When the Lord came to claim
About This Entry
This is a yotser for the Sabbath immediately after Passover, when, in the past, a portion beginning with Exodus 15:22 was read from the Torah. A yotser is meant to be recited inside the blessing before the Shema‘ that begins “He who creates (yotser) light.” The first day of Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, and the last day commemorates the splitting of the Red Sea; the reading continues the narrative by describing the first days of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. The stanzas of this poem conclude with quotations from successive verses of this biblical passage, usually consecutively, but sometimes skipping certain verses, presumably for the sake of brevity.
Happy is the people for whom it is thus. Happy are they who observe the Sabbath in proper accordance with the law. They will be spared from three disasters and find healing: from the birth-pangs of the messiah, from the war of Gog and Magog, and from the judgment of hell, according to the word of the lofty and holy One.
Notes
[I.e., God freed the Israelites by taking the deed of servitude that enslaved them to Pharaoh and showing that it had been paid up.—Trans.]
[According to rabbinic tradition, the jewels and riches on Pharaoh’s chariots washed up on the shore; the Israelites wanted to stay there and collect more treasure, not travel onward into the wilderness.—Trans.]
[Water here is a metaphor for Torah study, based on the Mekhilta, which interprets the three days without water in Exodus 15:22 as meaning that the people went three days without engaging in Torah study.—Trans.]
[I.e., Torah.—Trans.]
[I.e., the unleavened bread that they had brought from Egypt.—Trans.]
[I.e., Moses.—Trans.]
[Exodus 16:22; the expression leḥem mishneh is usually understood as “double bread,” but in Tanḥuma Beshallaḥ 24, the rabbis explain it as “different bread,” whose taste and aroma was better than that eaten during the week.—Trans.]
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.
