The Waters Of The Red Sea Refuse To Part

Shemot Rabbah 21:6

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·May 31, 2026

Immediately Moses obeyed the Holy One, blessed be He, and went to split the sea. But when he went to split the sea, it would not accept upon itself to be split. The sea said to him: Shall I be split because of you? I am greater than you, for I was created on the third day and you were created on the sixth. When Moses heard this, he went and said to the Holy One, blessed be He: The sea does not wish to be split. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He placed His right hand upon the right hand of Moses, as it is said: "Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses" (Isaiah 63:12). Immediately the sea saw the Holy One, blessed be He, and fled, as it is said: "The sea saw it and fled" (Psalms 114:3). Moses said to it: Why do you flee? The sea said to him: Because of the God of Jacob, because of the fear of the Holy One, blessed be He. Immediately, when Moses raised his hand over the sea, it was split, as it is said: "And the waters were divided" (Exodus 14:21).

Commentary

This myth echoes, and was likely inspired by, midrashic accounts of the reluctance of the upper waters to separate from the lower waters when God created a firmament between them. See "The Upper Waters and the Lower Waters," p. 104. Here the waters of the Red Sea refuse to part at the command of Moses, but when God appears they quickly do as they were told. The underlying meaning of this midrash may be that it was not Moses who accomplished the miracles associated with the Exodus, but God, whose power stood behind everything that Moses did. This interpretation follows rabbinic concern that Moses might be deemed a messianic figure and raised up to divine proportions. The rabbis may have been trying to avoid the kind of Moses fixation found among the Samaritans. To counter this, Moses was left almost entirely out of the Haggadah, despite his central role in freeing the people from Egypt, receiving the Torah, and leading them to the Holy Land.

Themes

Original Sources

Exodus Rabbah 21:6
Sefer ha-Yashar .

Biblical References

Exodus

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