We are now in pasuk י
נָשַׁ֥פְתָּ בְרוּחֲךָ֖ כִּסָּ֣מוֹ יָ֑ם צָֽלְלוּ֙ כַּֽעוֹפֶ֔רֶת בְּמַ֖יִם אַדִּירִֽים׃
You Blew with Your wind (with Your breath) and the ocean covered them up. They went down like lead in the waters- the strong ones.
מִֽי־כָמֹ֤כָה בָּֽאֵלִם֙ ה׳ מִ֥י כָּמֹ֖כָה נֶאְדָּ֣ר בַּקֹּ֑דֶשׁ נוֹרָ֥א תְהִלֹּ֖ת עֹ֥שֵׂה פֶֽלֶא׃
Who is like You among the strong ones
(Rashi says El means strong)? Who is like You, strong among the holy? Fearful to praise the One Who does wonders.
‘Fearful to praise,’means, as Rashi explains, that we're afraid to praise God because we might not do the right job. There’s a famous Gemara where a rabbi heard a certain Hazan praying, and besides saying Gadol, Gibor V’Norah, the hazan added a list of additional praises of Hashem, after which, the rabbi asked, “That's all? There’s nothing else to say?”
Similarly, if a man is a multi-billionaire and you call him a multi-millionaire, that's insulting. If he's number one on the Forbes list and you put him as number 10, that's an insult. So, whatever we say about God is ultimately insulting, because we really don't know what's going on.
נוֹרָ֥א תְהִלֹּ֖ת עֹ֥שֵׂה פֶֽלֶא׃
Norah Tehilot, Oseh Feleh/
God does some things in a hidden way , like we say, L’Oseh Nifla’ot Levado Ki LeOlam Hasdo/the One that does wonders in hidden, His kindness is forever.
We have no idea. Despite any Thank Yous that we may say, we don't know what's happening.
The word פלא Feleh, or Nifla’ot means something that's hidden. So, even if we were possibly able to thank God for everything that we see (which is also impossible, like we say in Nishmat), we're scared. God is so powerful and does so much. Anything we might say is too little. They realized this at Az Yashir. They saw God's tremendous strength and what He could do; they realized His unlimited powers, realized there's no way we can ever sufficiently praise Him. So we're scared to praise Him.
The beginning of this pasuk says, “Mi Kamocha Ba’Elim-the word אלים Elim can also be read as Elaim/who is like you, of mutes? What does that mean? A mute is someone who's quiet, who controls himself. All those years in Egypt, we thought God just couldn’t do it. When a bully is picking on someone in the schoolyard the kid that's being picked on thinks his friend can't help him, because he's allowing this to happen.
But then one day, he sees the friend give the bully a karate kick, and he says,“Wow. He was able to do it. He was just holding himself back. He was controlling himself.”
So too, the Jewish people realized that at Keriat Yam Suf. They thought, all those years in Egypt when God wasn't doing anything, that He was just not able to. But then they realized, no, God is able to, but He was holding back. And who is like God, that has the ability to hold back even when He is able to do something, for His ultimate Master Plan? We know that sometimes, it's hard to hold back. Regarding Yosef and the brothers, it says Yosef couldn't hold back. He had to reveal himself to his brothers. But it says that he revealed himself a little too early, and that's why not everything was fixed.
God has the ability to hold Himself back. And when Mashiach comes and we see what God does, we're going to say, “Wow! He could have stopped the Holocaust in the middle if He wanted to. He could stop all the terror in Israel if He wanted to. But He's holding it back. He's working on the פלא Feleh program, the hidden program.”
We don't see what's going on. We don't see why it's good. We don't know why it's good. We don't know what's happening.
These are the understandings that the Jewish people had at Az Yashir, and the goal is that when we sing Az Yashir, we too should arouse these feelings.
Have a wonderful day.