In Parshat Beshalach we find ourselves struck by how leaving Egypt is not a clean moment of freedom but a complicated crossing into responsibility. Pharaoh sends us out, yet God guides us, and we live for a time in that uneasy space of having had two masters. Like the rabbinic image of the half slave and half free person, we cannot remain divided. The sea, the desert, and the manna all press the same question on us and on those who stood there before us: how do we move from the known, even when it was painful, into an unknown that demands trust, action, and growth. Their fear, their complaints, and their hesitation feel familiar.

The crossing of the sea makes this especially vivid. We are told that God will fight for us, yet we are also pushed to step forward, even before we know how the story will resolve. Tradition imagines someone walking into the water before it splits, teaching us that faith is often enacted before it is rewarded. When the people finally sing at the sea, it is not in triumph, but is relief, gratitude, and survival finding a voice. We hear an invitation to be patient with ourselves and with one another as we complain, hesitate, and try again. Like them, we are learning how to trust, how to plan, and how to carry our past with us without letting it keep us from moving forward.

For further reading, here is this year's blog post about the parsha:

https://miko284.com/2026/01/29/and-he-showed-him-a-tree-bshalach/