We continue with Az Yashir, which is full of lessons, and pasuk יב is no different than the rest.
נָטִ֙יתָ֙ יְמִ֣ינְךָ֔ תִּבְלָעֵ֖מוֹ אָֽרֶץ׃
You tilted Your right hand and the earth swallowed them up.
Says Rashi, when God tilts His hand, the wicked fall and are destroyed- because everything is in God's hands, and it falls with a tilt. He brings a pasuk in Yashaya, and a mashal from Mechilta to prove the point-
When a waiter carries a tray with glasses, if he tilts his hand just a bit, the glasses come crashing down.
If the Israeli army wants to chase down one of the wicked terrorists, they need the IDF, the Mossad and different agencies to work together to find him and wipe him out.
But Hashem doesn't work like that. He doesn't have to find anybody. He has the person hanging on a string. All He has to do is let go, which is an important principle. God is pumping life into everybody at all times. He does not have to extend His hand to catch anyone, He just has to tilt His hand for them to come crashing down. We are in God's hands at all times, and it doesn't take anything for Him to let go. Every second, He's pumping life and energy into creation.
תִּבְלָעֵ֖מוֹ אָֽרֶץ׃
The land swallowed them up-
Rashi says this means they merited to be buried. Why? Because Paroah said, on behalf of the people, Hashem HaSadik. This might explain why it says He tilted the right hand. The right hand always represents kindness. This is another one of the wonders of Hashem, that He's able to both punish and reward at the same time. God does not do anything in vicious, reactive ways. Everything is measured exactly, and everything is just. As it says, “God is a God of trust and loyalty, and there is no iniquity.”
There is a famous commentary that says when a human judge decides a case, he can't take into consideration the impact or repercussions on the wife and family. If the man is a killer, he’s going to die, and his children are raised as orphans. We can't control that.
But God doesn't work that way.
Everything is measured. Even when God is punishing somebody, it’s measured- what they deserve and what they don't deserve.
We see this from the story of the Sotah. It says that she's not the best of ladies, because her husband told her not to be alone with somebody, and she was. It’s undeniable. There were witnesses to that fact. What happened behind closed doors, we don't know. That's what the Sotah waters are there to clarify. And it says that if she didn't sin, she merits to have children.
The obvious question is, this lady is a sinner. Why is she getting rewarded with children? One explanation is, their Shalom Bayit was ruined, and there’s nothing like a child to bring some shalom bayit in, so they can rebuild the marriage. That’s the goal of the whole process to begin with. But Rav Elya Lopian says there's a different lesson. The lesson is that, yes, this lady did something wrong, but at the end of the day, she also did something right. She was alone with another man and she didn’t sin.
So God is able (and it’s almost not humanly possible) to see both the good and bad in the same act. Yes, it was a horrible thing to do, to be an alone in a room with another man. But she could have sinned, and she didn’t, so she is rewarded for the self-control that she exercised, that she didn't sin.
That’s the way God works. As He was drowning the Egyptians, He was also considering whether they deserved burial. That's how exact God's judgment is.
In Parashat Tazria, when it talks about the Tzara’at that goes on the house, it says, before condemning the house, have the vessels removed, because certain vessels get contaminated after being broken, and why ruin those vessels?
What's going on? We're about to destroy this man's $3 million house, and we’re saving some vessels? The answer is, he might deserve to to lose $3 million, but he doesn't deserve to also lose that 35-cent jug that's in the house.
That's how exact in God is in His judgment. And again, that's what we saw at the revelation of Az Yashir.
Have a wonderful day.