"Thus, on that day, God rescued the Israelites from Egypt. The Israelites saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. The Israelites saw the great power (literally, "hand') that God had unleashed against Egypt, and the people were in awe of God. They believed in God and in His servant Moses. Moses and the Israelites then sang this song to God" (Exodus 14:31-15:1).

And, therefore, we commemorate and celebrate the seventh day of Pesach, in honor of the miraculous events which transpired that glorious day. Right?

Wrong. For the commandment to observe the seventh day of Pesach predates the crossing of the Red Sea by three weeks! If you don't believe this statement, check out chapter 12, verse 16 in which the commandment to observe the seventh day for all generations appears, without any reference to the parting of the sea and the drowning of the Egyptians.

Why is this so? In his classic commentary on the Torah, Meshech Hochma, R. Meir Simcha Hacohen of Dvinsk (1840-1926) explains that "the destruction of our enemies is no reason for declaring a holiday. Therefore, the holiday of Chanukah is observed to commemorate the miracle of the menorah, the resanctifying of the Temple and God's delivery of His people from the religious persecution of Antiochus. Likewise, the holiday of Purim was not declared on the day Haman was hanged (the 16^th of Nisan) nor the day on which the Jewish people annihilated their enemies (the 13^th of Adar). Rather, the observance of the holiday is in memory of the day on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies (the 14^th of Adar). This was the reason Mordechai ordered all Jews for all generations to observe Purim (Esther 9:32), and not for the slaying of 75,000 of their enemies throughout the Middle East and 500 anti-Semites in Shushan alone. Had the holiday been declared in honor of the killings, the nations of the world would not take kindly to Jewish violence against the gentiles. Therefore, Mordechai stressed that the purpose of the fighting was not to kill their enemies, but to enable the Jews throughout the kingdom of Achashverosh to rest and be liberated from those who sought to exterminate them."

Had the commandment to observe the seventh day of Pesach been given after the Egyptians were drowned, we might come to the conclusion that their deaths were the source of our joy. This, according to the Midrash, is, indeed, what happened when the angels sought to sing from happiness as the Egyptians perished. God responded, “My creations are dying in the sea – and you sing happily?" (BT Megillah 10b).

So, then, what was Shirat Hayam, the Song of the Sea all about?

Apparently, the events of that cataclysmic seventh day after leaving Egypt were instrumental in solidifying the Israelites' belief in God, as the abovementioned verse states. For only hours before the miracle, they were singing a different tune entirely:

"As Pharaoh came close, the Israelites looked up. They saw the Egyptians marching at their rear, and the people became very frightened. The Israelites cried out to God. They said to Moses, "Weren't there enough graves in Egypt? Why did you have to bring us out here to die in the wilderness? How could you do such a thing to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we tell you in Egypt to leave us alone and let us work for the Egyptians? It would have been better to be slaves in Egypt than to die in the wilderness. "(verses 10-12).

Why? Hadn't they witnessed the plagues brought down on the Egyptians, especially the tenth plague wherein God passed over their doorposts and singled them out for salvation while their Egyptian neighbors lost their first-born? Could there have been any proof more cogent than the events of that midnight miracle, that God was their protector?

We can only conclude that hundreds of years of slavery had left their impact on the newly freed slaves. While physically emancipated, in their minds and hearts, the mighty Egyptian empire was still very much to be feared. How else can we explain their terror upon seeing six hundred Egyptian warriors approaching, when they themselves, completely armed, numbered 600,000? The midrash describes their wild eyed imagination: "They saw the Warrior of Egypt hovering above" (Shmot Rabbah 28). This horrific "vision", reminding them that they were born miserable slaves, sons of miserable slaves to the supreme taskmaster – and lived under the brutal hand of the king and all his people, left them shaking with fear, rendering them paralyzed both physically and emotionally. Half crazed with terror, they saw death staring them in the eyes and cynically, frantically lashed out at Moses who had taken them out of the fire straight into the frying pan.

The drowning of the Egyptian band of soldiers was far more than the elimination of six hundred enemies. It represented the defeat of Egypt (the Hebrew rendering is in the singular: not bamitzrim, but bmitzraim) as a land, a nation, a culture of persecution.

When they finally realized that the Egyptians no longer had them in a deathly vise, that they were really liberated and on their way to the Promised Land to build the Temple (verse 17 ), intoxicated with the overwhelming feeling of freedom, then, and only then could they break into song. God – their God, the God of their fathers – had proven Himself master of the world and stronger than the mightiest of ancient empires. Again and again, throughout the Song, they express their wonder at the powerful Hand of God.

And they sang a song - not a song celebrating slaughter, but a song of redemption.