The Essence of Jewish Belief – David Brownstein

Immediately after the children of Israel cross the Red Sea, and watch the Egyptian army drown in the returning waters, and before they sing the Song of the Sea, we read (Shmot 14, 31):

וירא ישראל את היד הגדולה אשר עשה ה’ במצרים. וייראו העם את ה’ ויאמינו בה’ ובמשה עבדו.

And Israel saw the great work which the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians. And the people were in awe of the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

These verses raise a number of questions:

1. Why are we told specifically here that the People believed in God. Surely they believed in Him as they left Egypt?
2. In addition, consider Rashi’s comment on the second verse of the Song (Shmot 15, 2):

זה קלי ואנוהו, אלקי אבי וארוממנהו

This is my God and I will glorify Him, the God of my father and I will exalt Him.

Rashi quotes Chazal, who explain that the word זה – this – indicates that God appeared to Israel in His full glory, and they saw Him so clearly that they could actually point to Him with their fingers.

If this is so, then belief seems to be the wrong word here. Surely, specifically at this moment, when they saw the glory of God with their own eyes, the People no longer ‘simply’ believed in God; now they actually knew that he existed.

3. Finally, we can ask how it is that the People did not know that God existed when they observed the ten plagues, and the other miracles that God performed in Egypt in front of their eyes.

In addressing all of these questions, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, in his book The Warmth and the Light, draws a distinction between two different kinds of salvation: hatzalah and yeshuah. We could perhaps translate these terms as being rescued and earning salvation respectively.

Hatzalah refers to an act of salvation during which the person being saved remains completely passive. Yeshuah, however, implies a salvation in which the party being saved actively participates.’

In Egypt, the process by which the People were delivered was hatzala. Their role was entirely passive. Even when they left Egypt, the gates of Egypt were open to them before they took the first step and they were led out by God, through the agency of the pillars of cloud and of fire.

But then, as the People stand with the Reed Sea in front of them, and the pursuing Egyptian army behind them, a dramatic change takes place (Shmot, 14, 13–16):

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר משֶׁ֣ה אֶל־הָעָם֘ אַל־תִּירָ֒אוּ֒ הִתְיַצְּב֗וּ וּרְאוּ֙ אֶת־יְשׁוּעַ֣ת ה’ אֲשֶׁר־יַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה לָכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם כִּ֗י אֲשֶׁ֨ר רְאִיתֶ֤ם אֶת־מִצְרַ֨יִם֙ הַיּ֔וֹם לֹ֥א תֹסִ֛פוּ לִרְאֹתָ֥ם ע֖וֹד עַד־עוֹלָֽם: ה’ יִלָּחֵ֣ם לָכֶ֑ם וְאַתֶּ֖ם תַּֽחֲרִשֽׁוּן.

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר ה֙’ אֶל־משֶׁ֔ה מַה־תִּצְעַ֖ק אֵלָ֑י דַּבֵּ֥ר אֶל־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וְיִסָּֽעוּ: וְאַתָּ֞ה הָרֵ֣ם אֶת־מַטְּךָ֗ וּנְטֵ֧ה אֶת־יָֽדְךָ֛ עַל־הַיָּ֖ם וּבְקָעֵ֑הוּ וְיָבֹ֧אוּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל בְּת֥וֹךְ הַיָּ֖ם בַּיַּבָּשָֽׁה:

Moses said to the people, Don’t be afraid! Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation that He will wreak for you today, for the way you have seen the Egyptians today, you shall never see them like that again for eternity. The Lord will fight for you, but you shall remain silent. And the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the children of Israel and let them travel. And as for you, raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and split it, and the children of Israel will go into the sea on dry land.

Moses understands that the People will be saved through hatzalah. However, God makes it very clear that the People must now be ready to be active in their own salvation, and to merit yeshuah.

The end of the passage quoted above hints at the exact nature of the active part that the People will play. How can the People ‘go into the midst of the sea on dry land’? If they are on dry land, then they have not gone into the sea; they have gone onto a dry path with the sea on either side of them. The Midrash explains that God did not split the sea until all of the people had entered the water and it was up to their nostrils. The People first had to play an active and initiatory part in their own salvation; only then could they experience yeshuah.

It was by walking into the sea that the People truly expressed, for the first time, their profound belief. For a Jew, belief does not come from mere contemplation and study; it is, rather, forged through action. Noah ‘believed’ in God, but it is Avraham who is the father of the Jewish faith, because he went out and devoted his life to actively sharing that belief with everyone he met.

The Gemara in Avodah Zarah (3b) says that, in the messianic age, the nations of the world, if they wish to, will put tefillin on their heads and tefillin on their arms
( (ומניחין תפילין בראשיהן תפילין בזרועותיהם

What we notice here is that a Jew puts on the tefillin of the head only after the tefillin of the arm, and not before. Tefillin shel rosh (opposite the brain) represents that our understanding is in the service of God, while the tefillin shel yad (opposite the heart) represents that our physical self is in the service of God. What distinguishes Judaism from many other religions is that the arm comes before the head; we must first ensure that our heart and our deeds are pure, and in the service of God, and only then can we achieve genuine faith in God. To become true believers in God, we must first act on that belief in our daily lives.