Seeing Kriyas Yam Suf
By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld
Kriyas Yam Suf was the completion of Yetzias Mitzrayim. We learn a very interesting halacha from Kriyas Yam Suf.
A person once came to the Netziv with the following question. He had a massive fight with another person and swore that he would never see the other person again. That person later died, and now he wanted to stand in front of the niftar and ask mechilah. Does the shvua of never seeing him again apply after the person has died?
The Torah Temimah brings a raya from the posuk in Shmos 14:13, which says that the Yidden will not see Mitzrayim/Mitzriyim ever again. Later, the posuk states that the Yidden saw Mitzriyim dead by the seashore. The Medrash says that every Yid recognized the Mitzri who had made him work. From here we see that seeing someone after death is not considered a violation of a shvua never to see that person again.
However, the Targum Yonasan says that the Yidden did not see the Mitzriyim dead, but rather in the final throes of life (gossessin), which would seem to contradict what we said earlier. How were the Yidden able to see them if Hashem had told Moshe that they would never see them again?
We can answer that this is similar to the halacha of returning a stolen object. The Torah states that one must return the stolen item and then adds the words “asher gozal.” The Gemara learns from this that one must return the stolen object in the same condition it was in at the time it was stolen; that is what the word “asher” teaches us. Here too, the Torah says “asher” regarding the way Mitzrayim was seen today—in that manner they would not be seen again. The Yidden were not going to see them in the same way as they had seen them that day, but rather while they were taking their final breaths.
We see the importance of Kriyas Yam Suf being the completion of Yetzias Mitzrayim from the first of the Aseres Hadibros, where Hashem said the word “anochi.” During Kriyas Yam Suf, Hashem appeared as a warrior ready to do battle, whereas during Mattan Torah, Hashem appeared as an elderly person full of rachamim. Hashem was conveying that even though He appears differently in different situations, He is the same Hashem.
In Tosafos in Brachos 13b, it is paskened that if one is in a place during Kriyas Shema where he would be permitted to respond Shalom Aleichem to a person to whom he must show respect, then it stands to reason that he may also answer amein and Kedusha. However, if one is in the middle of Shemone Esrei, it would be forbidden. It is a kal vachomer that since between Go’al Yisrael and Shemone Esrei one is forbidden to be mafsik, then certainly in the middle of Shemone Esrei one would be forbidden to be mafsik.
Rabbeinu Tam would stop between Mi Kamocha and Shira Chadasha and answer all the ameins. Only afterward would he begin Shemone Esrei. He did this because Shira Chadasha discusses Kriyas Yam Suf, and that is what Rabbeinu Tam was somech his Shemone Esrei to—not something directly related to Yetzias Mitzrayim. From here we see that Kriyas Yam Suf was the culmination of Yetzias Mitzrayim. It is therefore considered the geulah that must immediately precede Shemone Esrei without any hefsek.
May we be zocheh to be like the people in Mitzrayim who were redeemed with great miracles, including Kriyas Yam Suf.
{Matzav.com}
