There might be many reasons why this day would feel extra. But there’s a real reason why it seems extra, and that is because nothing anticipated it. In contrast, what happened in Egypt to the Jews was foretold. It did not have to take place in Egypt but Avraham Avinu was told that there would be servitude and that there would be affliction. All of those things were going to happen. Once they were prophesied, in a sense they had to happen.
But Avraham Avinu was not told that there would be a wonder like the splitting of the sea. This is not obligated to happen. This means that what happened at the sea went beyond the Geula.
We know that we came out of Egypt into what we call ”Cherut” (freedom). The word doesn’t really appear in the Torah but there is a reference in Tanach to a Sar, or minister.
It is not the freedom to do as one pleases. It is the freedom to act like people of nobility. R’ Soloveitchik used to point out three big lacks in a slave: no time, no family, and no ability to give testimony. Just to focus on one of these: It does not mean that one who is free has all of the time in the world. Royalty does not in fact have almost any time to what we call “ourselves.”
I know that this person has been known for years but I just learned of Natan Gamedze, who was born into a noble family in Swaziland. His grandfather was king but the British messed up the secession. When he went searching for meaning outside of Southern Africa, he found himself in Shuls and in Batei Midrash. He eventually converted to Judaism and he lives in Tzfat. He said that one of the things that was easiest for him to learn in Judaism is that there are so many demands on one’s time. That is normal for royalty, he says.
These are the norms for Cherut, which is the theme at the beginning of the Chag. But the splitting of the sea took us to another level. It revealed a care which is familial, In the blessings we say after the Sh’ma, we invoke the splitting of the sea. The language in the evening is
המעביר בניו בין גזרי ים סוף….וראו בניו גבורתו
Hashem is the one who brought his children between the walls of the Reed Sea…And his children saw His strength.
The new language after the splitting of the sea is that we are Hashem’s children. The exodus brought us the freedom of nobility but the sea brought us into a relationship with Hashem as his children.
