בְ צֵ את יִ שְ רָ אֵ ל מִ מִ צְ רָ יִ ם בֵ ית יַ עֲ קֹב
When the Jewish people left Egypt, the house of Jacob...
As the Jewish people miraculously passed through the Red Sea and beheld miracles even greater than those seen in Egypt, they jubilantly sang Az Yashir. The Torah then goes on to describe how Miriam led the women in song, “And Miriam the prophetess, sister of Aharon, took the drum in her hand and all the women went forth after her with drums and dances.”
While the women sang the entire song of Az Yashir as the men did, the Torah chooses to highlight one Pasuk in particular which the women sang: “Sing to Hashem for He is exalted above the arrogant; he hurled horse with its rider into the sea.”
Why does the Torah single out this Pasuk as being sung by the women if they in fact sang the entire Az Yashir? Additionally, while it is understandable that the Egyptian riders drowned in the Yam Suf, what did the horses do to deserve drowning as well?
I once heard a beautiful idea in explanation. Chazal tell us, “In the merit of the righteous women of that generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt” (Sotah 11b). Besides bolstering Klal Yisrael’s spiritual state and population growth throughout the long and harsh exile, the Jewish women remained firmly convinced that Hashem would one day redeem them. It was in the merit of such self-sacrifice and belief that the entire nation was released from slavery.
When the Jewish people later left Egypt and the men took the lead in the forefront, the women began to wonder what had happened. “Wasn’t Klal Yisrael freed in our merit? Shouldn’t we receive equal glory as the men?” It was in response to this that Miriam answered, “Do not think that you are any less important than the men and any less a part of the redemption. To the contrary, it was rightfully in your merit that we were redeemed. Just look at the fate of the Egyptian horses. Why did they drown? Because they enabled the Egyptians to reach us at the Yam Suf. If not for the horses, the Egyptians would have been unable to pursue us. The same is true of us all. Had we not facilitated the redemption and enabled it to come to fruition, we would still be in Egypt. On that account, we have all the reason to be proud and exult.”
We would be greatly remiss if we were to overlook the tremendous degree of gratitude we owe our wives, mothers and sisters for making such a Yom Tov possible. For over three thousand years, they have been the stronghold of Klal Yisrael on all fronts. Creating the infrastructure of the Jewish home within and without, in their merit we were redeemed from Egypt and in their merit we will be soon herald our future redemption.
