A number of years ago, Mottie Green shared with me a chiddush about the sea splitting. It seems that the sea was split not once but twice; once for the nation and once for Dasan and Avirom. I never knew this and he showed it to me in the Targum Yonatan. After Am Yisrael left Egypt and was resting along the sea, the pasuk states that Pharaoh spoke to Bnei Yisrael. Who was this that he spoke to if they all left Egypt? It was Dasan and Avirom who stayed behind. They thought that Bnei Yisrael were only going on a three-day road trip so they did not bother going. Later when they discovered that they were leaving indefinitely, they realized they missed the boat. They followed in the chase and watched as Pharaoh and his army drowned and then the sea split again just for them.
Dasan and Avirom were the two individuals that were fighting and Moshe called them a Rasha. They then snitched on Moshe and he had to run for his life. During the 40 years in the desert they always caused trouble so why were they needed? Why weren’t they left to die like the other 80% in the Makah of darkness? Why did these individuals merit such a great miracle for themselves?
The Gra as repeated in the sefer Kol Eliyahu asked a question; in one place the Torah said the Bnei Yisrael went into “the sea on dry land and the water was a wall on both sides”. In another place, verse 29, it states Bnei Yisrael went “on the dry land in the sea and the water was a wall on both sides”. There are two discrepancies in these pasukim. #1 did they go into the sea or dry land? #2 the word wall “choma” has two spellings; in the first verse it’s with a Vav and in the second verse it is written without a Vav. The Gra asked, why is the pasuk written in two different ways? The Gra explains that the people that had faith in Hashem jumped in when the sea was in place. The people that were lacking in Emuna only went in once the sea had turned to dry land. The wall was spelled without a Vav and can also be read chama-anger. The sea was angry at those who waited and did not display emunah in Hashem.
This deepens our question. If the sea was upset at those who waited to jump in, how much more it should have resisted splitting for Dasan and Aviram who waited until after the Egyptians drowned. Why would it split again for them?
Maharil Diskin explains that Dasan and Avirom were Jewish policemen during the enslavement in Egypt. When the work quota was not filled they were held responsible and received many beatings in the place of other Jews. They hated Moshe and Aaron because when they came into the picture things only got more difficult for Bnei Yisrael. As the work quotas increased and supplies diminished Dasan and Aveiram received even more beatings. It seems somewhat justified for them to dislike Moshe and Aaron although they stuck their neck out for the rest of the Jewish people. They stayed behind in case Moshe’s plan would fail and the nation would need to return to Egypt.
This was why they merited the sea to split a second time just for them. When a person is willing to take a hit for someone else to save their life they gain tremendous merit. A person can change the course of nature due to his selfless actions.
