Parshas Beshalach - Why did the Yam Suf split when it saw the coffin of Yosef?

The passuk says at the beginning of this week’s sedrah (13:17 – 18)

וַיְהִי בְּשַׁלַּח פַּרְעֹה אֶת הָעָם וְלֹא נָחָם אֱלֹקִים דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ פְּלִשְׁתִּים כִּי קָרוֹב הוּא כִּי אָמַר אֱלֹהִים פֶּן יִנָּחֵם הָעָם בִּרְאֹתָם מִלְחָמָה וְשָׁבוּ מִצְרָיְמָה. וַיַּסֵּב אֱלֹקִים אֶת הָעָם דֶּרֶךְ הַמִּדְבָּר יַם סוּף וַחֲמֻשִׁים עָלוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.

And it was when Pharoh sent the people and Hashem did not lead them the way of the land of the Pelishtim although it was close because Hashem said, “Lest the people repent when they see war and they will return to Mitzraim.” And Hashem turned the people aside through the desert the way of the Yam Suf, and the Jewish people came armed out of Mitzraim.

The passuk continues (13:19)

וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת עַצְמוֹת יוֹסֵף עִמּוֹ כִּי הַשְׁבֵּעַ הִשְׁבִּיעַ אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד אֱלֹקִים אֶתְכֶם וְהַעֲלִיתֶם אֶת עַצְמֹתַי מִזֶּה אִתְּכֶם.

And Moshe took the bones of Yosef with him, because Yosef had made the Jewish people swear saying, “Hashem will surely remember you and you will bring up my bones from here with you.”

• What is the connection between the benei yisrael being led by a circuitous route because they were scared of a war with the Pelishtim and Moshe bringing out the bones of Yosef from Mitzraim?

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein z”l explains as follows:

The Yalkut Shimoni says (תהלים פרק קי"ד)

[הים ראה וינוס, מה ראה הים.] ראה ארונו של יוסף יורד לים, אמר הקב"ה, ינוס מפני הנס, שנאמר ויעזוב בגדו בידה וינס ויצא החוצה.

The passuk says, “The see saw and it fled.” What did the sea see? It saw the coffin of Yosef descending into the sea. Hashem said, the see should flee before the fleer, as the passuk says “And he abandoned his garment in his hand and he fled and he went outside.”

The simple meaning of this medrash is that  when Yosef left his garment in the hands of Potiphar’s wife, he put himself on the wrong side of the law. Henceforth he would be subjected to the law for criminal’s, who are not part of general society. As a reward for this מסירות נפש, the benei yisrael were able to cross the Yam Suf, leave behind them their subjugation as slaves under Egyptian law, and receive a new law, which was the Torah that Hashem gave us at Har Sinai.

However, the medrash can also be understood in the following way:

Hashem can bring a ישועה in two different ways. Either things can gradually improve till the problem is solved, or things can get worse and worse until all of a sudden the situation is unexpectedly resolved, as happened for example with the נס פורים.

Yosef knew that his dreams would be fulfilled, and Yosef also knew that if he ran away from Potiphar’s wife that he would be placed in gaol. Therefore when Yosef ran away from Potiphar’s wife, he trusted in Hashem that he would experience the second type of ישועה, where things would get worse and worse and all of a sudden the situation would be resolved, as indeed happened when he came out of prison to become the viceroy of Mitzrayim.

Similarly, when the benei yisrael entered the split sea, the sea became angry with them and wanted to drown them, as the medrash says (ילקוט ראובני בשלח סי' פ"ב, פ"ט)

והמים להם חומה, אל תיקרי חומה אלא חמה, שבשעה שנכנסו ישראל לתוך הים, עמד סמאל לפני ה' ואמר הללו עובדי עבודה זרה והללו עובדי עבודה זרה. מדוע אתה מציל את ישראל ומטביע את המִצרים בים.

And the water was to them a wall – do not read a wall (חומה) rather read anger (חמה). Because when the benei yisrael were crossing the Yam Suf, the satan stood before Hashem and said, “Both the benei yisrael and the Mitzrim served avodah zarah. Why should you save the benei yisrael and drown the Mitzrim?”

We see from this medrash that it was actually dangerous for the benei yisrael to enter the split Yam Suf, because השטן מקטרג בשעת סכנה. Nevertheless the benei yisrael were saved and went on to receive the Torah, and the Mitzrim were drowned.

In this way we can understand that when the medrash says that the benei yisrael were saved in the zechus of Yosef, the medrash means that in the zechus that Yosef placed himself in a bad situation, from which he trusted he would be suddenly and unexpectedly saved, so too the benei yisrael were placed in danger at the bottom of the sea, from where they were miraculously saved and from where they went on to receive the Torah.

Had the benei yisrael gone via the land of the Pelishtim and fought their way through, this would have been the first type of ישועה, where things would have become better and better as the benei yisrael approached Eretz Yisrael, until finally they would have conquered the land. However, in the zechus of Yosef, they received the second type of ישועה, where they were led into a desolate and dangerous midbar, experienced many nissim and unexpectedly entered Eretz Yisrael when the Yarden later split.

That is why the passuk of וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת עַצְמוֹת יוֹסֵף עִמּוֹ follows the passuk of וַיַּסֵּב אֱלֹקִים אֶת הָעָם דֶּרֶךְ הַמִּדְבָּר יַם סוּף.