D’var Torah for Parshat Beshalach

How to understand a perplexing midrash about kri’at yam suf

Parshat Beshalach tells the story of kri’at yam suf (the splitting of the Sea of Reeds), which has to rank as one of the most dramatic events in the entire Torah. The people witnessed so many miracles there – the Sea splitting, the walls of water letting the people through on dry land, and the annihilation of the army that was pursuing them. But as if all that weren’t enough, the rabbis of the Midrash tell us that an extra miracle happened during that event, one not mentioned in the Torah. And it’s a particularly strange-sounding one. The midrash recounts that when the Israelites were walking through the sea on dry land, they actually found fruit trees there that they could eat from: 

הָיְתָה בַּת יִשְׂרָאֵל עוֹבֶרֶת בַּיָּם וּבְנָהּ בְּיָדָהּ וּבוֹכֶה, וּפוֹשֶׁטֶת יָדָהּ וְנוֹטֶלֶת תַּפּוּחַ אוֹ רִמּוֹן מִתּוֹךְ הַיָּם וְנוֹתֶנֶת לוֹ

An Israelite woman would pass through the sea, with her son crying in her hand, and she would extend her hand and take an apple or a pomegranate from the sea and give it to him.

Shemot Rabbah 21:10

That seems like a pretty bizarre thing to say. And why add this extra miracle, anyway? Couldn't the rabbis just leave a good story alone?

Why does this midrash say there were fruit trees?

Presumably the sages of the Midrash had something in mind that made them suggest there were fruit trees in the middle of the sea. Was there anything in the text that led them to this conclusion? Well, let's look at the story of the splitting of the sea and see if we can discern what the Midrash might have picked up on here. And as we do this, we’re going to play one of our favorite games: Where in the Torah have we heard this before? In other words, what do the words and ideas remind us of?

To get started, let’s take a look at the moment just before the sea split and notice what was happening at that moment.

וַיּוֹלֶךְ יקוה אֶת־הַיָּם בְּרוּחַ קָדִים עַזָּה כׇּל־הַלַּיְלָה

God drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night (Exodus 14:21)

So, where in the Torah have we heard this before? When else was it dark like night and there was a wind of God blowing over the waters? That happened at the very beginning of the Torah, back in Genesis, when God created the heavens and the earth.

 וְרוּחַ אֱלֹקים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם

Darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit [or: the wind] of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2)

You know, we don't often think about this image of the world before creation, as the Torah portrays it to us. But picture it in your mind: The only thing that was really there was water, and it was dark because light hadn’t yet been created, and there was a wind. And now, just before the sea splits, the Torah is describing the exact same three elements. But that’s not all. As we keep reading, we’ll find more similarities between this scene in Parshat Beshalach and the creation story in Genesis. 

Let’s continue on in the creation story. So far, we’ve looked at the appearance of the pre-creation world. What is the first thing that happens in the actual creation? God makes light and then separates between the darkness and the light. Does anything like that happen here at the Sea of Reeds?

More parallels with the creation story 

I think we see something similar when Parshat Beshalach mentions the pillar of cloud by which God leads the people of Israel. That may not initially sound much like God creating light and separating it from darkness. But let’s picture the scene as the Torah describes it. There comes a moment when the pillar of the cloud, which had been in front of the people to lead them, changes position and is now behind them.

וַיָּבֹא בֵּין  מַחֲנֵה מִצְרַיִם וּבֵין מַחֲנֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיְהִי הֶעָנָן וְהַחֹשֶׁךְ וַיָּאֶר אֶת־הַלָּיְלָה 

And [the pillar of cloud] separated between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and there was cloud and darkness, and it lit up the night… (Exodus 14:20)

Rashi explains that the pillar was actually creating two separate realities at the same time: It lit up the camp of the Israelites, but the Egyptian camp was covered with darkness. So there it is, a separation between light and darkness, reminding us of God’s actions on the first day of creation.

And there are yet more parallels to come. At the time of creation, that division between light and darkness was only the beginning of a whole series of havdalot, separations made by God. Think about it: What comes right after separating light from darkness? God says that the sky will divide between waters and waters. There were upper waters and there were lower waters, whatever that means, and there was sky in between. Does that remind you of anything at the splitting of the sea? Was there another time when there were two bodies of water that were separated, leaving open space in between?

There surely was, but this time, it wasn't vertical separation but horizontal separation. When the wind from God blew and separated the Sea of Reeds, 

וְהַמַּיִם לָהֶם חוֹמָה מִימִינָם וּמִשְּׂמֹאלָם׃

The water was a wall for them on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14:22)

 And what was between? Open sky, one more time.

And if that’s not enough, we’re still not done with “separation” parallels. At the time of creation, there was one more great separation – the separation between waters and dry land. God says, 

יִקָּווּ הַמַּיִם מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶל־מָקוֹם אֶחָד וְתֵרָאֶה הַיַּבָּשָׁה 

Let the waters gather into one place and the dry land be seen. (Genesis 1:9)

And look what happens in Parshat Beshalach: The sea splits and the waters gather themselves, allowing the dry land to appear. It's all happening again. 

Well, that’s quite a fascinating list of parallels between creation and the splitting of the Sea of Reeds! But are we getting any closer to understanding where those fruit trees in the midrash came from?

I think we are.

What the sages saw in this pattern

In creation, what did dry land allow for? It allowed for life on land – vegetation, animal life, human life. And what did the dry land in the midst of the Sea of Reeds allow for? It also allowed for life. Israel faced the possibility of extinction, trapped between the water and the pursuing Egyptians. But when the sea was split and a path of dry land opened up between the waves…then life was possible. 

וַיָּבֹאוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּתוֹךְ הַיָּם בַּיַּבָּשָׁה

The Israelites went through the sea on dry land (Exodus 14:22)

They went through, and who went with them? We know from the Exodus story that they left with their animals. So animal life and human life were both possible because of the division between water and land, because God made dry land in the middle of the Sea of Reeds.

But there's just one element missing – and that seems to be where the sages of the Midrash come in. The missing element is plant life. It is the trees.

The sages, with their comment, seem to be dropping us a little hint, nudging us in the direction of seeing the creation story one more time at the sea. Yes, of course, there were trees! Just as it says in the creation story, 

עֵץ פְּרִי עֹשֶׂה פְּרִי לְמִינוֹ

fruit trees bearing fruits  (Genesis 1:11)

…so too, it must have been there at the sea.

The sages weren't just randomly making up fairy tales about the splitting of the sea. They were helping us discern a pattern that we previously saw at creation, and that held true again for the Israelites: the division between light and darkness, the division between bodies of water, and the division between land and the sea. 

But why is that pattern showing up again at the Sea of Reeds? What does all this actually mean?

This midrash points at an important message

We started out with the question of why the midrash mentioned fruit trees in the first place, and now we have an answer… but that leaves us with a bigger question: What is the Torah telling us by linking these two stories? It can’t just be a random bit of fun wordplay. There must be some reason the Torah wants us to think about creation when we read Parshat Beshalach.

To discover that big-picture message, check out Rabbi David Fohrman’s video Crossing the Red Sea: Lessons, Symbolism, and Meaning. He explains that this “creation replay” in the Yam Suf crossing was very far from being a random set of parallels. That replay happened the way it did because God was sending a powerful message – a message for Egypt, a message for the Israelites, and a message for all humanity, for all time.