"I will mention the kindnesses of Hashem, the praises of Hashem, according to all that Hashem has bestowed upon us, and the abundant good to the house of Israel that He bestowed upon them according to His mercies and according to His abundant kindnesses." "I will mention the kindnesses of Hashem": the prophet says, I will mention to the people of Israel the kindnesses of Hashem. And I will mention to them the abundant good that Hashem bestowed upon the house of Israel according to His abundant kindnesses and His abundant mercies. The Radak explains that the prophet is essentially speaking about the prophecies, about what the Holy One, blessed be He, shows him regarding what is destined to be. So he says: in order that I may show Israel what is destined to be, I must show them the past. For when I tell you that so-and-so is capable of doing such and such, you ask me what his history is, what his experience is, what his abilities are, and then I must show you his past experience, and from that you conclude that he has the ability for the future as well. So too here he says: when I want to tell you about what is destined to be, how "I will trample nations in My anger and make them drunk in My fury" and so on, I must show you what was in the past, so that from that you will conclude that we are dealing here with the One who possesses all ability and all powers. And this is what he says here: "I will mention the kindnesses of Hashem," I will mention to you the kindnesses that Hashem did in the past, give thanks and praise His name and understand how abundantly kind Hashem was in the face of all your rebellion against Him. And this also gives an explanation as to why the Holy One, blessed be He, would nonetheless exact retribution from the nations. After all, you say "and I looked and there was no helper," you say "and I was appalled and there was none to support," and you explain to us that Israel has no merits, and if there are no merits then why should we believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, will come and redeem us? Says the prophet: "I will mention the kindnesses of Hashem," come and see: was it not so throughout history that the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed us from Egypt even though we were not worthy, even though we had no merits, even though we had not yet received the Torah? And there we see what merits they had at their exodus from Egypt: they had the merit of the blood of the pesach offering and the blood of circumcision. And even these two merits were not merits of any great magnitude, for regarding the blood of the pesach it is written that they did this in order to be saved. They slaughtered the animals in order to be saved and placed the blood on the doorposts. And regarding the blood of circumcision, it is written that they were not willing to circumcise themselves until He gave them, until He brought out for them the scent of Gan Eden, gave it to them at the pesach offering, everyone comes to receive a portion, He says to them first circumcise yourselves, "no foreigner shall eat of it." That is to say, these merits too were not of any great magnitude, and nevertheless we were redeemed. So the prophet says to them: "look now and see the days of old," that even though you had no merits, nevertheless when the conduct of Divine unity is present, then the Holy One, blessed be He, redeems even without merits. So too he tells you: it is fitting to praise and thank Hashem with praises "according to all that He has bestowed upon us"; just as everything He has bestowed upon us, so is the Holy One, blessed be He, destined to bestow upon us in the future, even though then too we had no merits, and today too we have no merits.
The Malbim here explains that from this verse a new topic begins here. He will relate in it lofty matters, how Israel in their distress will recall the wonders that Hashem did for them in days of old, and their spirit will search out why He drew back His right hand. And they begin to wonder: Hashem did such wonders for us, He saved us so many times, why did He stop? Why did He draw back His right hand? Why today are we given over to plunder? And they argue with Him about this. And in the coming chapters we will see the answer of the Holy One, blessed be He, to them regarding this question, why Hashem, as it were, removed His mercies from them, and we will also see consolation for the future, that the Holy One, blessed be He, is also destined to redeem them, and this topic continues, says the Malbim, until chapter 66.
Let us begin: "I will mention the kindnesses of Hashem," I will mention the kindnesses that Hashem did for us in days of old, the miracles and wonders that the Holy One, blessed be He, did for us in ancient years, and through these kindnesses I will also mention "the praises of Hashem, according to all that Hashem has bestowed upon us." What does "according to all that He has bestowed upon us" mean? Says the Malbim: I will praise Him according to His benefactions upon us. What does this mean? We explained at length in the past, both in Nefesh HaChaim and when we learned the Kuzari, that it is not possible to know the Holy One, blessed be He, as He is in His essence. It is not applicable to speak of the Holy One, blessed be He, as He is in His essence, for regarding the Holy One, blessed be He, no thought can grasp Him at all. It is not applicable to know the Creator of the world, to speak of the Creator of the world. What can we speak of? About that which is affected by His power. That is, things that I see through the power of Hashem, then I can speak of His actions. I can say Hashem split the sea. Who is Hashem? I do not know, I do not know Him. And therefore we said that when we want to pray to Hashem, we must say to whom we are speaking. And to whom are we speaking, when we do not understand and do not comprehend? So who is it that comprehended at the high level of the matter? Avraham. So when I stand to pray the Shemoneh Esrei, I say: to whom am I praying? To God. Who is God? Everyone says his idolatry is God. I say: this is the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzchak, the God of Yaakov; they knew Him properly. They reached a deep comprehension of Hashem, blessed be He, so I pray to the One to whom they prayed. This means that to comprehend the Holy One, blessed be He, is not possible. What is possible? I can say what His benefactions upon me are, I can say what kindnesses He did, what actions He bestowed upon the people of Israel, and only from this do we know His praise, blessed be He. Now, do not say that these kindnesses were few; regarding this he says "and the abundant good to the house of Israel," His benefactions upon us were abundant good; and do not say that this bestowal was a bestowal in accordance with our good deeds, "and according to His mercies and according to His abundant kindnesses." Out of mercy and love of the Holy One, blessed be He, toward us and abundant kindness upon us.
Says the Malbim: what is the difference between one who has mercy and one who is abundant in kindness? Says the Malbim: one who has mercy has mercy because he cannot bear to see the distress of his fellow. I cannot see his suffering, and through this I have mercy on him. What does it mean to have mercy on him? To bring him out of the distress. But does he afterward bring him up to heights, to elevated levels? No, what more is there to have mercy about. Fine, he is in a standard state. He is in the state that is called nowadays the intermediate state, right? The middle class. That is it, we are done, I came and had mercy on him because I saw him very low, I brought him out of the distress and it is finished. In contrast, one who does kindness and is abundant in kindness, then it is not only to save from distress, but he also gives much more, and he is abundant in kindness to give even above and beyond. And even if he brought him to a standard state, he is abundant in kindness.
Below is the full transcript of the Torah lesson, word for word, divided into paragraphs:
For him, he adds to him more and more. Besides the salvation from distress, he also gives him great benefit afterward as well. One who has mercy does not seek acknowledgment for the good he did, because mercy, as I said, often when a person has mercy on someone and gives a poor person money for charity, it is not because he truly enters into the poor person's situation, but rather often it stems from his wanting to quiet his conscience. Know that there are many wealthy people who give charity, even gentiles, because they cannot bear that I have so much and I throw away so many good things, while there are people who are dying now in Rwanda because they do not have half a kilo of rice to eat and because of this they died, the whole family. So it is hard for them with this. What is hard for them? What is hard for him? It is hard for him to enjoy the world. So in order to silence his conscience, he gives and supports and helps and gives to others. So for mercy there is nothing to seek acknowledgment, because mercy is something that happens within me and I silence my mercy, my inner pain. In contrast, to one who does kindness one does need to give thanks, because one who does kindness does not come to silence something within himself; one who does kindness comes to bestow upon you. And regarding this, this is what the Holy One, blessed be He, tells us, that He saves the people of Israel, both from the aspect of mercy on the poor and on our difficult situation, on our lowly state, on our suffering, and also from the aspect of His kindness to do good for us with a good that is an extra good, as we explained that one who does kindness does not care only that you come out of distress, he cares to do good for you much beyond.
"And He said: surely they are My people, children who will not deal falsely, and He became their savior." "Surely they are My people": says Rashi, even though it is revealed before Me that they will betray Me, nevertheless they are My people, they are like children who will not deal falsely. The Radak explains that this was when Hashem brought us out of Egypt. For you say "the kindnesses of Hashem that He bestowed upon us," namely that He brought us out of Egypt, so the Holy One, blessed be He, said "they are My people," I took them for Myself from among another people, I took them for Myself as children, so surely they will no longer deal falsely ever. That is to say, they will not change their role, they will always conduct themselves in the way of children. "And He became their savior," since Hashem was our savior, He brought us out of Egypt, so the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, says: I said, after all these salvations, there is no chance that the people of Israel will stray from the way.
The Malbim explains that above we saw that it is written that Hashem bestowed upon us, abundant good to the house of Israel He bestowed upon them according to His mercies and according to His abundant kindnesses. Says the Malbim, corresponding to "according to His mercies," regarding this he says "surely they are My people." Since they are My people, then indeed they are worthy of mercy. And corresponding to "His abundant kindnesses," he says: after all they are children. "Children who will not deal falsely," for children is an even greater level, and as children they are worthy of an elevation, of kindnesses, of good, much more than they are worthy as "My people." And they "will not deal falsely," they will serve Me, they will thank Me following the good that I gave them, following the abundance that I bestowed upon them. And therefore I said "and He became their savior." I said, if so, I will be their savior from now on perpetually.
The Malbim says: children are close to the father from the aspect of birth, and this is greater than "My people," for "My people" is by choice. I choose to attach myself to this people, I choose to be under this king. In contrast, a son never chose his father. So in fact the bond between a son and a father is much stronger than between a people and a king. The people chose the king. And even if they did not choose, in any case as individuals they can leave and go. In contrast, a son cannot. And if so, says the Holy One, blessed be He, "and He became their savior." And following what I said, that they are My people and they are My children, and since they are My people, I have mercy on them, and since they are My children, I even increase kindnesses with them, "and He became their savior." How? "In all their distress He was distressed, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old."
In fact there is here a reading of "lo" with an aleph and a reading of "lo" with a vav. And this is a keri and ketiv. The ketiv is "lo" with an aleph, "in all their distress He was not distressed." And the keri reads it "lo" with a vav, that is, not with an aleph but with a vav. Rashi explains according to the reading of the ketiv. Says Rashi: in all the distresses that He brought upon them, He was not distressed, He did not distress them according to their deeds, as they deserved to receive. Why? Because "the angel of His presence saved them." "The angel of His presence," who is the prince of the presence? This is Matat, mem-tet-tet-resh-vav-nun, usually one does not pronounce his name in full, and some say this is Michael, that Michael is in fact Matat. So he is the angel of His presence, who is the prince of the presence, as it were the one who serves before Him, he saved them. On the mission of the Omnipresent, and then this is considered "the angel of His presence saved them," as it were before Hashem he saved us.
The Radak says that both "lo" with an aleph and "lo" with a vav, both receive meaning here. "In all their distress He was not distressed," with all the distresses that the Holy One, blessed be He, caused upon them, He did not increase distress upon them. This is the meaning of "He was not distressed," He did not do to them the most severe distress. In all the distresses that they had, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not give them over to complete destruction. And another explanation: if we read "lo" with a vav, the meaning according to the keri is "in all their distress He had distress," the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself had distress. As it is written "and His soul grew short over the toil of Israel," that when the people of Israel do not do the will of Hashem, the Holy One, blessed be He, has pain. One can also say "He had distress," the Holy One, blessed be He, had distress, since the people of Israel have distress. And we already spoke of this in Nefesh HaChaim, that when the people of Israel rebel against Hashem, they in fact anger doubly. Once, because the Holy One, blessed be He, said do not do and you do. A second time, because the Holy One, blessed be He, is compelled to bring suffering upon you, and when the Holy One, blessed be He, brings suffering upon us, what does the Shechinah say? "My head is heavy, My arm is heavy," the meaning being it pains Me, it is hard for Me. So twice we anger the Holy One, blessed be He. Once that we rebelled against Him, and a second time that we caused the Holy One, blessed be He, to afflict us, and when the Holy One, blessed be He, afflicts us, He too is afflicted. When we are in exile, the Shechinah is with them in their exile. And through this too, He, the Holy One, blessed be He, has distress.
The Malbim explains: "in all their distress He had distress," even when they were in distress and in exile, He had distress. Since we mentioned that the Holy One, blessed be He, says "they are children," they are My children says the Holy One, blessed be He, then when a person's son suffers, does he not suffer? When his son is pained, is he not pained? So since the Holy One, blessed be He, says "My people, children," they are of the aspect of children, then certainly He, the Holy One, blessed be He, has distress when He sees His children afflicted. And through this, "the angel of His presence saved them." Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, always sent a messenger, the angel of His presence, providence that was attached to them perpetually in order to save the people of Israel.
That is one matter. The second matter: when the time of their redemption arrived, from the distress, from the exile, from that difficult reality in which they were, "in His love and in His pity He redeemed them." In the love and pity of the Holy One, blessed be He, He Himself redeemed them. He Himself brought them out of the distresses. And do not think that this too was through the angel of His presence. Notice: "in all their distress He was not distressed, and the angel of His presence saved them," and "saved them" means that even when they were in distress, they had salvation through the angel of His presence, attached providence always. And afterward when He brought them out of the distress, "in His love and in His pity He redeemed them." Did you notice? Not the angel of His presence redeemed them, but He redeemed them. The Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, not through an angel, "I and not an angel," but He redeemed them, the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself redeemed them.
What is the difference? "The angel of His presence" teaches about hidden miracles. Providence, in the language of the Malbim, wrapped in a natural veil. This is through messengers, not the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, as it were. But here it tells you "He redeemed them," the Holy One, blessed be He, when He redeemed us, it was open miracles, famous miracles, miracles that are not subject to the laws of nature, so they are not hidden. Under the laws of nature is a hidden miracle. Megillat Esther is a hidden miracle. In contrast, the splitting of the Red Sea is a revealed miracle. Hailstones from heaven is a revealed miracle. The redemption was "in His love and in His pity." Says the Malbim, what is the difference between love and pity? Love: I love something from the aspect of its worth. I find interest in the beloved, I have, I see in him virtues, and therefore I have love toward him. In contrast, pity is following mercy on the one pitied. I see his difficult situation, I see his weakness, I see his wretchedness, and then following this I have pity on him. From these two aspects, the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed us, in His love and in His pity. The meaning is: love from the aspect of our worth, and pity from the aspect of the suffering that we suffer, Hashem cannot bear to see our distresses, and therefore He redeemed us. "And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant, and God saw the children of Israel." All this comes to express the pity following the terrible situation in which the people of Israel were immersed, and on the other hand it also teaches about their worth, "and God remembered His covenant, and God saw the children of Israel."
And through this "He lifted them up" from the distress, following the fact that Hashem has pity on us, He lifts us up from the distress. "And He carried them," this is He carried them to loftiness following His love. What does this mean? The Malbim explains that there is a difference between "He lifted them up" and "He carried them." Says the Malbim, "He lifted them up" only shows raising above the ground. I raised him from the ground, this is called "He lifted them up." Yes, He lifted him from the ground. Therefore, incidentally, the netilah is called netilah because with it, that which one raises, or because when one washes the hands one raises them upward. Yes, this is the meaning of "He lifted them up." "He lifted them up" means only to raise the thing, to lift it from the ground. In contrast, "He carried them," "He carried them" expresses also a term of elevation, also a term of importance. Not merely physical raising, it was on the ground, I raised it. But rather I can also carry and elevate you in terms of worth, in a spiritual sense. "He carried them" also expresses importance and elevation. In contrast, "He lifted them up" teaches only about physical raising. And this, incidentally, is also the source of the expression "tiltulah," as it is written "the tiltulah of a man," the wandering of a man is harder than the wandering of a woman, as Chazal expound. This too is from the language of tiltul, from the language of to lift, to raise it from this place and take it to another place. So says the Malbim, see now how wondrous. "He lifted them up," this is the actual raising, that Hashem lifted us, brought us out of the distress. This is following the fact that Hashem had pity on us. He saw us suffering, "He lifted them up," He raised us, He brought us out of the distress. In contrast, afterward, since He has love toward us, then "He carried them," Hashem elevated us to loftiness. For to bring us out of Egypt is enough, this is "He lifted them up." But afterward to give us the Torah, this is already "He carried them." The Holy One, blessed be He, elevated us. And this shows love. And this corresponds to what we said earlier, children. Corresponding to children, "you are children to Hashem your God," then you are worthy of "He carried them." But only from the fact of "you are My people," from the aspect of "My people," then we are worthy only of "He lifted them up," that the Holy One, blessed be He, only saves us, brings us out of the distress, and this is out of pity. But to children there is love, and if there is love then there is "He carried them," elevation that elevates our worth. This is "He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old." Always the Holy One, blessed be He, was our savior in these two ways.
And what did we do? "But they rebelled and grieved His holy spirit, and He turned against them into an enemy, He fought against them." "But they rebelled and grieved His holy spirit." What was the response of the people of Israel? "They rebelled," this is rebellion. "They grieved," the meaning is they angered. After the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed them from the distress, they return and rebel. Whoever remembers what we learned in the book of Shoftim, this is a fixed ritual. That the Holy One, blessed be He, sent us a savior, and the savior saved us, and afterward "and the land was quiet forty years," and then it repeats. Again the people of Israel deteriorate, again the Holy One, blessed be He, brings upon them Yavin king of Canaan, and then "and they cried out to Hashem," and again He sends them a savior, and it repeats. Here you see that after "He lifted them up and carried them," again they anger Him. As we saw "how they rebelled against Him in the wilderness" and how much, as King David writes in Tehillim, how much they angered before Hashem. Even though the Holy One, blessed be He, saved us, they return and rebel against Hashem. "And He turned against them into an enemy," until the Holy One, blessed be He, became of the aspect of an enemy.
The Malbim says: "but they rebelled and grieved His holy spirit," they did not keep to thank Hashem for His kindness. For after all, "I will mention the kindnesses of Hashem," this is what is called for, thank Hashem for your kindnesses. What did they do? They rebelled against Him, they rebelled against Hashem. To rebel means also the language of "to exchange," "he shall not exchange it." To exchange means to replace one thing with another. So they exchanged the Holy One, blessed be He, they rebelled against Him, and they replaced the Holy One, blessed be He, with idolatry. And at the beginning, says the Malbim, "they grieved His holy spirit." What does this mean? Through their rebellion, they caused the Holy One, blessed be He, to punish them. And through this His holy spirit is grieved. As we explained earlier, that there is here a double angering. On the one hand, you did the opposite of Hashem's will. On the other hand, you compelled the Holy One, blessed be He, to strike you. So when Hashem strikes us, it pains Him. Like a father who is grieved when he strikes his beloved son. He has no choice, he must strike him in order to straighten him toward the right path, and on the other hand this causes him pain, that he has to strike him and that he sees his son suffering. So the first thing began with "they rebelled," and afterward when Hashem strikes us, then also "they grieved His holy spirit," you also grieve the Holy One, blessed be He, that He is compelled to strike us. This is the second stage.
In the third stage, "and He turned against them into an enemy." You turned the Holy One, blessed be He, when it reaches such a state, until the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were rejoices over their misfortune. As it is written in the Torah in the rebuke, "and it shall be, just as Hashem rejoiced over you to do you good, so shall He rejoice to destroy you." However, Chazal there expound "He shall rejoice," and does the Holy One, blessed be He, rejoice in the distress of Israel? Chazal expound "He shall rejoice," this is a causative form. He will cause the nations to rejoice over us. The nations will rejoice at our downfall. This is the meaning of "He shall rejoice," but not that the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself will rejoice. But in any case, this already shows a further deterioration. In the fourth stage, "He fought against them." In the next stage, there is already "He fought against them." "He fought against them" means: not only did Hashem leave them in the hand of an enemy, not only does He rejoice over their misfortune, but also in practice the Holy One, blessed be He, brings harm upon them actively. Until their punishment is already a non-natural punishment, it is already by providence, and this is much more severe. The meaning is: a natural punishment, that is to say the Holy One, blessed be He, says I am no longer watching over you. Not watching over you, this is indeed a very difficult distress, but on the other hand, it may be that we will have many periods where things will be good for us. Since there is no providence, then the meaning is that everything is given to the state of nature. So if in the state of nature there is blessing in the land, then we will have blessing. And if by nature there is no blessing in the land, then we will not have blessing. In contrast, when the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were by individual providence brings harm to us, then whatever will be, will be. It may be that everything around will be a calm sea, and our ship will be tossed about in the sea, because there is individual providence, as it were, against the people of Israel. And this is what is written, "unless their Rock had sold them and Hashem had delivered them up." When Hashem delivered them up, there is individual providence for harm, "He fought against them" in the language of the verse, and then it is already much, much harder.
The Malbim explains that there is a difference between "they rebelled" and "they grieved." And he says that you should not think that these are synonymous verbs. "They rebelled" is from the language of rebellion, as we explained. "They grieved," says the Malbim, is connected to sorrow, is connected to pain. Like "they rebelled against Him in the desert, they grieved Him in the wasteland." At the beginning they only rebelled against Him, and afterward when He was compelled to punish them, then He too was grieved in His heart. So in fact, as we said, there is here deterioration after deterioration.
"Then He remembered the days of old, Moshe and His people: where is He who brought them up from the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put His holy spirit within him?" First of all, here it is written "shepherd of His flock." The Minchat Shai says: there is a great and immense dispute among the books, whether it is "shepherds of His flock" with a yud or "shepherd of His flock" with a heh. And the difference is one: whether we are speaking of many or speaking of one. For "shepherd of His flock" with a heh is the shepherd of the flock, that is singular. In contrast, "shepherds of His flock" with a yud, the meaning is those who shepherd His flock. And he brings that this is a dispute between the Ibn Ezra and Rashi, who explain "shepherd of His flock" in the singular, referring to Moshe, versus the Radak and the Abarbanel, who say "shepherds of His flock" refers to the shepherds of Israel throughout the generations, or to Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon, so that we are speaking here in the plural.
"Then He remembered the days of old." Says the Radak: the people of Israel in exile, in the time of distress, the people of Israel remember the days of old, remember days of yore. And they recall how the Holy One, blessed be He, sent Moshe in order to redeem His people. "Then He remembered the days of old, Moshe and His people." What is "Moshe and His people"? So the Radak explains: as if Moshe for His people. As it is written "and he came Yerushalayim," the meaning being "and he came to Yerushalayim." So here too a lamed is missing. "Then He remembered the days of old, Moshe and His people," the meaning being Moshe for His people. How Moshe came to redeem His people. And the people of Israel remember in exile these days. And behold, the people of Israel in Egypt were many, there were among them worshippers of idolatry, and moreover, even when they were already at the time of the redemption, it is written "and distress passed through the sea," the idol of Micah passed with them. And moreover, if you say those were individuals, we know that when they were asked to bring the pesach offering, He said to them "draw and take for yourselves a lamb," withdraw your hands from idolatry. That is to say, even at the time of the redemption there were still worshippers of idolatry. And nevertheless, since the Holy One, blessed be He, saw their affliction, saw their distress, we said the Holy One, blessed be He, had mercy on them. In His abundant love for them, He lifted them up and carried them. And behold, see, this is how it was throughout history. "And God heard their groaning," and the Holy One, blessed be He, redeems them. Were they worthy? They were not worthy. For it is written "open for Me an opening the size of the eye of a needle," there needs to be an arousal from below. Nevertheless, Hashem passed over the entrance. At the exodus from Egypt the Holy One, blessed be He, passed over the "open for Me an opening," and everything was through an arousal from above, everything was from the Holy One, blessed be He. "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt." It is not written "I have seen their merits, I have seen their mitzvot, I have seen," it is not written. "I have seen the affliction of My people." And He did for them signs and wonders and brought them out of Egypt. And nevertheless, when the Egyptians pursue us, the people of Israel did not remember the signs and wonders. "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness?" And nevertheless the Holy One, blessed be He, continued, and passed them through the sea on dry land, brought them up from the sea, and the waters covered their adversaries. And therefore the people of Israel wonder, "where is He who brought them up from the sea?" Where is the Holy One, blessed be He, who did for us such signs and wonders, even though we were not worthy, even though we were not fitting? The Holy One, blessed be He, sent the shepherd of His flock. "Shepherd of His flock" means Moshe and Aharon. And even though we were sinning before Him, now you say that this people sinned before Him, Hashem saved them. And if so, even though we too sin before Him, let Him save us. Why does the Holy One, blessed be He, toward us conduct Himself with such severity? Behold, then the Holy One, blessed be He, saved the people of Israel, even though they had no merits. So the people of Israel ask, "where is He who brought them up from the sea?" Where is the One who brought them up from the sea with the shepherd of His flock, with Moshe, who was the shepherd of Hashem's flock? Where is the Holy One, blessed be He, who brought us up then and did for us miracles? The second question is about the holy spirit and the prophecy that was within us. "Where is He who put His holy spirit within him?" This is prophecy, holy spirit. Where is the Holy One, blessed be He, who did for us so then, where is this today?
The Radak brings that, in contrast, there are those who explain this entire verse as referring to the Holy One, blessed be He. "Then He remembered the days of old, Moshe and His people, where is He who brought them up from the sea," it is not the people of Israel asking all this. It is not the people of Israel saying it; the people of Israel remember the days of old. Rather this refers back to the Holy One, blessed be He. And the Holy One, blessed be He, remembered the days of old, and Hashem remembers Moshe and His people, "where is He who brought them up from the sea," where is Moshe who brought them up from the sea, and so on. This all refers back to the Holy One, blessed be He. So according to the explanation of the commentators and also according to the approach of Yonatan ben Uziel. The Malbim goes, on the other hand, also according to the explanation of the Radak, that this speaks of the people of Israel. And then following this, following the distresses, "then He remembered the days of old." The people of Israel remember the days of Moshe, and begin to recall the miracles that Hashem did in each and every generation, generation after generation, until they arrive at Moshe Rabbeinu. And then they ask "where is He who brought them up from the sea?" Says the Malbim: at that time the Holy One, blessed be He, distinguished the people of Israel in two matters. One matter: miracles and wonders. He did for us miracles and wonders that cannot be estimated or described. All the plagues of Egypt, the exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, an immense wonder. The second matter: the Shechinah among them. Prophecy, holy spirit, the Holy One, blessed be He, speaks with the people of Israel. The Shechinah among them. Says the Malbim: and these two things, these two virtues, are expressed in the verse: "has a people heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard, and lived?" This is about the prophecy that was among them. The second matter, which is the redemption that the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed them, the perpetual providence, the miracles and wonders: "or has God attempted to come to take for Himself a nation from the midst of a nation with trials, with signs, and with wonders?" We had two virtues. "A people heard the voice of God," signs and wonders. And these two virtues we lost. And therefore they say "where is He who brought them up from the sea?" Where is the One who brought them up from the sea, the meaning being the One who brought up the shepherd of His flock, Moshe, who was the shepherd of Hashem's flock. Where is the Holy One, blessed be He, who brought us up then and did for us miracles? The second question is about the holy spirit and the prophecy that was within us. "Where is He who put His holy spirit within him?" This is prophecy, holy spirit. Where is the Holy One, blessed be He, who did for us so then, where is this today?