What are the connotations of "Natisa Yeminecha"?
Rashi: Everything lies in the Hand of Hashem. He has only to bend (incline) it, and they fall. 1
Rashi: As the Pasuk states in Yeshayah 31:3. This can be compared to glass vessels that someone is holding in his hand. He has only to bend his hand, and they fall and break.
Seeing as the Egyptians died in the sea, why did the earth swallow them?
Rashi and Ramban #1 (both citing the Mechilta): From here we learn that they merited burial - because they proclaimed "Hashem ha'Tzadik!" 1
Ramban #2: After the sea covered the Egyptians and killed them, it spat them out on to dry land 2 (in the way that the sea generally does), and the land caused them to decay and to perish. 3
Targum Yonasan: The earth and the sea were quarreling over who should take in the Egyptian corpses; the sea told the land to accept its earthlings, whereas the land maintained that since the sea killed them, the onus lay on it to accept them. So Hashem stretched out His hand and swore that the land would not be taken to task 4 ... and the land duly accepted them.
Rosh: Because the Egyptians engaged in the burial of Yaakov, they themselves merited burial, Midah k'Neged Midah. Hashem does not deny the reward of any creature!
Rashi: See Shemos 9:27. Ramban - Hence, the Pasuk writes "Natisa Yeminecha" - to kill them in the sea; "Tivla'eimo Aretz" - the earth took in their corpses - the burial that they merited.
Ramban: As the Pasuk indicated above (14:30).
Ramban: As in Iyov 10:8; Eichah 2:2.
Targum Yonasan: On the great day of judgment; as it was taken to task for accepting the corpse of Hevel (Bereishis 4:11).
According to Maharal, how is this verse a continuation of the ideas expressed in the preceding one?
Maharal (Gevuros Hashem Ch. 47, p. 191): The preceding Pasuk (15:11) expressed how Hashem is above and beyond all existence; and so He performs wonders. Now we add the idea that when created beings act improperly in Hashem's eyes, He turns His right Hand away, separating Himself from them, whereupon they are swallowed up in the earth and utterly wiped out. 1 "His right Hand" is associated with Chesed - The entire world exists via Hashem's kindness, 2 so when it is removed from someone, they disappear.
Thus, there are two outcomes of the fact that Hashem is Nivdal from all other existence. a. Hashem acts freely upon creation, and performs wonders (see 15:11:153:1 ). b. When He withdraws His supporting hand from something, it is immediately destroyed. (This is in contrast to a person with finite, physical might, who upon encountering an opponent may emerge victorious; yet he cannot make the opponent disappear outright! But Hashem is Nivdal from everything; thus, He caused the Egyptians "to be swallowed up in the earth.")
The right side always represents Chesed. One's right hand moves swiftly, and is used to give to others.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes: "'The ground would swallow them' - We derive from here that [the Egyptians] merited Kevurah (burial), as a reward for having said, 'Hashem is the Tzadik' (9:27)." What is the significance of Kevurah?
Gur Aryeh (to Bereishis 2:7): The term Kevurah implies storing away for use at a future time - at the Resurrection of the Dead. 1
Refer to Bereishis 2:7:2.1:1 . Also see Gur Aryeh to Bereishis 9:23 (that Yefes merited burial, for having covered his father Noach); refer to Bereishis 9:23:1.1 and Bereishis 9:23:1.2 .
