Parashat Beshalach has some of the most incredible, miraculous, and well known events of the entire Torah-and the Jews are absolutely intolerable throughout.
Pharaoh has sent the Jews out of Egypt. The journey to Israel should take three days, but the route goes by the land of the Philistines and Hashem knows that if they go that way, there will be a war. The people are not prepared for war-they are newly freed, still slaves in mindset, not trained, not united. So Hashem leads them in a roundabout way which brings them back to the sea. Here Pharaoh-having suffered severe amnesia apparently-leads his entire army against the Jews. Understandably, the Jews freak out. If they were just going to be slaughtered, they could have stayed in Egypt, they wail. Their fear is understandable, but these are the people who just witnessed Hashem sending ten plagues against all of Egypt on their behalf-at this point it would make more sense for them to assume that Hashem has something more up his sleeve.
And He does. He places himself (in the form of a pillar of fire) between the Jews and the Egyptians and instructs Moshe to stretch his staff over the waters. Overnight a strong wind blows and in the morning the sea is dry and the Jews walk right through the sea. When the Egyptians try to follow, the sea collapses back on them, drowning them. The very laws of nature have gone back on themselves to save the Jews and defeat the Egyptians once and for all. This is some pretty amazing stuff.
And the Jews get it. They celebrate, dancing and singing praises to Hashem. The verses they sing are glorious and we still include them in our prayers today. But this is the most gratitude you're going to see from the people for the rest of the parshah.
They travel on to a place they call Marah, for the water is too bitter to drink. And they complain. Bitterly. And Moshe prays to Hashem who shows him how to fix the water and make it sweet. And the people drink.
And they travel on and their provisions must be running out because again the Children of Israel complain to Moshe, claiming they should have stayed in Egypt rather than starve to death in the wilderness. Apparently they've already forgotten what hundreds of years of slavery was like. And Hashem comes through with more miracles, raining heavenly manna down from the skies. The rules are specific-each person is to collect only as much as they need for that day. They may not keep any overnight, for there will be fresh manna in the morning. To save food overnight would indicate a lack of faith that Hashem would provide the food again the next day.
But of course some people don't have faith and they save the manna overnight and in the morning it stinks and is full of maggots. And Moshe is getting pissed. Can't these people follow instructions?
Friday is the one day the people are commanded to collect twice as much as they need, since no manna will fall on Shabbat. This time the manna saved overnight does not go bad. But still, some people go out to the fields anyway, looking for manna, having not believed the food would not spoil. And now Hashem is getting pissed. Will these people ever listen to Him?
They journey on an at their new campsite there is no water. And by now you would really expect them to have picked up on the pattern. "Hey Moshe," they could have said, "looks like there's no water here, would you mind terribly asking Hashem to provide some for us since He obviously cares about us and doesn't want us to die?" But no, they complain AGAIN, asking why Moshe took them out of Egypt only to have them thirst to death. At this point, Moshe is probably wishing he could send them back to Egypt. He cries out to Hashem, "What shall I do for these people? A bit more and they will stone me!" (this is a direct quote!). And Hashem shows him how to perform yet another miracle, bringing water from a rock. WATER FROM A ROCK. Miracles are just a dime a dozen at this point, and the Children of Israel are still not overly impressed.
The parshah closes with the Children of Israel being attacked by the armies of Amalek, who swoop down unprovoked. The Jews fight their first battle as a people, led by Moshe's student Joshua. Moshe watches from a hill, holding his hands up in prayer to Hashem. As long as his hands are up, the Jews prevail. But when his arms get tired and his hands fall, Amalek prevails. Aaron and Hur stand on either side of him, supporting his arms, and eventually Israel defeats Amalek.
Amalek is really bad news, truly evil. But I still can't help feeling Hashem let Amalek attack just so the Jews would stop complaining and start acting. Maybe it took a battle to get a little peace and quiet.
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