What is a miracle? If a miracle can be explained logically or scientifically does it make it less of a wonder? That is the perennial question when it comes to explaining the splitting of Yam Suf - referred to in English as either the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds. Naum Volzinger, a senior researcher at St. Petersburg's Institute of Oceanography, and Alexei Androsov, a colleague based in Hamburg, Germany, analyzed conditions that could have made the parting of the Red Sea possible. The Parshah states: "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." Volzinger and Androsov calculated that a wind blowing at the speed of 67 miles per hour sustained overnight could have exposed a reef that existed close below the ocean surface. Volzinger explains that some 3,500 years ago, the reef would have been closer to the water's surface so it would have been exposed for just the right amount of time.
"It would take the Jews … four hours to cross the 7-kilometer reef that runs from one coast to another," Volzinger told The Moscow Times. "Then, in half an hour, the waters would come back." Similarly software engineer Carl Drews, postulates that the splitting of the the sea was a real life weather event. Drews's research was conducted for his atmospheric and ocean sciences master’s thesis at the University of Colorado, Boulder, published in a peer reviewed journal (PLOS One), establishes the physical possibility of a body of water parting.
But my question still remains - does it matter to our Emunah is a seeming miracle can be ascribed to nature. Do we not say in davening every morning - המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית - what the world ascribes to natural law, because these miracles happen on a daily basis, does not take away from our fundamental belief that it is G-d directing it all. Dr. Moshe Ra’anan wrote in Shabat B’shabato in an answer to understanding the order of Bereishit, that there is no contradiction between understand “evolution ( change over time) and Creation. He explains that the person who believes that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is behind the mechanism and on a daily basis watches over his creations does not have a conflict between science and faith.
" האדם המאמין סבור שה' הוא שברא את ה"מנגנון" והוא זה שמשגיח על פעולתו ולכן אין סתירה בין שתי התפיסות."
Indeed the Rambam insisted that “Israel did not believe in Moshe, our teacher, because of the signs he performed.” (Mishneh Torah, Yesodei ha-Torah 8:1).What made Moshe the greatest of the prophets, for the Rambam , is not that he performed supernatural deeds but that, at Mount Sinai, he brought the people the word of God.
I think the message is that we may be able to explain every day miracles in scientific language in essence science is catching up to Torah. The world we inhabit is literally “wonder-full” and it is up to us to recognize that all of our seemingly mundane, or even truly amazing life events come directly from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It is the Ruach - the wind, the spirit that just at the right tie and at the right place, divided the Sea. We are reminded to feel that inner spirituality and be sensitive to our world around us, to see the miracles in nature and to understand that our belief in Hakadosh Baruch Hu transcendental.
Wishing everyone a shabbat shalom!
Looking forward to greeting you all on Motzei Shabbat at the SBTAG Annual Dinner!
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