How to End Passover with a Bang!

Trapped. The mightiest army in the ancient world closes in. The impassable sea blocks any escape. Death seems certain for the newly freed Jewish slaves. And then—the miracle of miracles. The waters split. A dry path appears through the heart of the sea. The Jewish Nation marches to salvation.

This dramatic event, which the Midrash¹ tells us occurred on the seventh day after leaving Egypt, is what we celebrate on the final day of Passover. As we prepare for this special day, we’re not just marking the end of the holiday; we’re commemorating the moment when God displayed His power more dramatically than at any other point in human history. But this spectacular event wasn’t merely a one-time rescue operation—it was the climactic lesson in a divine curriculum designed to forever transform how we perceive reality.

Layers of Revelation

The Haggadah tells us that the 10 plagues in Egypt comprised a mere fraction of the magnificence of the Splitting of the Sea. To understand why this miracle so dramatically outshined the others, we must first grasp the purpose behind the plagues. The Maharal of Prague² offers the following explanation: rather than liberating the Jews with a single act of divine intervention, God orchestrated ten distinct plagues to methodically demonstrate His mastery over every level of creation:

1. Blood: Water always flows downhill and gathers at the lowest point. By turning all water in Egypt to blood, God demonstrated His dominion over the lowest level of physical reality.
2. Frogs: Amphibians live between water and land, showing God’s control over this intermediate zone.
3. Lice: God turned the very dust of the earth—the lowest of the land— into tormenting pests.
4. Wild beasts: Control of creatures that roam on land.
5. Plague of the animals: Dominion over animals themselves.
6. Boils: Mastery over the flesh of man.
7. Hail: The first level of control over the sky—a lower level than the next two because hail is still bound by gravity.
8. Locusts: The second level of control of sky—flying creatures that resist gravity.
9. Darkness: Complete control of the atmosphere and celestial light.
10. Death of the firstborn (along with the simultaneous spiritual elevation of the Jewish people): Ultimate control over the spiritual dimension of reality.

The message? God runs our world at every level.

The Grand Finale

Now that we understand the purpose and method of the 10 plagues, what elevates the Splitting of the Sea beyond the rest? Let’s give an analogy: in a fireworks show, you spend the first 90% of the experience watching individual fireworks, ooing and aahing at each new explosion of color and light. Then comes the grand finale—a choreographed masterpiece of vibrant pyrotechnics that condenses all elements into one cohesive, brilliant display. Beyond magnificent in its own right, this finale gives cohesion and expression to everything that came before.

That’s our metaphor for the Splitting of the Sea: While the plagues revealed God’s dominion over each aspect of creation individually, the Splitting of the Sea displayed His simultaneous mastery over all elements at once. Water stood like walls defying gravity, earth became instantly dry, wind held the waters in place, the horses of the Egyptians turned on their riders, and in a single moment, God crushed the might of Egypt while elevating the Jewish nation to new spiritual heights. Every domain of creation, bottom to top, simultaneously bent to Divine Will.

The impact of this all-encompassing miracle wasn’t just theologically significant—it maximized the psychological impact on those witnessing. Modern psychology has proven that we judge experiences by their peak and end moments; not their sum total.³ Furthermore, our minds perceive unified wholes as greater than the sum of their parts.⁴ When all elements of creation simultaneously bowed to Divine Will, it created an impact exponentially greater than the sequential plagues. Reality overturning in a single moment transforms consciousness in ways that gradual revelations cannot.

During this final, wondrous demonstration of God’s omnipotence, the Midrash⁵ tells us that even the handmaidens and small children experienced prophecy—Divine Revelation—at the level of Moses, the greatest prophet of all time!

A World of Miracles

But according to the Ramban (Nachmanides), one of our greatest Torah commentators, these spectacular miracles served an even deeper purpose:

Through the great open miracles, one comes to recognize the hidden miracles. This [recognition] constitutes the foundation of the whole Torah, for no one can have a part in the Torah of Moses our teacher unless he believes that all things and events are miraculous in scope; there is no natural or customary way of the world.⁶

The splitting of the sea wasn’t just about saving the Jewish people from the Egyptians—it was about fundamentally transforming how we perceive reality. When water defied its nature to stand like walls, when the seabed became instantly dry, when everything we thought we understood about the physical world was dramatically overturned—a veil was lifted. Suddenly, the Jewish people could see that what we call “nature” is merely God’s habitual way of running the world. There is no fundamental difference between the “supernatural” splitting of the sea and the “natural” daily rising of the sun. Both are expressions of Divine Will. Both are miracles. Through the Exodus and the Splitting of the Sea, God taught us to see His hand in everything—from the spectacular to the mundane, from the once-in-history to the everyday.

Living with Miracle Vision

Armed with the Ramban’s profound insight, the seventh day of Passover becomes much more than a commemoration of an ancient miracle—it becomes a gateway to transformed perception. When we recognize God’s constant orchestration of all existence, the boundary between ‘miraculous’ and ‘natural’ dissolves, and our entire worldview shifts.

First, we begin to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. The sunrise is no less miraculous than the sea standing as walls—both manifest divine will. Our beating hearts, the blooming spring flowers, the intricate dance of atoms in every object—all are direct expressions of God’s continuous involvement in creation.

Second, this awareness naturally cultivates gratitude. As we recognize that nothing happens “by itself,” we develop a profound appreciation for the countless miracles that constitute our daily lives. This gratitude transforms how we engage with the world, fostering joy and wonder where we might otherwise see mundane routine.

This perception isn’t just philosophical—it’s the foundation of our entire relationship with God. When we recognize His active involvement in all events, our connection with Him becomes intimate and continuous rather than distant and intermittent. Our prayers become meaningful conversations with the active Author of reality, not futile requests to change autonomous laws. Our observance of mitzvot becomes participation in a responsive relationship; not mechanical adherence to abstract rules. With this miracle-vision, we approach the Torah as a guidebook for living in harmony with the Divine Will that manifests in every moment of existence—from the splitting of the seas to the setting of the sun.

Chag Sameach!
Avraham

1. Mechilta d’Rabbi Yishmael (Beshalach, Parashah 4)
2. Gevuros Hashem 34
3. Kahneman, D., Fredrickson, B. L., Schreiber, C. A., & Redelmeier, D. A. (1993). When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End. Psychological Science, 4(6), 401–405.
   This seminal paper established the theory that people judge experiences primarily based on how they felt at their peak (the most intense point) and at their end, rather than based on the sum or average of every moment of the experience.
4. “Koffka, K. (1935). Principles of Gestalt Psychology. Harcourt, Brace and Company.
   “This is where the famous quote “The whole is other than the sum of the parts” appears (often misquoted as “greater than the sum of its parts”).
5. Mechilta d’Rabbi Yishmael, Parashat HaShira, Chapter 3
6. Ramban on Exodus 13:16

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