The Sabbath of Song

The Shabbat on which Beshalach is read is called Shabbat Shirah for the Song of the Sea, chanted to a special melody; the song is also embedded in the daily morning liturgy. The crossing of the sea became the archetype of divine deliverance at the last moment, and the manna, the water from the rock and the war with Amalek supplied later tradition with enduring images of dependence on God and of implacable enmity.

The battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:8-16), in which Israel prevails only so long as Moses' hands remain raised, supported by Aaron and Hur when he tires, is read by rabbinic commentary, including a statement in the Mishnah, as teaching that Moses' hands held no independent power but functioned to direct the people's hearts toward heaven, victory following not from the gesture itself but from the faith it prompted. God's oath of enduring hostility toward Amalek 'from generation to generation' (Exodus 17:16) established a distinct category in later Jewish law and memory, Amalek read not merely as a historical enemy but as a recurring symbol of gratuitous cruelty. Water struck from the rock at Massah and Meribah (Exodus 17:1-7), given in response to the people's complaint against Moses, closes the portion on a note commentators read as anticipating a strikingly similar but consequential episode decades later in the book of Numbers, when a comparable complaint and a comparable striking of a rock instead costs Moses entry into the land.