B"H
Parshath Beshallach
By Yitzhak Kolakowski
-------------------

Pharaoh asked "Mi HaShem?"  Who is HaShem?  He denied HaShem's
existance.  HaShem then turned around Pharaoh's denial by turning
around his question.  "Mi" (Mem Yud) became "Yam" (Yud Mem).
Pharaoh's ways were turned around at the Yam, and so was his
question.  (Based on a tape of my Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, shlit"a, 
on last week's parsha).

-----------

The Red Sea was on one side, and the Egyptians were quickly
approaching on the other.  As one Rabbi I know would jokingly say in such a
situation, "Well, the first thing I would do is cry."  Indeed, we
have to cry to HaShem in all of our sorrows.  This is what Moshe
Rabbenu was doing, davening to HaShem.  But HaShem said "Why do you
cry to Me?  Tell the Jewish people to go foward!"  (Ex. 14:15).
Rashi explains that HaShem told Moshe "Now is not the time to
lengthen your prayer, when Israel is in trouble."  Let's examine
what HaShem said, "Now is not the time to LENGTHEN your prayer",
meaning that Moshe should have uttered a prayer, albeit a short one.
Why should he have at all?  Because we must always recognize that
everything comes from HaShem.  Indeed, at many times it is a good
thing to daven for a long time, as the Gemara in Brachoth says "It
would be good if a person would daven all day long", however in time
of dire trouble and immediate trouble in front of us, when there is a
question as to whether to act or to daven, we should recite a short
prayer (even while acting), but certainly act.

Many times it seems that the Egyptians are attacking us from one side
and there is just the sea on the other side.  Our Yetzer Hara places
us between a rock and a hard place, and we feel like there's no way
out.  Indeed, the word "Mitzrayim" (Egypt) means to be stuck with
seemingly no way out.  In our lives we must daven to Hashem that He
should grant us the strength to overcome any Yetzer Hara we face, but
sometimes when we are so close to doing a sin, chas veshalom, we must
just "go foward", running away from the sin without thinking about
it.  "They have only to go forward, for the sea does not stand in
their way" (Rashi)  Jump into the sea of Torah, and Hashem will do
great miracles for you.

Gut Shabbos.