The Song of the Sea: Vayevarech David and Az Yashir

The Alter Rebbe writes (51:11): “It became the custom to stand for Vayevarech David until תִּפְאַרְתֶּךָ. And some add to stand until they say אַתָּה הוּא ה׳ הָאֱלֹהִים, whose first letters spell אֶהְיֶה, and afterwards they sit.” Look at the four words in the siddur: א of אַתָּה, then ה of הוּא, then the first letter of Hashem’s Name, a yud, and ה of הָאֱלֹהִים.

In the same paragraph he adds a detail: when one reaches וְעַתָּה אֱלֹהֵינוּ מוֹדִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ, “one does not bow” there. The translator explains why it needs saying: “Though it does not mention bowing down, one does bow while reciting the same phrase (Modim Anachnu Lach — “we give thanks to You”) when it appears in Shemoneh Esreh.”

Something I noticed in the verse itself (it is my observation, not a source for the custom): the words we say, וִיבָרְכוּ שֵׁם כְּבוֹדֶךָ, are the end of a verse in which the Levites call out to the people קוּמוּ בָּרְכוּ, “Stand up, bless Hashem your G‑d from world to world” (Nechemiah 9:5).

And the Song of the Sea? The Alter Rebbe does not speak of standing for it. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (14:4), which I opened, does: “And likewise from Vayevarech David until אַתָּה הוּא ה׳ הָאֱלֹהִים, one says it standing. And likewise the Shirah, one says it standing, with kavanah and with joy.” The translator’s note on the Alter Rebbe’s words says: “Common practice is to remain standing from Vayvarech David until having responded to Barchu. (Derech HaChayim and Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, cited in Ketzos HaShulchan 18:4, write that one should stand while reciting the Song of the Sea.)” The Derech HaChayim and the Ketzos HaShulchan I did not open. For what to do in your own minyan, ask your rav.

In the same paragraph (51:11) the Alter Rebbe writes: “And when one says וְאַתָּה מוֹשֵׁל בַּכֹּל, “and You rule over everything”, one gives tzedakah, standing.” The verse goes on: “and in Your hand are strength and might, and in Your hand it is to make great and to strengthen all.” Whatever I have comes from His hand; at this moment I give some of it away.

The translator’s note explains where this comes from and what it is. “In sec. 92:10 the Alter Rebbe quotes Bava Basra 10a” that it is good to give tzedakah before prayer, from the verse “I will behold Your face בְּצֶדֶק, in righteousness”. The Pri Megadim (Mishbetzos Zahav 92:30), in the name of the AriZal, connects that gift to the tzedakah given at Vayevarech David. But the note continues: since the Alter Rebbe writes about the two in two separate places, “This distinction indicates that there should be two separate donations: one before prayer (at the very beginning of the Morning Service, not directly before Shemoneh Esreh) and one when reciting the phrase VeAtah Moshel BaKol. See Igros Kodesh of the Rebbe, Vol. 19, p. 71.” I read this in the note; section 92, the Pri Megadim and the Rebbe’s letter I did not open.

Think of the verse we saw above: the day David said these words, the people had just given “with a whole heart”, and they rejoiced. A coin in the pushke at וְאַתָּה מוֹשֵׁל בַּכֹּל makes us part of that day. (On Shabbos and Yom Tov, when we do not handle money, ask your rav what to do.)

The Zohar (parshas Beshalach) calls the Song of the Sea “the song of the Queen to the Holy One, blessed be He”, and teaches: “Every person who says this song every day, and has kavanah in it, merits to say it in the time to come. For in it is the world that passed, and in it is the world to come, and in it are the bonds of faith, and in it are the days of King Moshiach.” I read it in the Aramaic on Sefaria; the translation is mine. The Kaf HaChayim (51:40) begins his words on the Song with this: “The Song of the Sea must be said with great kavanah”, and quotes this Zohar.

The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, as we saw, says to say it “with kavanah and with joy”. The Mishnah Berurah (51:17) goes further: “And he should say the Song of the Sea with joy, and picture in his mind as if on that very day he crossed through the sea; and whoever says it with joy, his sins are forgiven.” The Kaf HaChayim (51:41) brings the same in the name of the Midrash (as cited), and adds what joy means here: “with great joy, and with care for the words and the cantillation, and having in mind as if he himself is going out of Egypt and crossing the sea and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves him.”

So the Song is not a story about others. Every morning I go out of my own Egypt, the sea opens before me, and I sing.

The Song begins with a strange word. The story happened in the past, and yet the Torah writes יָשִׁיר, “he will sing”, in the future, not שָׁר, “he sang”. Rashi gives two answers. The plain meaning: “Then, when he saw the miracle, it rose in his heart to sing a song … here too, יָשִׁיר: his heart told him that he should sing, and so he did.” The future form speaks of the thought that came first: “it teaches us that the yod is said for the thought.”

“But its midrash, our Rabbis said: from here there is a hint to the Resurrection of the Dead from the Torah.” This is the Gemara in Sanhedrin 91b: “It was taught: Rabbi Meir said: From where do we learn the Resurrection of the Dead from the Torah? As it says: Then Moshe and the children of Israel will sing… It does not say ‘sang’, but ‘will sing’: from here, the Resurrection of the Dead from the Torah.” The Gemara learns the same from אָז יִבְנֶה יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, “then Yehoshua will build” (Yehoshua 8:30).

A few lines later the same page says: “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Whoever says shirah in this world merits to say it in the World to Come,” from the verse אַשְׁרֵי יוֹשְׁבֵי בֵיתֶךָ עוֹד יְהַלְלוּךָ סֶּלָה, the first verse of Ashrei (Lesson 13). The Song I sing this morning is the beginning of a song that will be sung again. See §G62 for the grammar of אָז with the future.

The Gemara in Sotah 30b tells: “On that day Rabbi Akiva expounded: When Israel came up from the sea, they set their eyes on saying shirah.” How did they sing it? Rabbi Akiva: “like an adult who leads the Hallel, and they answer after him the headings”: Moshe said אָשִׁירָה לַה׳ and they answered אָשִׁירָה לַה׳ after each line. Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yosi HaGlili: “like a child who leads the Hallel, and they answer after him all that he says.” Rabbi Nechemiah: like the one who leads the Shema in the shul, “who begins first, and they answer after him”, so that they all sang together.

And Rabbi Yosi HaGlili: when they came up from the sea, even the smallest sang. A baby lay on its mother’s knees and a nursing child at its mother’s breast; “when they saw the Shechinah, the baby raised its neck, and the nursing child let go of the breast, and they said: זֶה אֵלִי וְאַנְוֵהוּ, This is my G‑d and I will glorify Him.” The Gemara brings the verse: מִפִּי עוֹלְלִים וְיֹנְקִים יִסַּדְתָּ עֹז, “From the mouth of babes and sucklings You have founded strength” (Tehillim 8:3).

In Lesson 14 we saw that we say כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה twice because it ends Pesukei D’zimrah. The Alter Rebbe continues there (51:10): “and likewise the verse ה׳ יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד, because it is the end of the Song. And some add the verse כִּי בָא סוּס פַּרְעֹה, because it too is part of the Song.” The translator notes: “Based on the teachings of the AriZal, we also recite that verse in its Aramaic paraphrase.” The Mishnah Berurah (51:17) says the same: “And in the name of the AriZal they wrote that one should also say the Targum of this verse”, twice in the Hebrew and once in the Aramaic, “and that one should say the verse כִּי בָא סוּס פַּרְעֹה, for this passage too is the main part of the Song.”

So our siddur prints יְיָ יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד twice, then the words of Onkelos: יְיָ מַלְכוּתֵהּ קָאֵם לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָּא, “Hashem, His kingship stands forever and to all eternity.” Onkelos changes the future, “will reign”, into the present, “stands”. The Aramaic words are old friends: ־ֵהּ “his” (§G41) and ־ָא “the” (§G40).

Then כִּי בָא סוּס פַּרְעֹה (15:19), which looks back on the whole story. Rashi: “When Pharaoh’s horse came”, that is, at the time it came into the sea, the waters returned, while “the children of Israel walked on the dry land in the middle of the sea.”

The Song ends with Hashem’s kingship, and the siddur ends the whole passage the same way: “For the kingship is Hashem’s, and He rules over the nations” (Tehillim 22:29); “Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esav, and the kingship will be Hashem’s” (Ovadiah 1:21); “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be One and His Name One” (Zechariah 14:9).

Chabad.org’s commentary on ה׳ יִמְלֹךְ brings from Toras Shmuel: “This is the first time the concept of G‑d’s kingship is mentioned in Scripture.” And why the future? “This verse uses the future tense, because this degree of revelation will not be an ongoing, manifest reality until the Ultimate Future.” On Zechariah 14:9 it says: “In the Ultimate Future, all existence will accept His rule and humbly submit itself in homage to Him (Yahel Or).”

Rashi says it too, on the verse just before: the Beis HaMikdash is dear, “for the world was created with one hand”, “and the Mikdash with two hands. And when will it be built with two hands? At the time when ‘Hashem will reign forever and ever’, in the time to come, when all the kingship will be His.” And the Zohar we saw: in this Song “are the days of King Moshiach.” The Song of the Sea is the song of the first redemption, and it already sings of the last one.