“Moses and the Israelites then sang this song to God. And they spoke, to say, I will sing to God for His great victory.’ ” (Exodus 15:1)
Rashi (ibid.) says of the phrase “I will sing” that when the miracle happened, it occurred to them to sing at some point in the future. We learn in the holy book Kedushath Levi (ibid.), concerning Rashi’s comment, that “I will sing” refers to a future time. He says, “When the Jewish people were still in Egypt, they had such faith that God would save them, they already thought of the song they would sing upon gaining their freedom.” Hence “I will sing,” in the future.
One might add that from a reading of the text it would appear that not only did they think about the singing they would do in their freedom, but while they were still in Egypt they actually thanked and praised God, as it is written (Exodus 12:27): “The people bowed and prostrated themselves.”
With this introduction, it is possible to understand why in an earlier verse (Exodus 6:9), when Moses first told the Jewish people that he had been sent to redeem them, “They did not listen to Moses, because of their shortness of breath and the hard work.” What was it that they needed to hear? Furthermore, Moses said to God (Exodus 6:12), “If even the Israelites will not listen to me, how can I expect Pharaoh to listen to me?” The Torah then goes on to say, “God spoke to Moses and Aaron, and commanded them regarding the Israelites.” What did He command? Rashi (ibid.) explains: “God commanded them to lead the Jewish people with gentleness, and to have patience with them.” Does this suggest that up until that point Moses did not lead them gently and patiently, God forbid? How does this answer the question asked by Moses, “If even the Israelites will not listen to me, how can I expect Pharaoh to listen to me?”
The Talmud (Berachoth 7b) on the verse (Psalms 3:1) “A song of David, when he fled from Absalom his son” asks: “ ‘A song of David?’ It ought to have been ‘a lamentation of David.’ ” The Talmud answers: “When the Holy Blessed One said to David (II Samuel 12:11), ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house,’ David began to worry. He thought, ‘It may be a slave or a bastard who will have no pity on me.’ When he saw that it was Absalom, his son, he said, ‘Any normal son has a care for his father,’ and so he rejoiced. Hence, ‘A song of David.’ ” Similarly, regarding “A Song of Asaf. O God, Gentiles are come into Your inheritance. They have polluted Your holy sanctuary and turned Jerusalem into rubble,” (Psalms 79) the Talmud (Kiddushin 31b, see Tosaphot) asserts: “It ought to be a ‘lamentation of Asaf!’ ”
We need to understand the original question posed by the Talmud. The law states clearly (Mishnah, Berachoth 9:5): “A man must bless God for the evil that happens to him as for the good that happens.” If it must be accepted with joy, why does the Talmud ask: “ ‘A song of David?’ It ought to have been ‘A lamentation of David?’ ” Furthermore, why according to the Talmud quoted above was it called “a song,” in gratitude for the grain of good found even in the pain, when the psalm itself speaks only of suffering?
It is possible to accept suffering and endure it with love, and to have faith that everything is from God, but to actually sing while enduring it is difficult. In order for a person to sing, his essential self—his soul and his heart—must burst into song. One of the conditions of prophecy was the necessity for the prophet to be in a state of simcha—blissful joy—at all times, even while in pain, as we learn in the book Sha’ar HaKedusha, by R. Chaim Vital, of blessed memory. Yet, we learn that when the prophet Elisha wanted prophecy to rest upon him and his normal blissful state was not sufficient, he needed more joy, and so he said (II Kings 3:5), ‘“Bring me a minstrel.” And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.” We see clearly that something good has to occur, there must be salvation, for the heart to rejoice. Then, when a level of simcha has been reached, a person can sing to God about his pain as well. This is the meaning of the Talmud’s question, “A song of David?” The question is: How was King David able to sing? The Talmud answers that in the suffering he saw a miracle from heaven, because things could have been so much worse, God forbid. King David rejoiced over this miracle until he could also sing about his pain.
This is an important rule for us. In all suffering, when there is nothing with which to encourage ourselves, we must strengthen ourselves and rejoice in the reflection that it could have been, God forbid, so much worse. This is like David, who rejoiced because the evil could have come from one of his servants, instead of from his son. But when, God forbid, the suffering is so great that one is completely crushed and the mind has crumbled, when there is insufficient personality left intact for it to able to be strengthened, then it is difficult to rejoice in reflections like those of King David. This is the reason why the Israelites “did not listen to Moses.”
We learn in the Talmud (Sotah 30b) of an argument among tannaim: “How did the Israelites sing the ‘Song of the Sea’? R. Nechemia declared that all the Jewish people achieved a state of prophecy: They were all given the ‘Song of the Sea’ together and they sang together with Moses. R. Akiba and R. Eliezer son of R. Jose said that only Moses achieved prophecy, and so Moses sang the song while the Jewish people repeated it after him.” Both of these explanations are the words of the living God. At the sea, the Shechinah (Divine Presence) rested so much upon the people that, as we learn in the Mechilta (ibid.), even the lowliest maidservant saw visions that were not revealed to Ezekiel the prophet. Everyone achieved a state of prophecy, and they could sing even without first hearing the words from our teacher Moses. So, when our teacher Moses started to sing, they were able to sing the words along with him. This was not the case, however, when they were still in Egypt. There, though the people wanted to sing and praise God, they had not achieved the high level of prophecy, so they had to listen to Moses and respond after him.
When Pharaoh hardened his spirit, and increased the workload of the Jewish people, saying (Exodus 5:7), “Do not give the people straw for bricks as before. Let them go and gather their own straw,” their spirit fell so much that they were unable even to listen to Moses and repeat the song after him. This is the meaning of “ ‘They did not listen to Moses, because of their shortness of breath and the hard work.” Therefore, when our teacher Moses said, “The Israelites will not listen to me,” God instructed him to lead them with gentleness and patience. The meaning of this is that it was the duty of the shepherds of the Jewish people to bring about a change in Heaven’s policy regarding the Jews, forcing it to administer the world with gentleness and patience, instead of inflicting pain, God forbid. This would allow the people to listen and to sing.
The verse says, “God spoke to Moses and Aaron, and commanded them regarding the Israelites.” In general, the way that the Jewish people bring about God’s salvation is through prayer, but when, God forbid, danger is imminent and there is no time to pray, then salvation is brought about by decree, as the Talmud (Sotah 12a) says: “The tzaddik (pious person) decrees, and the Holy Blessed One fulfills.” Similarly, when God tells the Jewish people to awaken heaven’s mercy, sometimes He requests it of them, as described in the Talmud (Berachoth 7a): “God said to R. Ishmael b. Elisha, ‘Ishmael, My son, bless Me.’ What was Ishmael’s blessing of God? ‘May it be Your will that Your mercy suppress Your anger and Your mercy prevail over Your other attributes, so that You treat Your children mercifully. And may You, on their behalf, stop short of the letter of the law.’ ” However, in times of great suffering, it is written, “God commanded them regarding the Jewish people.” He commanded that, by decree, a change must be wrought in the Divine administration of the world, decreeing that the Jewish people be led mercifully. This would bring an end to their slavery, and enable them, even while they were still in Egypt, to sing and praise God and to prepare themselves for the singing and praising they would do upon their redemption. This is the meaning of (Exodus 14:31) “The Israelites saw the great power that God had unleashed in Egypt.” Already, when still in Egypt, they could see God’s salvation, and so they were able, in their minds, “to sing in the future.”
In “Moses and the Israelites then sang this song to God. And they spoke, to say . . .” “to say” implies that they succeeded in establishing this for future generations—to say: that out of their heart and soul it be said. In Yiddish it would be translated as Es zol sich zugen shirah—The song should say itself.