soldiers of Sancheriv’s army. Hashem took care of the war when there was silence, no songs of praise were sung, and all the more so, kal vachomer, in this circumstance where the Jews will be singing Shira by the sea, praising Hashem, did Hashem wage war and defeat the Egyptians by Himself. According to Rebbe the pasuk is asking a question in wonderment. Hashem is doing for you all these miracles and you are just sitting here quiet as a deaf mute?! The Jews response, according to Rebbe was, ‘what are we supposed to do,’ which the Merkavas HaMishna had two options as to what that means. Either, based on a Maharsha in Erechin 10a, we aren’t supposed to sing praises to Hashem for a miracle done outside of Israel because they are done through a messenger and not directly by Hashem. Which to that the response was Hashem is the One personally and directly involved in these miracles, and at that point they started singing Shiras HaYam. Or, based on a gemara in Megilla 10b, Rebbe Yochanan says that the ministering angels wanted to sing praises to Hashem by the drowning of the Egyptians and Hashem responded, ‘My creatures are drowning in the sea and you want to sing before Me?’ So the Jews were hesitant to sing praises to Hashem also for that reason, whereas Moshe is responding that Hashem Himself did this all for you, so how can’t you thank Him and praise Him through song for what He did?! And they started singing.
Emotionally, why wouldn’t a person automatically start singing Hashem’s praise without even thinking, according to both opinions? For example, obviously King Chizkiya had a tremendous level of belief and trust in Hashem as we see from the fact he went to sleep and told Hashem I’ll rely on you to take care of all the problems. But why didn’t he go through his grandfather’s Tehillim that night, which praises Hashem? And why did the Jews have this mental hesitation and thought process according to Rebbe, whether they should even sing to Hashem or not? Knowing and living through all the miracles of the plagues and redemption from Egypt and now seeing the pillar of fire, a forcefield against the Egyptians before they entered the split sea, and then all the miracles that happened during the splitting of the sea should have created an automatic response to sing and dance over their freedom and salvation; why the hesitation? Especially since the Jews must have hated the Egyptians for the cruel bondage they had to live through. So to see the submission and crippling of their bondsmen should have naturally inspired spontaneous cheering, dance and song!?
We must say that we see from here that emotions aren’t spontaneous, there is an intellectual component that is always there to weigh things. It could be that emotions might get the better of a person and will outweigh and control the intellect. And vice-versa, a person can have a good and strong sense of control over his emotions if he works on his intellectual control over his emotions. But both are always there, one never absent from the other. Therefore, it took a thought process for the Jews to wonder what to do before they started singing shira/song to Hashem, and it wasn’t just a gut reaction. So too Chizkiya chose to go to sleep and not sing Tehillim or the like all night, still believing and knowing Hashem would take care of the enemy army.
The emotion and intellect are constantly working with each other in one’s body, we have to make sure to work on the healthy balance of using them consistently and properly.
Good Shabbos Shira,
Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder