ספר שמות

It is also possible to understand the line: ‎ורוח אפיך ‏נערמו מים‎ as reflecting a statement in the Talmud ‎‎Tamid 32 where the rhetorical question of ‎‎“who can be described as truly wise?” is answered by ‎‎“whoever can see what has come into existence.” We ‎must not lose sight of the general rule that G’d ‎created the universe in order to take a delight in ‎Israel, and in order to have Mercy on them when the ‎situation called for this, as our sages have said (not ‎found source) that man, respectively the righteous ‎Israelite, was meant to call upon G’d’s mercy. The ‎relationship between G’d and man, and man and G’d ‎respectively, is reciprocal from the bottom up and ‎from the top down. This was demonstrated to Yaakov ‎in his dream of the ladder where the angels moved in ‎both directions. It is a constant reminder to us when ‎we look at the first letter of the aleph bet ‎where there are two letters yud, one pointing ‎upwards, the other downward. They are linked by a ‎diagonal line to alert us to this relationship between ‎heaven and earth being reciprocal. When the sages in ‎the Talmud (Avot 2,9) teaches that ‎איזהו חכם ‏הרואה את הנולד‎, “who is wise? He who looks intelligently ‎at all existing phenomena,” they mean that an ‎intelligent appraisal of the entire universe leads us to ‎the conclusion that the universe was only created with ‎a view to the Jewish people and their tasks. When we ‎do this, we fulfill G’d’s will. At the point in time under ‎discussion in our verse, it had been demonstrated that ‎it was G’d’s will for the sea to be split for the benefit ‎of Moses and Israel. True wisdom is shown by G’d’s ‎creatures when they draw these conclusions from ‎miracles they perceive. The sea of reeds had ‎demonstrated such wisdom by complying with G’d’s ‎desires. It had “looked”, i.e. reflected at its own origins ‎and had realized what its purpose was at a given ‎moment. By not merely dissolving into oxygen and ‎hydrogen, but arranging itself into a “wall,” so that the ‎Israelites could walk alongside it, the sea had ‎demonstrated its wisdom and obedience to its Creator. ‎‎[The last paragraph contained wording of my ‎own, but I am confident that by using these words I ‎have explained the author’s meaning better. ‎Ed.]‎