We search for the strength to face what is difficult right now and not fall into the collapsing energies of fear and despair. Ozi vezimrat Yah. “The Lord is my strength and song (Exodus 15:2),” the Israelites sang after their salvation at the Red Sea. They knew something about facing impossible situations.
My Strength
Starting with oz, strength, my strength comes from God. Strength is the antidote to fear, what supports us in our capacity to move forward even when we are afraid. And there is so much fear in the story of the splitting of the Sea. The Israelites have fled from Egypt and, as they reach the Red Sea, they turn around to see their slave masters running after them in full force and furor. Imagine the scene for yourself, what it must have felt like to stand with the impenetrable Sea before you and the storming Egyptian troops behind you, turning one way and then the other, feeling trapped and terrified, nowhere to escape to.
(Almost) Drowning in the Waters
We are easily overwhelmed by such fear. It can feel like we are drowning in a Sea, like that Sea of water before the Israelites; that’s how intense our fear can be. One Psalm (traditionally associated with the Red Sea experience) describes it this way: “Save me, O God, for the waters have reached my neck. I am sinking into the slimy deep and find no foothold. I have come into the deep waters and the flood sweeps me away” (Psalms 69:2-3). That is indeed how it feels sometimes, like we are sinking into the deep waters of fear or anxiety or despair with no foothold, swept away by the flood of emotion. That’s how it must have felt for the Israelites as they stood before the Sea, and then as they entered the waters, which, according to the midrash, did not actually part for them until they were up to their noses in water (Midrash Shemot Rabbah 21:10).
The Strength That Carries Us Through
And yet they made it through to the other side of the Sea to safety. They were not flooded and swept away. They strode forward with faith and strength, and the waters of fear parted before them, paving a way forward through the difficulty. Where does such strength come from? Ozi vezimrat yah. It is divine strength that flows through us in such moments, a strength that we didn’t know we had, a strength from beyond this world, from beyond the rational, logical mind that assesses the situation and the risks, a strength that lives inside us despite the raging waters of fear that also live in us, or perhaps right alongside them, accompanying them.
I invite you to taste this strength, ozi, in your own body. Ozi, “my strength” – it is somehow both my own inner strength and also the strength of God. It is the particular version of divine strength that manifests in me, in my deepest essence, in my Higher Power, not the normal conscious level of human parts and calculations and trauma and trepidations, but some higher force that was planted in me long ago, the power to do what seems impossible and overwhelming, the power to step into a raging sea and make my way across unscathed.
What does it feel like to have God’s strength inside you as your strength, ozi? It is as if the might of God’s outstretched arm in Egypt – zeroa netuyah – as if the might of that arm permeates your body. You become a force to be reckoned with, a mighty force that can clear the path before you and give you the courage to keep going despite the fear. God’s strength in you means you are grounded and firm and sturdy like a large rooted tree trunk, and yet you also move, you move with that sturdiness and steadiness, as if a tree could walk, that’s how you stride forward into the swirling waters of life. You walk sure footedly down the middle of a road while all around you arrows and obstacles fly by, attempts to deter you and terrify you, but you, in your oz, in your God-given strength, keep walking, you keep walking, untouched, as the arrows fall useless to either side of you. You stride with confidence and faith, your head held high. No one can stop you. And the path before you clears itself of obstacles before you as the waters parted in the Red Sea before the advancing footsteps of the Israelites. This is God’s strength in you.
Also Song
Ozi vezimrat yah. There is not just oz, strength here, but also zimrah, song. This is important, the move towards song. Sometimes in our fear we think the whole question is one of life and death, of survival. Will we live through this existential threat? Will we survive with the Egyptian army chasing after us to kill us? In a way, one would have thought that strength and victory would be enough, just to live through it, to make it across alive. And yet there is something else that happens here, an eruption into song, a beautiful flowing song of many verses. We are not born into this world just to survive, nor are we saved from danger just to survive. We are born to sing, to manifest, to blossom, to be joyful and creative.
The passage through the Red Sea is like a birth canal. The Israelites are born again onto the shores of the Sea in order to sing and live into the fullness of their creative selves. We, too, are born again each day into the world in order to sing our songs, in order to shine and manifest our unique light. Our fears tend to keep us small and focused on existential issues of survival, but our strength, our oz, is given to us not just to help us survive, but also to help us thrive and grow and create and contribute. This God-given oz, this strength, helps us move forward despite the fear so that we no longer sit huddled in a closet hiding and hoping just to make it through the danger, but we stride out and shine our light and our song bravely into the world.
Feeling the Creative Energy
I invite you again to feel that sense of oz, of strength in your body, that strength that is both your own strength, ozi, and God’s oz in you, the energy of power and confidence and courage that comes from beyond despite the real fears. Let that energy of strength permeate your body again and maybe now sense into its creative aspect as well. Sense into that energy not just as one of survival, but as one of tremendous positive light that wants to manifest through you. Zimrat yah. A song of God. There is a song of God that wants to flow through you. It will take tremendous strength to stay true to it and to sing it no matter what. You are given that strength not just for protection but also for manifestation and creation. God’s mighty force inside you is the same mighty force that created this beautiful world; now there is something that wants to be created through you, too. Feel the power and energy of that creative force flowing throuh you, your own unique light, your own unique divine song. You are light, you are song, you are strong in your light and in your song. Others may reject or denigrate or devalue it, but you stand true to what wants to come through you. Maybe you can let some of that manifesting energy come through you right now, feeling yourself open up like a flower’s petals blossom and open or like a butterfly emerges from its cocoon, spreading its wings for the first time, sharing its glorious colors with a world much in need of color. For this you were born, for this you were saved, brought through the dangerous waters, not just to survive, but to manifest, to sing your song into the world.
Partnering with God
Whose song is it? Whose strength is it? The verse is ambiguous about that – ozi implies it is mine, but zimrat yah implies it is God’s. It is both, always both, the strength and the song are both ours and God’s. This is our task, how we learn to be strong and to sing our songs – through partnering with God. God is looking to find a partner in each of us, to find a house on earth through which to manifest strength and song. We offer ourselves to be filled by that energy, which is always both our own and God’s, the piece of the divine that lives inside us. When we align and partner with God, we are unshakable in our song.
One interpretation (see Abba Shaul in Shabbat 133b) of the word ve’anvehu, a word which comes soon after our phrase in the Song at the Sea – zeh Eli ve’anvenu – is that it, the word ve’anvenu, is made up of ani and hu, me and him, ani ve hu (similar to the Hoshanot prayer, ani ve ho). God and me, ani vehu, God and me in partnership, have the strength to cross the sea and sing a new song. What would it be like to open yourself to that partnership, neither to go it alone nor to completely disappear yourself, but instead to align and connect, letting God manifest through you as you stride through the fearful waters of life’s challenges with a song in your heart and on your lips?
This Is My Salvation
The end of our phrase is Vayehi li lishuah. This has become my salvation. Ozi vezimrat yah vayehi li lishuah. God is my strength and my song, and this has become my salvation. Through opening and aligning with God’s strength and song inside me, I am saved. I am deeply saved from the anguish and trauma and struggle of being a human on this earth by my partnership with God. I am sometimes unsure of my role and purpose in the world. I am sometimes fearful and despairing. But when I am able to feel God’s strength and song inside me, I am saved. I am whole. I am alight with power and song, with confidence and faith. I know why I am here. And yes, parts of me may still be afraid and uncertain. I carry them along through the waters with strong arms of love and faith, my own and God’s. I, together with all my fearful parts, am saved by this partnership. I am saved by the divine strength and song inside me.
Again and Again
And I am saved not once, but many times, again and again. I fall and am saved; I fall and am saved. This phrase, ozi vezimrat yah vayehi li lishuah, is the only phrase in the Torah that appears in all three parts of Tanakh, here in Exodus as well as in Isaiah (12:2) and in the Psalms (118:14). It becomes like a mantra for us. We remind ourselves again and again, through our difficulties, that my strength and my song are from God and this is the road to my salvation. It’s ok if we forget. It’s ok if we are fearful and shaky standing between the sea and the Egyptian army. It’s okay if we are insecure and doubtful. We can always return to the divine strength inside us. Return to ozi vezimrat yah.
And maybe as we close, you can return to that sensation in your own body, to the sensation of divine strength surging through all your limbs and your cells, the energy of confidence and sturdiness like a tree, the fierce power of God’s mighty arm, and the flowing waters of the divine song that is yours to sing in this life. You are energized and strengthened. You are capable of crossing that sea, of wading through the waters to the other side to sing. Or maybe (based on the input of my noon meditation group) you are already singing and it is the song itself that girds you with strength to keep walking.
Image by Manfred Antranias Zimmer from Pixabay