Commento su Esodo 14:27

לפנות בקר AT THE TURNING OF THE MORNING at the time when the morning turns to come).

לאיתנו, the waves returning into the trough created by the waters having been split.

לאיתנו, to its original position. Shemot Rabbah 21,6 understands this expression as לתנאי הראשון, to its original condition or contract which was made between the waters and G'd at the time G'd said in Genesis 1,9 that the waters should gather to one place. Why does the Midrash describe this as the "first condition," when the first condition of the waters was its state of being divided, not possessing molecular adhesion. The directive that the waters should congregate i.e. adhere to each other was the "second condition!" Perhaps what is meant by our verse is that after the waters had returned to their original state they realised that Moses had not destroyed their cohesion but that he had now allowed them to again resume their previous cohesion. It is possible that although the waters knew about the agreement made at the time with G'd, they had not imagined that when the time came to honour this agreement that the result would be so radical i.e. that they would literally form walls of stone (frozen water). When things went back to normal the waters realised that what had transpired was only part of the original agreement, and that G'd had not added new conditions. We must try and understand this agreement in depth, seeing that according to the Midrash the waters first refused to part at Moses' request, claiming that inasmuch as they had been created before man they did not have to take orders from a human being. G'd had to incline His right hand together with the right hand of Moses (Isaiah 63,12 "who made His glorious arm march at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them, etc."). Another problem with the verse is that we know that selected individuals did experience that the waters were split on their behalf; an example is the sainted Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair (Chulin 7). If G'd's contract with the waters at the time had been restricted to the sea splitting for the Jews at the time of the Exodus, by what power did Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair accomplish such a miracle?