The Challenge of Overcoming Fate

As the story goes, after the tenth plague, Pharaoh finally acceded to God’s will, and allowed the children of Israel to leave Egypt. Soon after, though, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, causing him to gather his army and chariots to chase after the recently manumitted slaves. The pursuit continued into the sea, which God miraculously split to allow the children of Israel flee; Pharaoh and his chariots, however did not share this same fate:

And He (God) took off the wheels of their chariots and drove them heavily, and Egypt said: ‘Let me flee before Israel, for the Lord does battle for them against Egypt’. (Exodus 14:25)

The following midrash from the period of the Mishnah applies a rabbinic principle of poetic justice to explain the fate of the Egyptian army:

“And He drove them heavily”- Rabbi Yehudah says: With the measure they meted out, so did He mete it out to them. (midah k’neged midah) They (the Egyptians) said: “Let the labor be heavy on the men” (Exodus 5:9) and so you meted it to them, thus it says: “He dove them heavily.” (Mekhilta de Rabbi Yishmael Beshallah 5, Horowitz-Rabin ed. pp. 108-9)

According to Rabbi Yehudah, the punishment exacted upon the Egyptians was determined “mechanically” by the inflictions that they had imposed on the children of Israel. For the Egyptians, no means were provided for them to avert this stern punishment. The midrash portrays them as “fated” for this punishment.

The above midrash is well-known. In contrast, several pages later in the same collection, we find this less-known, rather surprising midrash:

But the children of Israel me into the sea on dry land (Exodus 14:22) – And the ministering angels were astounded (at Israel’s survival in the sea), saying: ‘People who are idolators, [namely the Israelites coming out of Egypt], walk on the dry land in the midst of the sea!” And from where is it derived that the sea was filled with anger against them? As it says: “And the water was to them a wall (homah – het mem hey) [on their right and on their left]” (Exodus 14:22). Don’t read it “homah” (wall), but rather “heimah” (wrath). [Remember, the sages made playful associations with words inspired by the Torah’s unvocalized text.]  What caused Israel to be saved? “on their right and on their left.” “on their right” — by the merit of the Torah that they were destined to receive, as it says: “From His right hand, the fire of the Law for them.” (Deuteronomy 33:2) And “on their left” — this refers to prayer. Another interpretation: “on their right and on their left“: “on their right” — (the mitzvah of) mezuzah that Israel is destined to observe. “and on their left” — tefillin (worn on the left hand). (Mekhilta de Rabbi Yishmael Beshallah 6, Horowitz-Rabin ed. pp. 111-2)

This midrash offers us a challenge. If the children of Israel were also sinners, why should their fate have been different from that of the Egyptians? The answer of this midrash is quite clear. Their future observance of the Torah served as an antidote to the forces of fate! Carrying out God’s will could act as a counterbalance to the universe’s mechanical poetic justice!

This doesn’t boil down to an Us versus Them thing, where the Jews get favored treatment and the Egyptians don’t; rather there is a basic theological difference of approach here represented by the two parties. The Egyptians represent the idea that change is not possible, that one’s actions lead to an insurmountably determined fate.

The religious path represented by the Israelites is different. In this midrash, they are assigned the most serious sin possible – idolatry, yet their future was assured by the life path assigned to them. Through Torah and mitzvot, life could be turned around and a destined fate aborted. Can a person change and reclaim life? The rabbinic answer is decidedly yes. The power to do so is not with some outside force, rather, the power is the hands of each of us. That is the Jewish way.