Brooklyn, 5746.

THE SPLITTING OF THE RED SEA
CHANGE AS A SIGN OF LOVE

Transcribed by Rivka Haut
for Connections Magazine

Reb Shlomo speaking:

     The Bible (Exodos 14:27), tells us that, after the Jews
crossed through the Red Sea, "the Sea returned to its
strength." The gemara says, (Rashi brings it on the verse)
do not read it as "strength" but as "condition,". The Red
Sea returned to its original condition. G-d, when He
created the Red Sea, made a condition with it that, on
the seventh night of Pesach, when the Jews will be by
the shores of the Red Sea, the Sea should split open
and allow them to pass through.

     So, everybody asks, wasn't it when the Sea split
open that it went back to its original condition, when it
fulfilled the condition G-d made with it and not when it
became water again?

     G-d makes conditions, not only with the Sea. G-d makes
a condition with every person in the world. G-d tells
each person, "There will be one moment in your life when
you can save somebody else's life, there will be a moment
when you can do the greatest thing, which I created you
for, but - you have to be ready to be something else. To
go out of your way. Water, to become dry land, to become
anything in the world. The deepest secret of life is that,
I always have to be what I am, but there are moments I
have to be not what I am also.

     I once saw an Irishman who was very much into a schedule.
When his wife died, there was no time for the funeral, because
he had this schedule and the funeral just didn't fit in.

     But, forget about time schedules. People have soul-
schedules also. What's going on today with our establishment?
According to their schedule, the way the world is
today doesn't fit in. So, they just ignore it. For instance,
during the Holocaust, they didn't do anything,
right? Because it was not in their schedule. Twenty
years later, now, it's part of their schedule to talk
about it... In the sixties we lost thousands of kids to
drugs. They didn't talk about it because it was not on
their agenda. What's going on in Eretz Yisrael now? They
all talk about the Arabs. What about inside? We are
losing our kids, thousands of kids, but it's not on their agenda.

     How about changing? From ocean, become dry land! Be
something else.

     True, a rabbi has an office. Why doesn't he go outside,
sometimes? Out on the street!

     When you love somebody very much, what is the acid test?
If you really love somebody - are you ready to change for
that person, even for just a moment?

     The gemara says that finding your soulmate is like
crossing the Red Sea. Everybody asks, why does G-d call
out, forty days before a person is born, who his soulmate
is? Because, for two people to find each other and live
together, everybody living on their schedule all the time,
they will never make it, right? I am I, and you are you.
Unless they are like the Red Sea. When G-d created the
Red Sea, at that time, He put in the condition that
there will come a moment that it will have to stop being
a sea and become dry land. But this is a heavenly power.
You cannot do it after you have been created. It must
come from before. Because change is the hardest thing
in the world. That kind of change is not from this world.
It's as deep as when G-d created the world. Therefore,
when a person is born, a condition is already made that
you will marry this Chanele, but, for this Chanele, I want
you to change a thousand times.

     Now I want to go one step deeper. Why does the Torah
say that the Red Sea went back to its original condition?
Here is the deepest Torah in the world. What happens to
you if you refuse to change? You know what happens to
you? You might say: "Okay, at least I am what I am."
But, really, you are nothing. You know what the Torah
says? When was the Red Sea really a sea? After it was
ready to change. When are you really what you are? Only
if you can be anything for somebody you love. And, when
the Sea returned to its original condition, suddenly, it
was really a sea, a real sea. Now its water was really
water. When Mashiach is coming, "kamayim layam mechasim"
(as water covers the sea) - the waters of the Red Sea,
such deep waters, waters that are ready to change to save
peoples lives.

     Who was the first person who did something awesome for
somebody else? Our mother, Rachel. Imagine if Rachel
would have called up Agudas HaRabbanim and said: "Listen,
my father, Laban, is putting my sister Leah under the
chuppah instead of me. What should I do? Should I give
her the simanim (signs)?" They would answer: "You are
crazyl Chas veshalom!"

     Rachel and Leah, together they established the family
of Israel.

     Everybody knows that when they carried the aron (casket)
of Yosef the Tzadik to the Red Sea, the Sea split. Because
of Yosef. Yosef, the son of Rachel. I think it was also
because of Rachel. When Yosef came to the Sea, he said:
"You know how much my mother changed for her sister? She
gave up everything. And you don't want to give up being
a sea for a few minutes? The gemara says that the moment
that the aron of Yosef came, "hayam raah vayanos" (the
Sea saw and fled). What did it see? It saw the aron of Yosef.

     I want to say one more thing. I want to say the deepest
Torah. When Yosef the Tzadik made peace with his brothers,
can you imagine how much he changed himself over? A
thousand times. Not to be angry. Every person, for himself,
is so angry. If someone insults you, it takes away
twenty-two years of your life. Some great rabbis say
that the greatest thing Yosef the Tzadik did was that he
withstood the test of Potiphar's wife. He didn't give in
to that temptation. Who am I to say this; maybe I am
wrong, but my theory is that the greatest thing Yosef the
Tzadik ever did was to forgive his brothers.

     Why do we talk so much about the trial of Yosef? Rav
Nachman of Breslov says that each time you do something
wrong, you hate one person. Each time you do an aveirah
(sin), you hate somebody. And whom do you hate? Somebody
you know. It's clear to me that all these people, all
these fruma people woh hate people who aren't religious,
have a problem. What's their problem? They did an
aveirah, and therefore, they hate somebody. They hang
their aveirah on someone who doesn't keep Shabbos.

     Hatred comes from an aveirah. Take Rabbi Levi Yitchak
of Berditchov. Why didn't he hate anybody? Because he
never did an aveirah. Why did the Ba'al Shem Tov not
hate anybody? For the same reason.

     Now I want to say the deepest depths. When you see a
Jew who hates another Jew, the problem is not the Jew who
doesn't keep Shabbos. The problem is the Jew who thinks
he keeps Shabbos. He must be doing aveirot (sins) left
and right, when nobody is looking. Rav Nachman says
that if you learn Torah and you don't understand it, then
obviously, you don't love Jews, because if you love Jews,
then the Torah loves you. The Torah does not allow you
to understand it if you don't like Jews.

     I want to say something very deep. If Yosef would
have sinned with Potiphar's wife, he would have hated
his brothers. There would have been no way for him to
forgive his brothers. But, he was so strong, he didn't
sin, and so his'heart was completely void of hatred. As
much as he had a right to hate them - he didn't.

     Can you imagine the splitting of the Red Sea that Yosef
was going through when he saw his brothers? The storm
that must have been going on inside his soul! Gevalt,
you are my brothers - gevalt, what you did to me. Then,
when the moment came, when he was approached by his
brother, Yehuda, when he stood next to Yehuda, and he
suddenly realized - didn't my mother change for her sister
Leah? So, why can't I change for my brother Yehuda? I will
do what my mother did. "And Yosef could not restrain
himself."

     Yehuda was ready to give up Olam Haba (the world to come)
for his brother. But, splitting of the Red Sea is higher
than that - to actually turn yourself over inside; this is
something else. So, between both of the, they both built
the house of, the family of, G-d.

     What happens to most of us when we have a gevalt moment?
We go back to where we were before we had it. Jews to to
shul on Yom Kippur, have a wonderful experience, and then
go back to the way they were before Yom Kippur. "The Sea
returned to its original strength" - you know how the Sea
went back? Not to where it was before it split. It went
back to the splitting all the time. The Sea was still
connected, every second, to its splitting.

     All of us have moments when we give everything up. But,
then we forget them. They are not connected to our daily
life. This condition that G-d makes with us, of the
splitting of the Red Sea, has to be every second in our
lives. Every minute, every second.

     Everybody knows that the Temple was destroyed because
we hated one another. When we crossed the Red Sea, the
Jews saw a vision of the Temple, of Mashiach. What do we
need to make us stop hating one another? If only every
Jew would say, I'm ready, for the sake of another Jew,
to be something else."

     There is a Torah from the holy Alexandera. Somebody told
him that everything in the world should be utilized in the
service of G-d. He said: "There is such a thing as not
believing in G-d. How then can I utilize apikorsut (heresy)
in the service of G-d? It's very simple. When a Jew
comes to ask a favor, don't give him brachot (blessings).
Don't tell him, believe in G-d, and He will help you. Be
an apikores! Help him yourself!"

     I want to add to that. "Apikorsus" means, a Jew has to
say, for you, I am even ready not to believe in G-d for
a moment. To be close to you, I'll do anything in the
world. Can I ever be closer to G-d than if, for one
second, chas veshalom, by not being so close to G-d, I
am being close to another Jew?

     Okay, everybody knows that the children were the first
to say: "This is my G-d, and I will glorify Him." At the
splitting of the Red Sea, the children were the highest.
The truth is, it's always my theory that as much as parents
think we love our children the most, they really love us
the most. Because we give up on our children so fast,
but they never give up on us. We may be the biggest creeps
in the world, and they still love us. Little children believe
that their parents are the best people in the world.
For our children, we are willing to turn over a thousand
times. The gemara says that finding your soulmate is like
crossing the Red Sea, because, to find your soulmate, means
to have children, and you cannot have children unless you
are ready to turn over a thousand times for them. For my
children, there is nothing in the world I will not do.
I'll be water, I'll be dry land, I'll be anything.

     There is nobody in the world more ready to be anything
than children. They have no set formula. They are not
yet water; they are not yet dry land. So, when we crossed
the Red Sea, the children felt most at home. Suddenly,
when they crossed the Red Sea, they saw that all the Jews
were like children - no set form, no schedule. That's
why they felt at home.

     Everybody knows that, in prophecy, the prophet must be
the vessel for the prophecy. Every prophet has different
words for the same prophecy. By the splitting of the Red
Sea, we are told: "The prophet Yechezkiel ben Buzzi didn't
see what even the handmaiden saw at the splitting of the
Red Sea." Because, they were infinite, infinite.

     I want to make it so clear that, unless you are ready
to cross the Red Sea for every Jew in the world, you
cannot have a Mashiach vision.

     Rav Aaron Karliner says a beautiful Torah. When G-d
said to the Red Sea: "You are going to split open for the
Jews". the Sea said to G-d: "Can You show me the Jews that
I'll be splitting open for?" G-d showed it the Jews the
way they looked in heaven. They looked holy and beautiful
and clean. When the Sea saw the Jews standing before it,
looking so tired and so broken, it said: "These are not
the people I am supposed to split open for!" It was so
hard to convince the Sea that those were the people.

     I want to add to this. When they call out in heaven,
forty days before a person is born, the male and female
souls say: "Can you show me the other one?" They are
shown the pure souls. Then, in this world, they don't
recognize each other. They say: "This is not my Yankele!
This is not my Chanele!"

     Here is an unbelievable, heartbreaking story. A true
story. An awesome story. There was a young Chassidic
man in Cracow, who was engaged to a very beautiful girl.
When the Germans came, he was taken away and he didn't
know where his bride was. In Aushwitz, the men and women
were separated, but, somehow, from afar, they could see
each other. Sometimes they broke through the gates. One
night, close to the end of the war, suddenly he saw his
bride on the women's side. Unbelievable. They were
blessing each other: "Hold out! The end is near. Please,
hold out until the end." one way or another, they sent
food to each other. When the Russians came and freed
them, somehow they met, and they went off together.
Everything was bombed. Finally, they found one house and
they were, for the first time, alone. They were so happy
to be alone. He had not seen himself in a mirror for
years. He didn't know what he looked like. He had no
hair, no payot (sidecurls). He was full of scars. Covered
with blood. But, even more heartbreaking, she was clean
shaven. She had no hair. She had no teeth. Her face was
full of scars. They had not seen themselves for so long.
They came into the house and suddenly, they looked into a
mirror. They were shocked, especially the girl. She said:
"This is the way I look! Not even the Angel of Death looks
so bad." She said: "Tell me two things. How did you
recognize me? And, how can you love somebody who looks
like I look?"

     You know what he said to her? "You never looked more
beautiful to me than right at this moment."

     This means that there is some kind of beauty which is
produced in heaven and I hope we should keep it and there
is the crossing of the Red Sea kind of beauty. "This is
my G-d, and I will glorify Him." The Jews suddenly saw
that there are two kinds of beauty. There is one that
comes down from heaven and one that is made by man. The
Ribbono Shel Olam makes us love each other so much that,
behind all the brokenness, behind all that we go through,
we recognize each other - we see how beautiful we are.

     If someone wants to know how beautiful G-d is, he must
know how beautiful Jews are.

     I want to say one more thing. This is an Ishbitzer
Torah. The Torah says: "And Jethro heard..." Rashi, on
that phrase, says he heard about the splitting of the Red
Sea and the war with Amalek. Jethro thought: "How can 1.
a goy, change to become a Jew?" So, when he heard that
the Sea changed, he said: "If the Sea can change for G-d,
I can also change."

     What is Amalek all about? Amalek tells that the change
won't last. On Yom Kippur, you go to shul, you stand before
G-d for a moment, but it won't last. Why did Amalek
blow his mind over the splitting of the Red Sea? Because,
when we went through, we had a vision of Mashiach. It was
not a one minute vision. It was eternal. And, we also had
a vision that one day the whole world, not only Jews, will
recognize G-d, "kamayim layam mecahsim" (as water covers
the sea).

