פָּרָשַׁת בְּשַׁלַּח

Parshat Beshalach tells of the splitting of the sea and the first weeks in the wilderness. Hashem leads the people the long way, by the wilderness toward the Yam Suf, in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night; Moshe carries the bones of Yosef. Pharaoh regrets sending his slaves away and pursues with six hundred chariots. Trapped between the army and the sea, the people cry out and say they should have stayed in Mitzrayim; Moshe tells them to stand and see the salvation of Hashem. Moshe lifts his staff, an east wind splits the sea, Yisrael walks through on dry land between walls of water, and the sea returns over Pharaoh's army — not one remains. Moshe and the people sing Shirat HaYam, and Miriam leads the women with drums.

Then the tests begin: bitter water at Marah, sweetened by a tree; the people's hunger in the wilderness of Sin, answered by quail in the evening and manna in the morning — an omer each, a double portion on the sixth day, and none on Shabbat, the first Shabbat the nation keeps; thirst at Refidim, answered by water from the rock, and the place is named for their quarrel and their question, "Is Hashem among us or not?" Amalek attacks at Refidim; Yehoshua fights while Moshe's raised hands are held up by Aharon and Chur, and Hashem declares a war against Amalek from generation to generation. Shabbat Beshalach is Shabbat Shirah; perakim 13:17–15:26 are read on the seventh day of Pesach, and the Amalek passage on Purim.