שמות, פרק ט״ו, פסוק ח׳

The Song of the Sea shifts to depict God's profound mastery over the physical laws of nature. Water completely abandons its natural properties to serve God's will, acting both to save the Israelites and to punish the Egyptians. A fierce east wind blew throughout the night to split the sea. The text employs vivid imagery to convey this, comparing God to a human king who exhales a hot, angry breath [רש״י, רשב״ם, הכתב והקבלה]. However, some understand this wind not as a physical breath, but as a manifestation of God's face and will, a force sent forth to execute His desire [שד״ל, רש״ר הירש]. To avoid attributing physical form to God, Aramaic translations describe the wind as being brought forth simply by His spoken word [הכתב והקבלה, נתינה לגר]. A hidden miracle lies within this imagery: while a hot breath naturally melts ice, this divine wind surprisingly caused the waters to freeze [תולדות יצחק, דעת זקנים].

Driven by this wind, the waters rose and accumulated into towering heaps, much like gathered piles of wheat [אבן עזרא, רש״י, ספורנו]. Water, which naturally flows downward, suddenly stood upright and solid, forming towering walls on either side of the path. Another perspective suggests the waters were gathered and held together as though contained within a giant water skin [שד״ל]. Taking a completely different approach, some commentators connect the concept of the piling waters to wisdom or cunning. In this view, the water was granted a sudden intelligence, allowing it to strategically pile up to save the Israelites while forming a sophisticated trap for the Egyptians, or even granting it the wisdom to sing praise [רבנו בחיי, הדר זקנים, חזקוני]. The scope of this miracle extended far beyond the local area. All flowing streams across the world stood still like walls, preventing them from spilling into the sea during the splitting [פרדס יוסף].

Deep within the sea, the lowest waters congealed and hardened, becoming as solid as stone or cheese [אבן עזרא, רש״י, קאסוטו]. This freezing served several crucial purposes. First, it transformed the muddy ocean floor into a hard, paved, and comfortable surface for the Israelites to cross [ספורנו, רלב״ג]. Second, it provided a topographical solution to the sea's immense depth. Had the waters split all the way to the bottom, the Israelites would have faced a steep, unscalable abyss. Instead, the frozen depths floated upward to the central, upper level of the sea, creating a flat, straight path at normal sea level [הדר זקנים, תולדות יצחק, ביאור יש״ר]. This elevated path created a fatal illusion for the pursuing Egyptians, who believed they were marching on ordinary dry land rather than over suspended, frozen depths [מלבי״ם]. Finally, when the sea eventually collapsed back into place, the solid ice became an instrument of punishment, as the Egyptians were violently hurled and battered against the frozen waters [רש״י, העמק דבר].