Chasidut for Tamid 63:21
Kedushat Levi
It is also possible to understand the line: ורוח אפיך נערמו מים as reflecting a statement in the Talmud Tamid 32 where the rhetorical question of “who can be described as truly wise?” is answered by “whoever can see what has come into existence.” We must not lose sight of the general rule that G’d created the universe in order to take a delight in Israel, and in order to have Mercy on them when the situation called for this, as our sages have said (not found source) that man, respectively the righteous Israelite, was meant to call upon G’d’s mercy. The relationship between G’d and man, and man and G’d respectively, is reciprocal from the bottom up and from the top down. This was demonstrated to Yaakov in his dream of the ladder where the angels moved in both directions. It is a constant reminder to us when we look at the first letter of the aleph bet where there are two letters yud, one pointing upwards, the other downward. They are linked by a diagonal line to alert us to this relationship between heaven and earth being reciprocal. When the sages in the Talmud (Avot 2,9) teaches that איזהו חכם הרואה את הנולד, “who is wise? He who looks intelligently at all existing phenomena,” they mean that an intelligent appraisal of the entire universe leads us to the conclusion that the universe was only created with a view to the Jewish people and their tasks. When we do this, we fulfill G’d’s will. At the point in time under discussion in our verse, it had been demonstrated that it was G’d’s will for the sea to be split for the benefit of Moses and Israel. True wisdom is shown by G’d’s creatures when they draw these conclusions from miracles they perceive. The sea of reeds had demonstrated such wisdom by complying with G’d’s desires. It had “looked”, i.e. reflected at its own origins and had realized what its purpose was at a given moment. By not merely dissolving into oxygen and hydrogen, but arranging itself into a “wall,” so that the Israelites could walk alongside it, the sea had demonstrated its wisdom and obedience to its Creator. [The last paragraph contained wording of my own, but I am confident that by using these words I have explained the author’s meaning better. Ed.]
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