In the Haftorah of Acharon Shel Pesach it’s written, “And Hashem shall dry up the tongue of the Egyptian Sea, and He shall lift His hand over the river with the strength of His spirit, and He shall beat it into seven streams, and He shall lead [the exiles] with the shoes. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Asirriya, as there was for Israel on the day they went up from the land of Egypt.”
Some things in these verses do not make sense.
First it says, “He shall beat it into seven streams.” But then it says, “as there was for Israel on the day they went up from the land of Egypt.” This passage is obviously talking about the splitting of the sea. But at that time, the sea was not split into seven. We have to understand, why is it that in the future redemption, the river will be split into seven streams? And how will it be like when we left Egypt?
It says, “He shall lead [the exiles] with the shoes,” meaning it will be dry enough to walk in shoes. It also says, “And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people,” which means the same thing; that there will be a dry path to tread on.
Another question. “He shall lead [the exiles] with the shoes” is counted as one of the wonders that will happen when the redemption comes, as proven by it being listed with other great wonders. “And Hashem shall dry up the tongue of the Egyptian Sea, and He shall lift His hand over the river with the strength of His spirit, and He shall beat it into seven streams.” What is the great miracle in Him leading [the exiles] with the shoes?
Finally, it says “banialim” and not “binialim” which means with the shoes. What are these famous shoes that we are talking about?
To understand this, we first have to understand the splitting of the sea, because it says, "as there was for Israel on the day they went up from the land of Egypt.” This means that the splitting of the river in the future redemption will be similar to the exodus from Egypt, especially the splitting of the Sea.
It says about the future redemption, "As the days when you went out of Egypt, I will show you wonders." Why does it say "As the days" in plural? The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, explains it to mean that the future redemption began at the Exodus from Egypt.
Our sages tell us that the Jewish people came out from the sea at the same side that they went into it. So this wasn't to save the Jewish people. If so, what was the point of the splitting of the sea? We are forced to say that it had a purpose of its own; as will be explained.
To understand this, we have to ask another question. What was the big deal with the splitting of the sea? Why is it that it’s counted as one of the greatest miracles? It is even considered difficult for Heaven to do! As the saying goes, “It is as difficult as the splitting of the sea.”
All of this happened before in the creation of the world! As it says, “Let the water pool under the heavens in one place and the dry land should be seen.” This is because the water is supposed to be on top of the land by nature, but Hashem told it to step aside so the dry land could be seen.
By creation, when Hashem said, “let the water pool…” there was no actual change to the nature of the water. There was only a change in the location of the water. Before that, the water was on top of the land, and now, the water pooled in one place so the dry land was seen.
By the splitting of the sea, it says, “The sea turned into dry land.” The actual sea became dry land, as it says, “and the children of Israel came into the midst of the sea in dry land.” The midst of the sea actually changed its nature and became dry land.
How does this work? Everything in the physical world has its source in the heavenly spiritual world. And the way you could understand the spiritual world is by understanding the physical human being, as it says, “From my flesh I see G-dliness.”
You see, there is sea, and there is dry land. The sea covers everything that is in it, and the dry land reveals everything that is on it. Above, in the heavens, it is a hidden world and a revealed world. Within a person it is thought and speech. Nobody sees what you are thinking, but when you speak, everybody knows what you are saying; it is revealed.
When you are deep in thought, you can’t speak. Your brain is constantly going back and forth thinking about the matter. You can’t speak because your words are not able to keep up. And when you finally speak, only a bit of your thoughts come through.
The same thing is true up above. There is speech and thought, revealed and hidden, like dry land and sea.
Speech is the source of all creations, as it says, “With the word of Hashem, the heavens were made and with the wind of his mouth all its hosts.” It also mentions in Pirkei Avos, “With ten utterances the world was created.”
The thought up above is higher than the source of creation, it is hidden. When revealed, there can be no speech. The thought has to be contracted in order for it to become speech. Thought above, which is hidden, is higher than the source of creation. So when the thought is revealed, there is no possibility of revealed speech, which is the source of creation.
In order for creation to exist, there has to be a contraction of thought, so only a little bit of thought is to come through. In other words, the light that is higher than creation should not be revealed; only a ray of it can come through.
Since there had to be a contraction in order for the speech to come through above, there had to be a contraction below. That is why it says, “Let the water pool… in one place and the dry land should be seen." This is a contraction of the thought above, so the light shouldn’t come through, so there could be, “and the dry land should be seen,” so the world could exist.
What happened above, spiritually, at the splitting of the sea, is that the thought was revealed. The same thing happened below, as the actual sea “turned to dry land”.
We have mentioned above that when the thought is revealed, there can be no speech. But now we are saying that the thoughts are revealed. How can that happen?
All of this is true in the speech in the world, spiritually and physically. What happened by the splitting of the sea, however, was that the light that is higher than the world came into the world. As it says, “And Hashem moved the sea with a strong Kadim wind the whole night.” What does Kadim mean? It comes from the word Kodem, which means “before,” before the world. In other words, it means the One Who is before the world, above the world.
In that realm, the darkness is like light. There, the darkness of the hidden world and the light of the revealed world are the same. Since the Kadim wind from the One Who is before the world was blowing, the sea turned into dry land.
And this is also the meaning of what it says, “The water was for them like walls from the right and from the left." The wall from their right, to the south, was because there was a wind blowing from the north to the south. The wall on their left, to the north, was because there was a wind blowing from south to north. It was not two separate winds. It was that same Kadim wind. Because it is higher than the world, it could blow from north to south and from south to north at the same time. The same is with the sea; it could turn into dry land, and hidden could be revealed.
The names of Hashem have specific meanings and different tasks. The name Havaya is the name that creates the world and all that is in it. The name Havaya is the divine thought that we spoke of earlier. We mentioned that it is the hidden world, where only a little bit comes through to create the speech that creates the world.
There are two levels in the name Havaya. There is the lower Havaya and the higher Havaya. The lower Havaya is the one we have been speaking about. It is what creates the world, and it is in the world. The higher Havaya is in the will of Hashem, and it is above the world. It was revealed at the splitting of the sea, it was the higher name that was revealed in the lower name.
This is the meaning of the verse, “And Israel saw the great hand that Havaya did in Egypt and the nation saw Havaya…“ The first Havaya is the lower name, and the second is the higher name.
The splitting of the sea was a preparation for the giving of the Torah. At the giving of the Torah it says, “and Havaya descended on Mount Sinai.” This is not the lower Havaya that creates the world. As our sages say, “The Torah precedes the world.” The Torah is higher than the world; it is the higher Havaya, because the higher Havaya was shining at the giving of the Torah in a revealed way. Therefore, the splitting of the sea was a necessary preparation for the giving of the Torah—it was the higher Havaya shining as the sea turned into dry land.
It is interesting to note that there was only one split of the sea. Yes, there were twelve paths, one for every tribe, but there was only one split. Since it was before the giving of the Torah, there were no details yet in our service to Hashem. There was only a general preparation for the giving of the Torah, so there had to be only one split.
There is yet a higher level of the name Havaya, which is Havaya in the essence of Hashem. This will be revealed in the future redemption, Moshiach. The Havaya in the will of Hashem has to come from somewhere, it comes from the name Havaya in the essence of Hashem. This will be revealed when Moshiach comes.
We have to say that the name Havaya in His essence was at the splitting of the sea, because the splitting of the sea was a preparation for the giving of the Torah. At the giving of the Torah was given all the revelation of the Torah of the future redemption. Because “The giving of the Torah will not happen again.” It is certain that the Torah that will be revealed in the future was all given at the giving of the Torah, albeit in a hidden way.
In order to receive the revelation of the Torah, we had to have the preparation of the splitting of the sea (in which we had the revelation of the higher Havaya, the level of Havaya that is in the will of Hashem). So, in order to receive the revelation of the Torah in the future, which was already given at the giving of the Torah, there had to be the preparation at the splitting of the sea, albeit in a hidden way, of Havaya in the essence of Hashem, that would, in the future, be revealed.
This is the meaning of what it says by the splitting of the sea, "...the nation saw Havaya, and they believed in Havaya and in Moshe his servant." The first Havaya is in Hashem's will, and the second Havaya is in Hashem’s essence.
And this will answer the question that the Zohar asks, "If they see, why do they need to believe?" When it says, "the nation saw Havaya," it means Havaya in will, and when it says, "and they believed in Havaya," it means Havaya in essence. This was also present at the splitting of the sea, but it was hidden, and they experienced it in a hidden way.
For example, when you are in a dark place, you can sense when something is there that you can’t see. Your hair will stand on end, and you instinctively know that something is there. This is the fear of the unseen, just as the Jews had at the splitting of the sea. They felt Hashem's essence. As we say in the Haggadah, "’With great fear,’ this is the revelation of the divine presence, it was revealed to them, the King of kings Holy One blessed be He in His glory and by Himself." Hashem's essence was revealed to them. This is also the meaning of what our sages say, "Although he does not see, but his Neshama sees." The Jews by the sea were gripped with great fear because they were in the presence of the essence of Hashem, even though it was not revealed.
The revelations when Moshiach comes are going to come after we make the world into a home for Hashem. This is going to come through our work in refining the world. What is refining the world? When we do a mitzvah, study Torah, or use anything to serve Hashem, we infuse that with holiness. We refine it, and it becomes a thing that Hashem wants to reside in.
This world that we live in is called the world of Tikkun. There was a world before this one, called the world of Tohu, that was very holy. The world of Tohu shattered because it couldn’t contain its holiness.
When this world of Tikkun was created, the fallout of the world of Tohu was incorporated into the world of Tikkun in the form of sparks. Our job is to remove the sparks and capture them. There are 288 sparks that we have to remove. You can imagine that it requires a lot to take just one spark out. We were sent all over the world to remove these sparks.
There were 202 sparks in Egypt. That is why, at the Bris Bein Habesarim, Avraham agreed to a deal that would send his children to be enslaved in a foreign land for 400 years. He knew that with our exodus, we would free all 202 sparks. That is why we are not allowed to live in Egypt; because we finished all the work that was needed there. We left Egypt with only 86 sparks left to extract.
The future revelation is going to come through the refining of the sparks of the seven attributes of the world of Tohu. This is also what it says, "He shall lift His hand over the river with the strength of His spirit." It refers to the spirit of Moshiach, that same quality mentioned above—that the sea actually turned into dry land, because there was Kadim wind from the One Who is before the world. The same will be in the future revelation, and it will be through the spirit of Moshiach.
Every one of us has seven attributes, seven emotions. This is what we say in Sfiras Haomer in the Yehi Ratzon; we are fixing the seven attributes.
Each one of us takes on one of these attributes by nature, and we all serve Hashem according to our attribute. Through our service to Hashem, we refine the seven attributes of Tohu. And that is what the seven streams are for: to put us all on a path according to our attributes.
When we refine the sparks, we reveal these seven attributes.
The truth is that it was all present at the splitting of the sea, where there was only one split. It was a general thing with all the details in it, but in a hidden way. In the future, all will be revealed and detailed. When it’s promised that “He shall beat it into seven streams,” it means that all the details will be revealed through the spirit of Moshiach that will come about through the refining of the sparks.
Now, what is meant by the shoes? Only leather is considered shoes, as proven by the halacha that we are not allowed to wear shoes on Yom Kippur, but only leather shoes are actually restricted.
The first time leather garments were made was after the first sin of the Tree of Knowledge. Hashem made tunics of leather for Adam and Chava. Before the sin and after the sin, there was “ohr.” But before the sin, there was “אור,” with an alef, which means light. After the sin, there was “עור,” with an ayin, which means leather.
If we want to get back to ohr with an alef, we must do the work. Kabbala refers to this avoda as “working the leather.” This is a euphemism for the work of refining the sparks.
This is the first explanation of the shoes.
The second explanation of the shoes is as follows. There is an angel called Matat (מטט), and he is called the shoe of the Divine Presence.
To understand this, you first have to understand that there are four spheres in the structure of our world. The first is called Atzilus (אצילות), the Sphere of Emanation. That is the first presence of Hashem in the world, and in that sphere, there is just Divine Presence of the highest order. Then there is Briya (בריאה), Creation, Yetzira (יצירה), Formation, and Asiya (עשיה), Action.
There are several partitions and garments between Atzilus and the other three spheres, with the lowest being the shoe. The shoe is the thickest part, and this is Matat, the shoe of the Divine Presence.
We are told, "In the future Yisroel will be before the ministering angels." "Until they will ask them, ‘what is Hashem doing?’" Since we will be higher than them, the way they will get the information from us will be through the shoes. Again, this will all be possible through the work of refining the sparks.
This is how both explanations of the famous shoes come together. Through the first explanation, refining sparks, we will merit having the second explanation of the shoes—we will be “before,” higher than the ministering angels, and all that they will get from us will be through the shoes. We will be higher than all boundaries of this world.
Our sages say, "in the future the righteous will be called by Hashem's name." This refers to Havaya in Hashem's essence.
"And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Asirriya, as there was for Israel on the day they went up from the land of Egypt.” The revelation of the future redemption began in Exodus, at the splitting of the sea. But although it was hidden then, the future revelation will be one of total clarity.
May we merit all the prophecies in this Haftorah, with the coming of Moshiach. May he come soon.
I would like to thank my daughter Mussie and my nurses Victoria, Veronica, Jose, Edgar, and Johana for helping me pen this article.