After the final victory over the Egyptians, who drowned in the waters of the Red Sea, the Torah describes that the Children of Israel gathered all the wealth of Egypt until "Moshe led Israel from the Red Sea" and Rashi explains: "he led them against their will." Moshe forced Israel to stop gathering wealth and continue on the road to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. Why did the Children of Israel need so much wealth? When they left Egypt, says the Gemara, each of them had 90 donkeys loaded with the silver and gold of Egypt. All this took place even immediately after Israel received the sublime manifestations of the miracles of the partition of the Red Sea, however they searched for the spoil until Moshe forced them to leave it, because the whole objective of leaving Egypt was to reach Har Sinai for the giving of the Torah. Why did they delay in order to gather wealth? And what can we learn from this for our daily service to G-d?
The zeal of the Children of Israel was not directed at riches at all, they fervently desired to fulfill the will of G-d. Upon leaving Egypt, the Children of Israel received the mandate to take silver and gold objects from the Egyptians, until they left them "empty of their wealth." Each Jew strove to take as much of the Egyptian riches as possible, 90 donkeys. When the Children of Israel saw, after the Egyptians drowned, that they had not yet fulfilled the mandate of G-d completely, because there was a large quantity of silver and gold from the Egyptians in the sea, they began to gather these riches. It was precisely the visible and the sublime of the partition of the sea that ignited in them the desire and ardor to strengthen themselves to do the will of G-d and to fulfill in the best possible way the "emptying of Egypt".
In the books of Chassidus it says that by gathering the riches of Egypt, the Children of Israel raised the Divine sparks that were hidden in Egypt and corrected them. If the Jew uses the wealth that G-d gives him correctly, he makes it a tool to reflect HaShem's light. Like the Mishkan in the desert, which Israel was privileged to build with the same money that they raised at the sea. In the same way, we will prepare, in the best way, ourselves and the whole world to receive our righteous Mashiach soon in our day.
