by Pinchus Klahr
The seventh day of Passover commemorates the splitting of the Red Sea. But why does this merit its own Yom Tov — a full day of holiness? And why, if this was the greatest miracle of the Exodus, do we not say the complete Hallel prayer? In April 1985, Pinchus Klahr of New York University posted this Dvar Torah to net.religion.jewish, the early internet's Jewish scholarly community. Drawing on the Sefas Emes (Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter of Gur, 1847–1903) and the Meshech Chochma (Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, 1843–1926), he develops a theology of two kinds of redemption: the gift given freely to a people who have not yet earned it, and the redemption won by faith — when the sea did not split until the Jews had walked in up to their nostrils.
It is not so apparent at first glance, but the structure of the holiday of Pesach is very different from the Succos holiday setup. Both holidays are of a one-week cycle duration. Succos begins with (Biblically) one day of Yom Tov — a full-fledged "day of holiness" with the same restrictions as on the Sabbath — followed by six days of Chol Ha-moed, intermediate or "weekday-type" festival days. Following this week of Succos is Shemini Atzeres, which is actually a separate one-day Yom Tov holiday.
Pesach, however, works differently. There is one day of Yom Tov, followed by five days of Chol Ha-moed, followed by one day of Yom Tov again. If Pesach ends with a full-fledged Yom Tov day, it cannot merely be a device to ensure that the holiday season ends with a bang. The last Yom Tov day must somehow be contributing a key facet of the entire Pesach holiday. What is it?
The Miracle at the Red Sea
Most of us know that the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea took place on the Seventh Day of Passover. Pursued by the Egyptians, the Jews reached the Red Sea, which God split, allowing the Jews to walk through and cross the sea. When the Egyptians followed the Jews into the sea, God "unsplit" the sea, and the Egyptians drowned. In unison, all of the Jews composed and sang a song of praise to God, as recorded in the Torah.
But some questions remain:
Why doesn't the Torah explicitly tell us that this miracle occurred on the Seventh Day of Pesach, if this miracle is the raison d'être for having the last day of Yom Tov on Pesach?
What is so distinctive about the splitting of a sea that it merits its own Yom Tov day to commemorate it — given that God performed a whole series of miracles throughout the Exodus?
And the conduct of the Jews prior to the splitting is also hard to understand. Here is a people who had witnessed God's performing the Ten Plagues in Egypt, and were willing to follow His command to leave Egypt and enter the desert. Yet now, with the Egyptians in pursuit, the Jews suddenly lost their nerve, grew afraid, and told Moshe that they regretted leaving Egypt. After this, when Moshe told them God's command, they entered the sea and it split. Why all this vacillation?
Finally, the Midrash says that as the Jews were going across the sea, they "were being held in judgment. God said: 'The Jews and the Egyptians have both been idol worshippers.'" Is it conceivable that at this stage of the process — after the entire Exodus — God was contemplating destroying the Jews along with the Egyptians?
Two Kinds of Redemption
The Sefas Emes (Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter of Gur, 1847–1903) explains that there were indeed two distinct aspects to the Exodus from Egypt.
In Egypt, God redeemed the Jewish people because of "the promise He had made to their ancestors." While in Egypt, the Jews had sunk to a very low spiritual level, barely distinguishable in their assimilated state from the neighboring decadent Egyptian culture that surrounded them. They only merited redemption because of the tremendous potential that God saw in them, as evidenced by the character and way of life of their ancestors. The Exodus really required little effort and faith on the Jews' part — in the miracles and plagues God performed, He revealed Himself to the Jews clearly and unambiguously, His hand evident as the Guiding Force of the universe. It was easy for the Jews to believe in Him.
But God wanted to raise the Jews to an even higher level. He wanted them to achieve a redemption on their own. This is why, at the Red Sea, He made His presence less obvious and apparent to the Jews. This is what the Midrash means when it says that the Jews were "placed in judgment" — God had no intention of destroying them, but this time, He wanted them to earn their redemption: to exhibit the faith and courage required in their own low spiritual state, akin to the Egyptians, and not in some divinely inspired state of deep spiritual perception, as had been the case in Egypt. This, too, is why the Jews were afraid — they did not think that they had the religious strength to "handle things on their own."
The Midrash tells us that the sea was not split until the Jews had entered the sea up to their nostrils. God had asked for a display of initiative on the part of the Jews, and they had reached into the reservoir of potential which they possessed to supply it. It was because the Jews had now earned their redemption to some degree that they were able to spontaneously and as one reach a high level of prophecy and divine perception and compose a song of praise to God worthy of the Torah's recording — "a maid at the Red Sea experienced levels of prophecy that the prophet Yechezkel never did," the Talmud tells us.
Why the Torah Omits the Date — and Why We Don't Say Full Hallel
We can now understand why the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea forms such an important complement to the rest of the Exodus, and why there is a separate Yom Tov day to commemorate this "earned" aspect of our redemption.
And in light of this, we can better understand the explanation of the Meshech Chochma as to why the Torah fails to tell us that the sea was split on the seventh day of Pesach. We do not say the complete Hallel prayer on the seventh day (and Chol Ha-moed as well), because we don't want to exult excessively about a miracle that directly killed so many Egyptians by drowning. Although their punishment was deserved, we don't want to celebrate a loss of life. Similarly, the Torah doesn't want to imply that the last Yom Tov day of Pesach is a gleeful celebration of the drowning of the Egyptians. Rather, it wants us to emphasize the day of Yom Tov as one of a "holy calling" — in which we use our own initiative to become closer to God, and be higher and better people.
Chag Someach — a very happy Yom Tov to all.
Colophon
Written by Pinchus Klahr ([email protected], [email protected]), New York University, and posted to net.religion.jewish on April 9, 1985 — the last days of Passover, 5745.
Sources cited: Sefas Emes — Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter of Gur (1847–1903), the third Gerrer Rebbe, whose Torah commentary on the weekly portions remains a classic of Hasidic exegesis; Meshech Chochma — Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (1843–1926), renowned Talmudist; Talmud Bavli, Tractate Megillah 14a (the maidservant and prophecy); Midrash Mechilta on Exodus 14.
Preserved from the Usenet archive (UTZOO batch b42, news024f1) for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].
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