The 7th Day of Passover commemorates the Splitting of the Sea during the Exodus, therefore the Torah Reading has the Song of the Sea. Interestingly, the paragraph “Vayosha” (about our salvation at sea) and the “Oz Yashir” song at the Sea made its way into our daily liturgy, said each morning in the “Peskudei d’Zimra” Shacharit prayer. Why do we say this every day? What’s the importance or relevance of saying this everyday in our prayers?
I think it’s because it’s “The Unstuck Prayer”.
Imagine the scenario. Pharaoh is closing in with his armed forces, soldiers on chariots, and the Jews are standing in front of the sea. Like the old expression, “between a rock and a hard place.” They had no options! (The Rebbe has a very rich insight about the Midrash’s 4 groups/opinions at the Sea but that’s a discussion for another time). The Jews felt stuck, they felt trapped. They had nowhere to go!
Often in life we may feel the same way. Some may feel stuck in a bad job, in a lousy marriage, trapped in a situation they have little or no control over. Feeling trapped is a dangerous psychological place to be. Animals can do wild things if they feel trapped or cornered, and so can people. The problem is that we usually see Option A and B, and both seem no good. Like the Jews at the Exodus, we fail to see or even imagine Option C (pun intended).
Perhaps the reason we say recount and relive this experience each day in our prayers is to instill within us the sense that we are never stuck. We are never trapped. There’s always a way out. There’s bound to be some way that we can rise above this situation or grow out of it.
Think this every day. Remember the unstuck message daily, so that it will be instilled and installed in our minds for that time when we feel trapped or cornered and don’t see a way out of life’s challenging situations. Never give up. Keep hope alive, always, no matter what.