JANUARY 13 • 2022 | 37

“His pleasure is not in the 
strength of the horse, nor 
His delight in the legs of the 
warrior; the Lord delights 
in those who fear Him, who 
put their hope in His unfail-
ing love.” (Psalms 147:10-11) 
The elegantly simple way 
in which the division of the 
Red Sea is described in the 
Torah is so that it can be 
read at two quite different 
levels, one as a supernatural 
miracle, the other as a moral 
tale about the limits of tech-
nology when it comes to 
the real strength of nations: 
that to me is what is most 
striking. 
It is a text quite deliberate-
ly written so that our under-
standing of it can deepen as 
we mature, and we are no 
longer so interested in the 
mechanics of miracles and 
more interested in how free-
dom is won or lost. 
So it’s good to know how 
the division of the sea hap-
pened, but there remains a 
depth to the biblical story 
that can never be exhausted 
by computer simulations 
and other historical or 
scientific evidence, and 
depends instead on being 
sensitive to its deliberate 
and delicate ambiguity. Just 
as ruach, a physical wind, 
can part waters and expose 
land beneath, so ruach, the 
human spirit, can expose, 
beneath the surface of a 
story, a deeper meaning 
beneath. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan 

Sacks served as the chief rabbi of 

the United Hebrew Congregations 

of the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. 

His teachings have been made 

available to all at rabbisacks.org. 

This essay was written on Feb. 6, 

2017.

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