The Torah portion of Beshalach features the famous Az Yashir, the poetic song that Moses and the Children of Israel sang to commemorate the miraculous splitting of the sea. For almost 3,500 years since then, and to this day, Jews recite Az Yashir each morning during the Shacharit prayer.

To briefly recap the narrative leading up to this point:

The people had spent 210 years in Egypt, with nearly 100 of those years marked by brutal oppression. Pharaoh, having forgotten Joseph and his contributions to Egypt’s greatness, became obsessed with the “Jewish Problem,” subjecting the people to cruel enslavement. Finally, G‑d charged Moses with leading them out of Egypt. After Moses and Aaron spent nearly a year in negotiations with Pharaoh, including G‑d bringing the 10 Plagues upon the Egyptians, the people miraculously left, embarking on their journey to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. Regretting letting the people out, Pharaoh led his special forces to pursue them. Encamped around the Red Sea, the people found themselves trapped.

A well-known Midrash elaborates on this part of the story, providing insight into the mindset of our ancestors at that crucial moment.

Caught between the sea ahead and the Egyptian army behind them, the people were divided into four camps, each with its own strongly held opinion on what to do next.

(Jews are always divided into many groups—as they say, “two Jews, three opinions” – it’s what makes life interesting!)

The question at hand was, “What are we going to do? There’s a sea in front of us, a fierce Egyptian army behind us, and a lot of bad memories within us.”

The first group said, “Let us all plunge into the sea—at least we’ll die by our own hands. We’ll die free people.” Mass-suicide with dignity.

The second group said, “Let us just surrender. Let’s raise a big white flag, give ourselves up, and go back to Egypt.” Being enslaved, they reasoned, is better than dying.

The third group said, “What have we got to lose? Let’s fight the Egyptians. We’ll fight to the last drop of blood. At least we’ll have our self-respect.”

The fourth group said, “Let us all pray. Let us turn to heaven and say, ‘G‑d, we can really use your help right about now.’ ” As we used to say during the ‘60s, “LSD” – “Let’s Start Davening.”

But then, an interesting thing happened: Moses rejected all four options. “Don’t be afraid!” he reassured them. You have nothing to fear but fear itself:

“Stand firm and see the L‑rd’s salvation that He will wreak for you today, for the way you have seen the Egyptians is [only] today, [but] you shall no longer continue to see them for eternity. The L‑rd will fight for you, but you shall remain silent.”1

The Midrash tells us that with those words, Moses addressed each of the four groups:

To those who said, “Let us jump into the sea,” Moses said, “Stand firm and you will see G‑d’s salvation.”

To those who said, “Let us surrender and go back to Egypt,” Moses said, “As you have seen Egypt this day, you shall not see them again, forever. You’re not going back to Egypt.”

To the group that suggested fighting the Egyptians, Moses said, “G‑d shall fight for you, but you will not fight.”

And to the fourth group, those who wanted to pray to G‑d, Moses said, “You shall be silent.” As we say in Yiddish: Shah shtil! Zog gornisht!

So there went all four ideas, all four philosophies. The correct answer was “E, none of the above.”

What, then, were the people supposed to do?

Move Forward!

The answer is found in the very next verse. “Speak to the children of Israel,” G‑d said to Moses, “and let them travel.” 2

What should the Jews do? Move forward!

There was no need for a meeting of the minds to decide on a plan of action. The people had already been given their marching orders, and all that was required was to keep moving. When G‑d appeared to Moses at the Burning Bush, He said, “When you take the people out of Egypt, you will worship G‑d on this mountain.”3 So, whether there is a sea in front of you, a massive army behind you, or both, keep moving toward your goal. The goal from day one had been Mount Sinai. From the beginning, the mission had been to receive the Torah and to become a G‑dly people. Keep progressing toward your goal. And if there’s a sea before you, or an army behind you, that’s G‑d’s problem. G‑d will have to deal with it.

How does this differ from the philosophy of the group that advocated jumping into the sea in a Masada-style mass suicide? The distinction lies in whether your focus is on the threat or on the goal. The people wanted to jump into the sea rather than fall into the hands of the Egyptians. Moses was telling them to walk into the water because continuing on was how they’d get to Mount Sinai.

The Rebbe takes this a step further, explaining that this lesson applies to the mindset of the Jewish people throughout the ages, both collectively as a nation and in our individual circumstances. We constantly face challenges, threats, and problems, and we may not know where to turn because each option seems to have a deterrent. We always have these four voices within us. Go forward? There’s a sea in front of you. Turn back? There’s an army behind you. There seems to be nowhere to go.

The answer remains the same, “Move forward!” Don’t get distracted. Don’t try to combat negativity. Clearly define your goal: Mount Sinai. Move forward regardless of obstacles.

Sounds impossible? In G‑d’s world, nothing is impossible. In the world of Torah and in the world of mitzvot, when it comes to the mission of the Jewish people, nothing is impossible.

Get to work—keep going!—and leave the rest to G‑d.

Improbable Jewish Revival

This parshah is often read in proximity to the auspicious day of the 10th of Shevat, marking the yahrtzeit of the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, of righteous memory. It’s also the day the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—assumed the mantle of leadership of Chabad.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok was Rebbe for three pivotal decades: the 1920s, which saw the rise of Communism in the Soviet Union; the 1930s, marking the ascent of Nazism and the onset of the Holocaust; and the 1940s, during which he miraculously escaped war-torn Europe and relocated to the United States. Once in the U.S., he continued to do all he could to support his brethren in the Soviet Union and Europe, and he threw himself into the fight to revive Judaism in America and globally.

The Previous Rebbe endured unimaginable adversity. Arrested in 1927 by the Soviet regime, he was subjected to brutal beatings in prison and ultimately sentenced to death. Although they had every intention of executing him, he miraculously survived. Forced to emigrate, he left the Soviet Union in 1928 for Latvia, later resettling in Poland, where he was living when Germany invaded in September 1939, marking the start of WWII. After spending the High Holidays of 1939 in bomb shelters in Warsaw, he embarked for the United States on the last passenger ship to leave Europe. Arriving on the shores of America in the spring of 1940, he was a physically broken man, confined to a wheelchair.

When he was wheeled off the ship at the pier in the New York Harbor, many likely thought, “Thank G‑d this great man survived; now we’ll find him a nice convalescent home, and he’ll be able to retire.”

It probably did not occur to anyone that he would want to continue his work on behalf of the Jewish People. After all, this was America, a sea of assimilation. To think that America could be the new land where Judaism would thrive was an impossible dream.

Yet, with war, persecution, and oppression behind him and the sea of assimilation before him, what was the wheelchair-bound Rebbe’s first statement? The Rebbe proclaimed, “I came to the shores of these United States to show that America is no different!” The Rebbe asserted that Judaism could flourish in America and serve as a foundation for its resurgence throughout the world.

“Move forward!” said the Rebbe, echoing G‑d’s instruction three millennia before. Despite whatever is going on around us, a Jew’s goals, aspirations, and mission never change. Whether we find ourselves in Russia, Latvia, Poland, or America—we move forward towards Mount Sinai.

And he went right to work. After establishing a Chabad yeshiva in New York to train a fresh cohort of soldiers in his spiritual army (founded on his first day in the United States!), he immediately began sending shluchim (emissaries) to cities across America. And when the Seventh Rebbe succeeded his father-in-law, he expanded this effort, dispatching shluchim all over the world.

We only need to look around today to see that so many years later, the shluchim are still fulfilling the Rebbe’s mission. To paraphrase the “Ufaratzta” theme song adopted by the Rebbe from a verse in Genesis, they have spread forth to the east, to the west, to the north, and to the south. These emissaries are reaching out to Jews wherever they may be, bringing comfort and encouragement, education and wisdom, and a life of Torah and mitzvot.

A Family Affair

This is deeply personal for me because my parents, Rabbi Sholom B. Gordon and Rebbetzin Miriam Gordon, of blessed memory, were present at that pier in 1940 when the Previous Rebbe disembarked. My father was 18 years old, and my mother was 15. Their families were both among the early Chabad Chassidic families to immigrate to New York.

My mother often shared with me that standing there on the pier, she resolved, “I am in. I am going to become a soldier in the army of the Rebbe. I am going to devote my life to being an emissary of the Rebbe.”

And my father did the same. He was one of 10 students that enrolled in the Rebbe’s new yeshiva that day. In fact, it was only two years later, in 1942, at the tender age of 20, when my father was sent by the Previous Rebbe to Newark, N.J., to establish a new yeshiva.

And how did that work out? My parents merited to be emissaries of the Previous Rebbe and later emissaries of the Rebbe for well over 50 years. They established Jewish institutions in various parts of N.J. and in Springfield, Mass., and produced many disciples, and disciples of disciples. Remarkably, my parents have descendants—children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren—who continue as emissaries of the Rebbe in diverse locations such as Huntsville, Alabama; Salem, Oregon; New Orleans, Louisiana; London, England; Munich, Germany; Tasmania, Australia; and more.

“America is no different!” Always move forward towards Mount Sinai!

If ever we are faced with challenges, feel overwhelmed, or are uncertain about the way forward, let us recall our mandate: don’t jump into the sea in front of you, don’t wave a white flag in surrender, don’t start a fight, and don’t even stop to pray! Instead, just move forward. Get to work. Move towards your goal: help a fellow Jew put on tefillin, ensure that a Jewish girl lights Shabbat candles, invite others into your home and into your heart.

May we merit to see the fulfillment of all of G‑d’s promises with the coming of our righteous Moshiach, who will usher in the Ultimate Redemption, may it happen speedily in our days! Amen.