Avot289

4:
The ten miracles that were performed for our ancestors at the Red Sea are not made explicit in the biblical text, but are derived from rabbinic exegesis. Actually, in the case of aggadic midrashim is would perhaps be more accurate to describe the process as rabbinic eisegesis rather than exegesis. For exegesis is the process of elucidating what is implicit in a text, whereas eisegesis is the process of reading into a text ideas that come from the mind of the interpreter. In his commentary on our present mishnah Rambam lists these items of eisegesis.

5:
The first miracle is the actual parting of the sea, which is, of course, explicit in the biblical text. The second miracle is that after the waters parted they are imagined to have risen above and formed a kind of vaulted roofing, so that the people passed through a kind of tunnel of water. However, the third miracle is that the waters froze above the people and to their sides so that it was more like walking through a tunnel of ice. The fourth miracle is that this tunnel of ice was not made of one block but of many blocks, so that it seemed to be made of ice bricks. The fifth miracle is that the sea bed froze as well so that it was as if the people were walking on dry land. The sixth miracle is that despite the fifth miracle, when the Egyptians plunged in after the Israelites they were bogged down in the muddy sea bed. The seventh miracle, according to rabbinic eisegesis, is that a separate path was made in the waters for each of the twelve tribes. The eighth miracle was that the ice walls were not opaque, but each of the tribes could see the others as each passed through their own passage. The ninth miracle was that although the icy tunnel was made of sea water it dripped pure drinking water so that the Israelites would not be thirsty as they made their way through. The last miracle is that after each Israelite had quenched his or her thirst the trickle of drinking water turned to ice again!

To be continued.

In Avot 287 we discussed the story of the Akedah. Among other things I wrote that Abraham so loved God that he was prepared to give his only-begotten son.

Ed Frankel writes:

I have written on the Akeidah in many places, and I will not here. But reacting to your paragraph 29, while I sympathize on many levels, I am still forced to ask, in his willingness to give his son as sacrifice, does Abraham pass the test? Or even more central, what exactly is being tested?

I respond:

Clearly I have failed to make my thesis clear. I am suggesting that the purpose of the test – indeed, the purpose of all the tests mentioned in the mishnah – was not to afford God any knowledge that he did not previously have, but to demonstrate to Abraham that his God was not a figment of his imagination. The very fact that no loving father would dream that God demands of him that he sacrifice his son must serve to indicate to Abraham that his God is not in his imagination.

As far as God is concerned there was never any intention at all for Isaac to be killed. The prophet [Jeremiah 7:30-31] quotes God as saying:

And when the Gemara [Ta'anit 4a] quotes the last phrase of these verses – which never entered my mind – it is to comment that this refers to Isaac son of Abraham.