What was the deeper miracle of the splitting of the sea?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches, citing the Sfas Emes, that the miracle was “not only that the sea split.” The deeper miracle was that the Jewish nation “walked inside the sea and yet for them it was dry land.”
That means, he explains, “the sea did not stop being sea.” The danger was still all around them. Yet where they walked, it was dry. This is why we recall Krias Yam Suf every day: the same thing can happen in a person's life.
“The fear may still be there, the pressure may still be there, the pain may still be there. But if connected to Hashem, even inside the sea, there can be dry land.” The greatest salvation, he says, is “not always when God removes the sea.”
Related concepts: Giving up is not peace · Spirituality
In A Soul at Peace: Dry Land in the Middle of the Sea
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
The sea stayed sea, and still the people walked on dry land.
What may be behind it
Why does the Torah put two opposites together?
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau notes that “dry land in the middle of the sea” is two opposites in one place, and that a deep lesson is hidden there.
Deepest human truth
Connected to Hashem, a person can have dry land under his feet even while the sea is still around him.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Boundaries, Healing, and Emotional Resilience · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz