Or HaChaim on Exodus 14:27/אור החיים על שמות י״ד:כ״ז

1 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?

2We must perceive the condition or contract implied in the word איתנו, as an overriding condition applying to the work of creation as a whole, namely that all creatures, be they inert or alive submit to the requirements of the Torah and the people who are its carriers. In fact the authority of the Torah scholars in this respect equals that of the Creator Himself. This is the reason that individuals such a Joshua could order the moon and the sun to suspend their motion in the sky, etc. The statement we just made is the mystical dimension of Isaiah 43,1: "Jacob your creator, Israel who has formed you;" In commenting on this verse in Vayikra Rabbah 36,4 our sages claim that G'd asked the universe a rhetorical question: "who has created you, who has fashioned you if not Israel, and all this by means of the power contained in Torah." I have dealt with this also in my commentary on the word בראשית at the beginning of the Torah.

3At the time of the Exodus the Israelites had not yet received the Torah therefore the decree that Torah scholars could dictate to the forces of nature did not apply as yet. This is why the sea's consent was needed for it to split at the behest of Moses, and the sea was able to argue that Moses had no authority seeing he (man) had been created only on the sixth day of creation and was therefore junior to it which had been created on the third day. The sea simply hinted that Moses could not claim to order it around by reason of his mastery of the Torah. If he had truly possessed mastery of Torah which had been created prior to the universe, he himself could have claimed to be senior to the sea. G'd therefore had to resort to a stratagem by extending His own right hand alongside that of Moses' right hand. This was a sophisticated way of telling the sea that Moses did indeed possess mastery of the Torah and therefore was entitled to order the sea about. The significance of the right hand in this respect is anchored in the Torah itself in Deut. 33,2: "from His right hand He flashed lightning at them." As soon as the sea noticed G'd's right hand, it split without further ado. Henceforth every צדיק who lived after the Israelites had received the Torah at Mount Sinai could present "a copy" of the agreement G'd had made with His creation to submit to instructions issued by those who represented mastery of Torah. Such people possessed not only the power to effect changes in the laws of nature, but they could inflict penalties on nature if it chose to disobey them.

4ומצרים נסים לקראתו, while the Egyptians were fleeing towards it. Although the Egyptians were fleeing from the onrushing waters, they found that the sea was coming towards its original place. As a result they found themselves fleeing towards the waters regardless of which direction they were headed for. We find something similar in Bamidbar Rabbah 18 and Sanhedrin 110 describing the descent of Korach and his supporters into the bowels of the earth. The "mouth" of the earth is described as following the direction where any one of Korach or his companions happened to be standing.

5וינער ה׳ את מצרים בתוך הים, G'd hurled Egypt into the sea. This statement is necessary seeing there are expert swimmers who are often able to stay above the waves even during a storm. The Torah says that G'd hurled such expert swimmers into the sea so that they too had no chance to survive. According to Shemot Rabbah 21 the reference to מצרים as distinct from מצריים, the Egyptians, means that G'd hurled the guardian angel of Egypt into the sea by pouring strong rain upon him.