BeShalach
In Parashat BeShalach we read about the outburst of excitement and song that the Jewish people sang when they saw Yam Suf split and their pursuers drown. We say this song of ‘VaYosha Hashem’ and ‘Az Yashir Moshe’ everyday in our prayers. The Torah tells us that even the ladies broke out into song. In one of the pesukim in the song, we say ‘VaYar Yisrael Et HaYad HaGedola Asher Asa Hashem BiMitzrayim’. In English this means, the Jewish people saw the great hand of G-d in Egypt. Rashi explains this and says that the Jewish people saw "Et HaGebura HaGidola", the great strength, "Shasa HaKadosh Baruch Hu" that G-d carried out. The Jewish people saw how G-d decimated that Egyptian army, and it was testament to G-d’s ‘Yad Hagidolah’, G-d’s great strength.
The Rabbis tells us that there might be another lesson from this Pasuk where it says ‘Yad HaGedola.’ If we go all the way to the beginning of the redemption, it began with the birth of Moshe Rabenu which was some 80 years before this episode. Moshe Rabenu was born at a time when there was a decree that all Jewish newborn boys be thrown into the Nile River. So Moshe’s mother placed him in a basket and put him into the Nile River hoping for the best. Chachamim tell us that precisely at that moment, Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh, went down to bathe in the Nile and saw the basket. The basket was out of her reach, but she made an effort nonetheless to try and recover the basket. And when she stretched her hand out to try and grasp the basket, the Gemara says that a miracle took place and her hand extended a few feet, or even more than that, enabling her to retrieve it. That was a miracle that Bore Olam performed in order to save Moshe Rabenu to ultimately save the Jewish people. So when the Jewish people were leaving Egypt it was possible that they were not only thanking G-d for the present miracles they were witnessing, but it was probably a time of reflection and appreciation for all the miracles that took place to get them to this point. And maybe that is what it means when the pasuk says ‘VaYar Yisrael Et HaYad HaGedola’. The great hand in this sentence could be referring to the great hand that G-d bestowed upon Batya. So the Jewish people were acknowledging the great miracle that G-d has performed 80 years prior which was the beginning of the redemption.
So the lesson we could learn from this is to not only thank G-d for the current good given to us, but it is to always also reflect on all the gifts that G-d gave to us in the past as well. One should say Thank You Bore Olam for the present Berachot bequeathed, and also thank G-d for the many other Berachot given in the past, and given to bring about one’s current status. As the pasuk writes, ‘‘VaYar Yisrael Et HaYad HaGedola’, and the Jewish people thanked G-d for an event that took place 80 years before, which was the extended hand, the great hand given to Batya who saved Moshe Rabenu, the ultimate redeemer.
