"Az Yashir Moshe."-"Then Moshe and the Children of Israel sang a song to Hashem."

These are the famous words that introduce the famous Song of the Sea. After the Jews witnessed the miraculous salvation at the Sea and the loss of the Egyptian armies they were overtaken by joy and gratitude to Hashem. Under the direction of the leader, Moshe Rabbenu, they erupted in song and dance in celebration of the final stage of the Exodus they had just witnessed.

The Midrash points to the word "Az" ("Then") is this song with the following comment: All of Moshe Rabbenu's 'business' was with "Az." He sinned with the word "Az" in Egypt.  At the sea, he repaired the damage with the word "Az" once  again.

Once before Moshe had used the word "Az" in a famous statement. As we know, his first approach to Pharoah, with his request 'Let my people go' was far from successful. Pharoah concluded that the Israelites' were seeking freedom because they were not working hard enough. He immediately increased the intensity of their forced labor, requiring them to find their own raw materials for bricks without lowering the daily work quota. The Jews were obviously distressed at this turn of events and confronted Moshe in this regard. In desperation Moshe turned to Hashem and made his "Az" statement.

"G-d, why have you made it worse for these people," he cried, "UmeAz Basi el Paroh-since then that I have come to Pharoah to speak in Your Name, things have only become worse for these people and you have not saved them."

The Midrash is clearly not just making a play on words. So there must be a deeper message in the word "Az."

"Az"-just like its English equivalent "then"-is a word that can be used to denote the past or the future, but never the present.

Moshe's mistake was in fact in failing to see how the past and future were intricately linked. No question about it, things had become much worse after his first audience with the Pharoah. But was there not a reason why the conditions of the slavery had deteriorated?

The initial decree was of 400 years of servitude. This is how it had been predicted to Abraham, several centuries earlier, "Your descendents will be strangers in a land that is not their, and they will serve them and be tortured by them for 400 years. Then they will leave with great wealth."

To date the Children of Israel has spent just over two centuries in Egypt.

So there were basically two choices: They could remain in Egypt another couple of hundred years. A clearly better option was for the conditions of the slavery to become so harsh and unbearable that they could do close to 200 years' worth in a much shorter time. Hashem, in his kindness, allowed the pain to get worse only in order to get His People out of Egypt far sooner then His original plan had been.

So sure, the pain was unbearable. But there was a reason for it. And Moshe's failure lay in not connecting "Az" with "Az"-"then" past and "then" future.

How often are we tested, tried and challenged by the Almighty only for our reaction to be, 'how unfair, how terrible, how cruel, how could Hashem do this to me?" Are we also not guilty of failing to make the "Az" link? Are we not being shortsighted, failing to see what is the real purpose of the pain and suffering?

Thus, said the Midrash, at the Sea, Moshe Rabbenu fixed up his mistake. He made an effective "Az" link. He sang a song of praise that begain "Az Yashir." Our commentaries point out, the word "Yashir" is actually worded in the future. Thus the sentence can be understood as 'Then Moses sang" but also as "Then Moses shall sing."

At that point he was not only singing a song about the miracles that had just happened. He was also singing the Song of the Redemption to come in the future, the era of Moshiach. Moses was able to see that the Redemption from Egypt and the future Redemption are two events that are connected with one another. The Exodus from Egypt is the source and the root of all redemptions in the future, up until and including the Messianic redemption.

And there, at the Sea, they witnessed G-dly revelation is unprecedented ways. "The Jews saw the Great Hand of Hashem." In the words of the Talmud, even maidservants saw there what Jeremiah was never able to behold. The experience there was in fact a foretaste of the era of Moshiach.

When he sang a song past and future-"then" and "then"-"Az" and "Az"-he made that link that he had failed to create back in Egypt a few months earlier.

And his mistake was fixed up.

May we learn to make the "Az"-"Az" link in our own lives and may we speedily sing and dance with Moshiach himself!

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