Hashem split the Red Sea before Bnei Yisroel. Several commentators [1] ask, "Why did Hashem make a miracle when the same results could have been accomplished in a more natural and less miraculous fashion. HaShem normally does not break the laws of nature that He established. It would have been more appropriate for them to walk on water which is more "natural" in the sense that water bugs do it! Or, why didn't they just take boats, although it might have taken more than a few trips !
The mystical answer is that the dry land and the sea are models for two different types of worlds: revealed and hidden. There is the part that people see and and the portion that is below the surface. The sea was split so that Bnei Yisroel access and connect with the part of the soul that is submerged and cannot be observed from the sea-banks. By walking in the sea bed which was rendered dry and not even muddy, the people were able to bridge between the diametric opposites, the visible world above and the hidden reality below. This experience was an emunah building experience that they would take with them to living in the world.
According to most opinions, when the Jewish people left Egypt and crossed the Yam Suf, they exited on the same side that they entered. What good did that do? a similar question has been asked about Yachatz, splitting the middle matzah during Seder [2] . Both halves are eaten during the Seder so why split them! Both processes, walking across the to these ame shore and Yachatz have been explained as examples of Nesirah. It also explains why the Sages said that getting married and maintaining parnasa are as difficult as splitting the Yam Suf (Sotah 2a / Pesachim 118a). Two halves that are joined are something altogether different than the whole out of which they were taken.
Another example: A soul descends from heaven to this world and eventually it re-ascends without the body: What did the soul gain: it was pure before it came down and pure after it returned? Here too, the result, though it recreates the beginning, is an altogether different outcome. Likutei Levi Yitzchak writes that Lechem Oni is the revealed Torah and the hidden piece of Afikomen is Toras HaNistar. They both come from the same piece of Matzah but once they were separated and put together in the Seder, it is only then that they become truly whole! The splitting apart of the Matzah during Seder and then putting it together creates something new. To have them both in this manner at the seder to become a whole!
We enact the creation of the world where masculine and feminine were originally an organic whole that was then split in order for them to reach a greater unity through their own efforts.
Avakesh elaborates: This touches on some of the most profound and difficult questions about Creation. Why was it necessary to create something that will eventually be repaired and made as it was in the beginning? Why did not G-d make it whole from the beginning? The topic is discussed extensively by Ramachal in the first 10 chapters of KL'CH Pische Chochma. Suffices to say, to an extent that any answer to this basic question can be expressed in words alone, the product of what was repaired and made whole is not the same as this product before it was broken. What is the difference? The history! The process of repair demonstrates something. To Ramachal it demonstrated Hashem's Goodness. R. Chaim suggests here based on his sources that in a more specific manner, the breaking of the Matza as well as the other examples he mentioned, demonstrate one aspect of this process, what is known as nesirah and the separation of and subsequent fusion of masculine and feminine in the process of emanation.
[1] Menachem Tziyon (Menachem Mendel of Rimanov), Rebbe Maharash of Lubavitch 5638B, several sources brought in Tikkun Leil Shivi shel Pesach.
[2] Sefer Bris Kehunas Olam
Comments