onebug

something deeply funny about seeing the sages go on about how things become wormy

We return to Exodus and the final exit from Egypt, as well as the initial incidents in the Israelites' wandering.

In this portion we get the parting of the Sea of Reeds; the destruction of Pharaoh's army; the Song of the Sea; the first manna; Moses throwing branches into brackish water to make it sweet; reaching a normal oasis; and the Israelites complaining about dying in the wilderness the entire time.

Discussion jumped around, with a greater focus on some of what Sforno and Robert Alter were saying. We had talk around when the text does and doesn't refer to the Israelites as Hebrews, as well as the way it slides from talking about them as a people v. as an army; how there's a decent amount of work put into dividing the actions G-d takes against the Egyptians does and does not discriminate between civilians versus Pharaoh and his court and soldiers; some of the linguistic and poetic qualities of the Song; how seriously we've always been like this re: complaining; the nuances of how G-d may or may not manifest in the specific; the unusual physical properties of manna and the utility of the omer as a unit of measure¹; and the first appearance of both Moses producing good water to drink as well as the first time a command is given concerning the destruction of an entire people, thus opening the wandering of in the wilderness.

Next week, G-d gives them the Torah

1. which, lest we forget, is one tenth of an ephah, or 43 and 1/5th eggs