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This week’s Torah reading begins on strange note: When G-d led the Jews out of Egypt He feared they would return there (!) so He took them on a detour.”
In other words, even after seeing ten miraculous plagues, the ‘best’ Jews (i.e. the 20% that survived the plague of darkness) still had doubts! Only after they crossed the sea did they really believe in G-d and Moses. (14:31)
This does not seem to be a very positive message. If after seeing the clear hand of G-d the Jews still weren’t convinced… what chance have we got?

To understand, here is a story.

It was a freezing cold evening in the Ukraine but that didn’t stop Rav Yaakov. He stood on the chair that he had propped up in the snow under the Baal Shem Tov’s window and started tapping. And he would keep tapping until the Besh’t (short for Baal Shem Tov) taught him the secret he so desired to learn; to understand the speech of the birds.
He had read in esoteric Kabbala books that one of the ways that heavenly decrees ‘break’ into this physical world is through the chirping of the birds, and if one understands this chirping, he can predict the future. Since he heard that the Baal Shem Tov knew this secret he didn’t give the Besh’t a moment’s rest. He had to learn the secret.
And why not? Rav Yaakov took great pride in himself. He had a keen mind, knew most of the Talmud by heart and had even finished the mystical works of the Ari Zal several times. Not only that, he was rich and an excellent businessman with four laden ships waiting at the docks to sail to distant places and a fortune in stocks and bonds in his home.
There was no reason, he convinced himself, why a superior person like himself shouldn’t begin experiencing some of the mysteries he read about.
The Baal Shem Tov appeared at the window, opened it and again repeated: “Rav Yaakov, please. I told you several times that this knowledge you seek will only harm you. Please leave me alone I have a lot of work to do. Please forget this idea and just be a regular good Jew.”
But Yaakov would not take no for an answer. Obviously, the Baal Shem had a personal agenda for not sharing his hard-earned secrets; perhaps jealousy, perhaps selfishness. In any case here was no place for such things. He would continue to pester the Besh’t until he got what he wanted.
It never even entered his mind that perhaps the Besh’t was a completely different type of person but a few days of pestering later he got what he wanted.
“All right” the Besh’t said sadly, “If you insist, I’ll teach you what you want.” He closed the window, walked to his front door and let Rav Yaakov in.
He was an excellent pupil; quick to understand and quick to translate his understanding into action and in one month he had completely mastered the esoteric skill he so desperately desired.
He prepared himself for a week; fasting praying and meditating just as the Besh’t told him to, went into the forest and listened. Suddenly it all made sense!! Every chirp was like a letter of the alphabet and soon the woods were filled with strange and wondrous messages: What is happening in China, what will happen tomorrow in France, who will live, who will die, Rav Yaakov’s house will burn down tomorrow …
Wait!! What was that he heard!? They were talking about him!! “Gevalt!” he whispered to himself as he turned and ran from the forest in the direction of his house holding his head in disbelief. “Gevalt, Gevalt!! My house!!”
He called his servants together and excitedly ordered them to make a constant, 24 hour check of every inch of the house for the next two days; there was to be no fire lit anywhere on the premises. And, sure enough, it paid off! One of the old maidservants left a candle burning in her room that fell to the carpet while she was sleeping which they extinguished before it set the house ablaze.

“Nu nu!” Rav Yaakov thought to himself as he lit up his pipe, “looks like this knowledge is not so bad after all. I just saved my entire house and millions of dollars in valuable documents! Thank G-d I was stubborn!”

A month later he again prepared himself and entered the forest. Again he concentrated according to the formulas he had learned and again the air filled with news: What would happen in Russia, what just happened in Japan, who will live, who will die, that Rabbi Yaakov’s ships would all sink in an ocean storm…..
This time he smiled quietly to himself, calmly spun around, walked briskly to his waiting carriage and sped off to the docks.
“Yes, you heard me correctly” he ordered the captains of his ships, “No one is to set sail until further notice. I don’t care how much money we lose. My ships remain here! Is that clear?!” The captains begrudgingly shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads in agreement as Rav Yaakov rode away in his carriage. The next day a sudden, totally unexpected sea storm sunk every ship at sea. Tens, maybe hundreds, of ships went down ….  but not his. Rab Yaakov just lit his pipe when he heard the news, leaned
back in his chair and smiled again.

A month later he was back in the woods again. Again he closed his eyes in deep concentration and again the birds announced: What would happen in England, what just occurred in Italy, who would become rich, who would become poor, that …… Rav Yaakov was going to die next week!

He began to sweat. He opened his collar; it was hard to breathe. He took out his handkerchief and desperately wiped his brow and the back of his neck. What would he do now?!! Where could he run?!
He began pacing like a madman. He fell, then stood up, ran to his carriage and sped off in the direction of Mezibuz the home of the Baal Shem Tov.
The cold wind whipped at his face but he was burning hot. In a few hours he was knocking at the Baal Shem’s door. One of the Chassidim opened told him to wait, returned after a few minutes and told him the Besh’t would see him.

“I told you no good would come of it.” The Besh’t said once Rav Yaakov closed the door behind him. “You see, it was written in the heavens that you had to either lose half of your fortune or die. If you your home had burned down that would have been the end of it. The same thing if your ships had sunk. But now …..”
The Besh’t put his head down on the table, and the room was deafeningly silent. He slowly looked up at poor Rav Yaakov and said,
“I’m not promising, but perhaps if you give away all your belongings and home and resolve yourself to a life of begging and poverty it will be considered in heaven as though you are dead. It is your only chance.”
Rav Yaakov learned that the Baal Shem Tov was something more than he had ever imagined.

This answers our question about why the Jews had doubts.

After the splitting of the Sea the Torah tells us that the Jews “Believed in G-d and in His servant Moses.” (14:31)
The simple meaning is that the people had faith in Moses as a prophet. But it doesn’t seem to really fit here. First, didn’t the Jews believe in him before this? Second, why is he mentioned together with G-d? And third, after they crossed the sea they SAW G-d; faith wasn’t necessary. Why tell us that they ‘believed’?
But the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the splitting of the sea was a preparation for the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai:
When Moses split the sea and they saw all the spiritual worlds opening up (See Rashi on 15:2) suddenly they realized that Moses was ABOVE all of it; above even the highest spiritual awareness.
Like Rab Yaakov in our story, they realized that the only way to really relate to the Baal Shem Tov (the Moses of his generation) was exactly like one relates to G-d; with pure faith.
And this pure faith in Moses and G-d is a prerequisite for Judaism and receiving the Torah.
So because they lacked this necessary faith in Moses, G-d had to detour their path to freedom for fear they would return to their selfish ‘comfort zone’: A.K.A. Egypt.

All this is a preparation for the revelation of Moshiach, the ultimate Jewish leader who must be treated with the ultimate Jewish faith. Then the ENTIRE CREATION will be filled with the knowledge of G-d exceeding all reason and understanding.
And not much is lacking to make it happen. We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish sacrifice, prayer and suffering. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought will awaken our inner, positive potential to inspire G-d to reveal ..
MOSHIACH NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

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