It’s the Exodus! The Israelites are finally free, struggling to leave Egypt behind, but
now they find themselves trapped! They arrive at the Sea of Reeds - impossible
to cross – and the Egyptian army is thundering down on them from behind. The Israelites cry
out to Moses: “Why have you brought us out here to die?”
They’ve been through so much. We can understand their terror!
Moses is their leader...but he doesn’t tell them what to do. He says: “Have no fear!
God will rescue you! God will battle for you!” God is not so thrilled with Moses words. God
asks: “why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to march forward! Lift your staff
and part the waters!” What a strange moment.
The Torah is a bit sparse here about what happened, play by play. What happened? Do
the people walk and the waters split? Vice versa?
Midrash is a special kind of story that rabbis tell to fill in the gaps in Torah. The ancient
rabbis created a great midrash about this moment. They find this character elsewhere
in the Torah named Nachshon. He’s Aaron’s brother in law. Which makes him Moses’s
brother in brother in law? Anyways, he’s also the prince of the tribe of Judah. A leader.
According to the Midrash Nachshon wastes no time. He sees the people crying, observes the other tribal leaders
hemming and hawing, hears Moses and God arguing...and he starts to walk. Into the water. Up to his
knees. Then his waist. Then his shoulders. And then his neck.
The Israelites stop crying. Moses and God stop debating. Seeing Nachshon’s courageous
march into the churning waves, Moses lifts his staff. Nachshon is now in so deep he cannot
breathe, as the water covers his mouth and nose. And then – and only then the legend
goes – the waters began to part. Following Nachshon’s courageous example
the Israelites run toward the parting waters, escape to the other side, and join Nachshon
on dry land. Then, as we know from the Torah, Pharaoh’s army races into the parted waters
only to drown as they come crashing back around them.
The ancient rabbis were trying to teach us something by embellishing this scene in the
Torah’s Exodus story. Moses was a great leader – but even great
leaders sometimes get stuck. Sometimes they are busy ruminating, talking, praying – when
they need to act. To act with courage and audacity, so people know what to do. Nachshon
never spoke – but he knew how to act. The ancient rabbis added another great teaching.
Some of them said, it was only when every Israelite – every woman, man, and child,
Only then. When they all followed Nachshon into the waters – when all of them joined hands in courage and faith
– it was then that the seas parted!
And so they're telling us: We can't just wait for a hero to save us.
Each and every one of us has the power to step up and lead.