Ramban on Beshallach: Tze'aka - Crying Out

We will look at two different comments by Ramban on two different verses relating to the word “tza’ak” – to cry out. Bnei Yisrael were on the banks of the sea, on the cusp of freedom, when they saw Egyptians chasing them. Fearful, they cried out. What does “cry out” mean here, though?

There seems to be a contradiction. On the one hand, they are crying out to God – isn’t prayer a good thing? But on the other hand, they seem to accuse Moshe of leading them to the sea to die. What is going on here?

One possibility is that different groups had different reactions – different attitudes and different types of “cries.” Sadly, though, there can be a psychologically reality wherein people blame the person in the lower position. They may think “God is good, but his servant is messing things up.” That may be why the Torah emphasizes that, at the splitting of the Sea, the people “believed in God and in his servant, Moshe.”