Torah Reading For the Seventh Day of Passover; Exodus 13:17- 15:26, By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger

With the arrival of the seventh day, a Yom Tov, the end of Passover will soon be here. In Israel and for the Reform Jewish community the seventh day is the last day of the holiday while outside Israel in the Conservative and Orthodox communities one additional day is observed. But for all of the people Israel, on the seventh day of Pesach we read and study and celebrate one of the greatest miracles our people have ever witnessed: The splitting of the Sea. The Exodus that we prepared for and sang about at our Seder is not yet complete. We might have recalled the 10 plagues by pouring out ten drops of wine but the Israelites were not yet free from the Egyptians until the seventh day. Though the Children of Israel left, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after our people into the desert. Caught between the Sea and Pharaoh’s army, what were we to do?

Our people still feared their Egyptian taskmasters and were very frightened by the approaching Egyptian army and in their fear they cried out bitterly to Moses and God “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us (Ex. 14:11)?”
But this was an opportunity for the Children of Israel to begin to break their slave mentality. The splitting of the Sea was one of God’s ways of teaching faith to our people. So Moses did as God told him and lifted his staff over the sea. And it divided so that the Children of Israel were able to cross safely on dry ground, escaping the wrath of Pharaoh and his army. And just as Moses on the other side lifted his arm with his staff again and closed the sea, Pharoah and his army were trapped in the sea bed and drowned.
The splitting of Sea was a way for the slaves to make their own divide from the past centuries of enslavement. A new beginning for the Israelites on the far shore was about to begin—and they did so in dance and song and poetry. The impact of their true freedom began to dawn upon the people.
Even as we read and study and sing Shirat HaYam on this seventh day of Passover, we should not forget this powerful idea. This sacred week of observance is to teach and remind each and every generation about the true impact of our freedom and faith that we find in the Holy Divine One. From the first taste of matzah at our seder to this seventh day reading of the Song of the Sea, this Festival teaches us once again to treasure our human dignity. It teaches us to treasure that human dignity in others. It teaches us that our freedom flows from our history as people and our faith in the Eternal and our tradition. On the seventh day of Pesach, even as we begin to bid adieu to our Pesach celebration, we can like our ancestors of old, cross into a new place, escaping the enslavements of the past and crossing into a new place of hope for the future. Then we can sing and dance and rejoice as did Miriam and Moses and all of Israel on the far side of Sea’s shore!
You see, that is the miracle of the Splitting of the Sea for our time. We can learn from our past as people and re-commit ourselves to a new way of being. Each of us has had moments of such great fear and panic and feeling as if there was no place to turn. The Children of Israel learned to turn not just to Moses but to the Holy Divine One and each other. From that turning freedom flowed. From their turning their own dignity was reborn from the degradation they had known in Egypt. In that community of Israel they gained strength in their journey and celebration. So as we reach the seventh day of Pesach and the final moments of the Festival, this Torah reading reminds us to turn more closely to our community of Klal Yisrael. No matter if we celebrate seven day of Passover or eight our strength as a People comes from God and one another. It is my hope that we draw closer together.