7th Day Pesach:The Splitting of the Yam Suf, A New Bereishit?

Harold Wilson famously said, “A week is a long time in politics” and although he was referring to the hustle and bustle of daily life in Westminster during the 1960s, he could not have known that his words would come to be so meaningful half a century later.

It’s also true that the idea of summing up a week as being an agent for change is historically accurate. We don’t need to look further than our Torah to inform us of what can be achieved in this period.

Indeed, the very first chapter in Bereshit demonstrates how much the Almighty managed to do in a mere six days before He put his feet up for the first Shabbat Shluf!

If we set read the Torah without pondering on how long each of the ‘days’ of creation lasted and for the sake of this discussion assume that it was a week as we know it, I don’t think even the great Harold Wilson could have imagined how effectively he could transform a ‘political week’, when compared to what Gd decided to do one Sunday ‘morning’ a long, long time ago.

A mere six days ago, on Wednesday evening, 14^th Nissan, 3332 years ago, Gd passed over the Egyptian homes and enacted the final plague. Five days ago, our ancestors trundled out of the country, 600,000 men over twenty years of age (which probably equates with three million people), carrying their unleavened dough on their backs.

They walked into the desert, not really knowing where they were going, although aware that the Promised Land was their destination.

On Sunday morning, three full days after they’d left, Pharaoh was informed that they weren’t coming back. Rashi in Exodus 14.5 informs us that Pharaoh sent his captains alongside the Israelites to make sure that his stipulating for leaving was that they (the Israelites) returned after their three-day trip into the desert. The men returned to the palace to report that this wasn’t going to take place and so on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (i.e. today), they chased them.

Which means that as we enter into the night of the seventh day of Pesach, we find our ancestors encamped at the Sea of Reeds (which might be the modern day location of the Great Bitter Lakes), terrified at the sound of six hundred chariots rapidly approaching, sending vibrations through the sand.

And our people are trapped, with nowhere to escape to.

The people complained to Moses, saying:

“Since there were no graves in Egypt, did you take us out to die in the wilderness instead….why didn’t you leave us alone in Egypt to serve the Egyptians - it would have better) than dying in the wilderness?!”

Moses calmed them and assured the people that Gd would save them and they would never see the Egyptians again and soon enough, He sent an easterly wind which lasted all night whilst the sea that they were backed up again, split in half (or into twelve separate channels, according to some Sages).

Rabbi David Fohrman, a contemporary commentator wrote wrote an eye-popping book called “The Exodus You Almost Passed Over” (2016), posits a fascinating idea.

Quoting the midrash in Shemot Rabbah 21:10

We learn that as the Israelites were crossing through the sea, “Rabbi Nahorai explained that a mother was carrying her baby boy who was crying (as they were crossing on dry land, between the walls of water). She then stretched out her hand and picked off an apple or pomegranate from the "midst of the sea" and gave it to him!”

Rabbi Fohrman likes playing an intellectual game when reading the Tanach. He often compares the text used in one passage with another in a different location and then infers parallels between the two. This idea of a mother picking fruit off the walls intrigues him and when he looks at the Hebrew text describing the splitting of the sea, he finds uncanny parallels with the narrative used by the Torah in describing the six days of creation.

Let’s see if we play this game too!

This obviously makes more sense in Hebrew but we can still use the form of the sentences to give us an idea.

1.      In Exodus 14:21, we read the following:

“Then Moses held out his arm over the sea and the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split”

Compare this with the relationship between wind and water described in Genesis 1:2:

 “the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water”

2.   Before the splitting of the sea, Gd performed a miracle to delay the Egyptian advances:

Exodus 14:20:

“And it (the pillar of cloud) came between the army of the Egyptians and the army of Israel. Thus, there was the cloud with the darkness, and it lit up the night, so that the one could not come near the other all through the night.”

If we look at Genesis 1:3-4, we read:

“God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and Gd separated the light from the darkness.”

Rashi explains:

“and there was cloud and darkness to the Egyptians and the pillar of fire illuminated the night for the Israelites and went before them as was its way to go every night, whilst the darkness of the cloud was turned towards the Egyptians.”

Both previous examples relate to Gd’s creation on the first day.

3.      When the Israelites entered the sea, the Torah states in verse 22:

“….and the Israelites went into the sea on dry land, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.”

Compare this description with the narrative for the second day:

Genesis 1:9

God said, “Let the water below the sky be gathered into one area, that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.

4.      On the third day, we are told in Genesis verse 11:

“And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so.”

If we restate our original midrash:

“Rabbi Nahorai explained that a mother was carrying her baby boy who was crying (as they were crossing on dry land, between the walls of water). She then stretched out her hand and picked off an apple or pomegranate from the "midst of the sea" and gave it to him!”

It appears that the text is revealing something startling – the sequence of events in the crossing of the sea closely matches an almost identical logarithm for the first three days of the creation.

It is a well-established principle amongst our Sages that every single letter in the Torah, having been dictated directly from Gd to Moses, is there for a reason. It would therefore not be coincidental that there is such a striking correlation between the two mind-blowing events.

The Exodus from Egypt was a seminal event in both Jewish history and the chronology of society as a whole.

In creating the world, Gd exhibited his mastery over nature, from His spirit “hovering over the face of the waters” to using that same spirit to separate the sea, revealing once again dry land from the midst of the waters.

In His battle with Pharaoh to demonstrate His power over the Egyptians and destroy both their corrupt and idolatrous mindset, He enacted a mini “re-creation” of the world, saving the people who recognised Him as Master of the Universe and just as in Noah’s days, drowning those who had refused to do so. How much more of a lesson could Gd give to both parties about whom was really in control.

In these dark, frightening days, when we have been reminded of how vulnerable we all are, we might gain some solace from considering who is really making the decisions that impact our lives. After all, when the Israelites feared that they walked out of the Egyptian frying pan into the Desert fire, He manipulated nature to deliver them from their foes. In Hillel, we have been reading the words: “In my distress, I called on the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid” (Psalm 118).

I believe that we can draw a great deal of comfort from the historical event that we will read about in our homes tomorrow morning, as we recite the “Shira” both in our Shacharit and at the core of our Torah reading (Leining).

Let us remember how, exactly on this day, our ancestors were delivered from darkness to light and pray that we too may soon see His hand in rescuing not only the Jewish people but the rest of the world from our current situation.

If He provided salvation then, He could surely do the same now.

Wishing you a Chag Sameach to you and your loved ones.