5786 - The splitting of the Red Sea took place on the seventh day of Pesach. Our Sages said, "Making a match [for a person] is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea." Is there anything that is difficult for Hashem?

00:01 Speaker 1 We are on the eve of the seventh day of Pesach. The seventh day of Pesach was the completion of the Exodus from Egypt. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu split the sea and the Jewish people crossed it, that completed the Exodus from Egypt. It says that splitting the sea was difficult. When we want to describe something difficult, we say it is “as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea.” Finding a person’s match is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea. Providing a person’s sustenance is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea. The question is: How can anything be difficult for Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Is one thing easy and another difficult? Hakadosh Boruch Hu can do anything. Just as His power extends to the infinite, it extends to the finite. How can difficulty apply to Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Was splitting the Red Sea difficult? So it’s explained with a story. There was once a young man who was having a hard time finding a match. He went to the rosh yeshiva and asked, “What should I do?” The rosh yeshiva told him, “Do teshuvah.” The young man said, “Doing teshuvah is a very good thing, but what does it have to do with my match?” The rosh yeshiva explained: “It says that forty days before a child is formed, they already announce in Heaven, ‘The daughter of so-and-so is destined for so-and-so.’ But back when that ‘so-and-so’ was still up in Heaven, he was much purer and more refined. Twenty years later, after coming down into this world, he isn’t exactly the same person he was before. So the woman looking for the man announced in Heaven doesn’t recognize him. But if you do teshuvah, she’ll recognize you, and you’ll find your match.” That’s what the difficulty means. It isn’t that something is difficult for Hakadosh Boruch Hu; rather, there is a difficulty here, a difficult moment. The same applies to a person’s sustenance. It says that a person’s sustenance is determined during the Ten Days of Teshuvah,

02:15 Speaker 1 from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, for the entire year. But during those days, after all the work of Elul and after doing teshuvah, a person is on a different level. Later, throughout the year, it says that a person is judged each day regarding his sustenance. But wasn’t it already determined during the Ten Days of Teshuvah? His sustenance was already set. The thing is, during the Ten Days of Teshuvah he was on a completely different level. As time passes over the course of the year, he isn’t the same person he was during the Ten Days of Teshuvah. That’s the difficulty here. There is a challenge raised against him, and that’s the difficulty. The same was true at the splitting of the Red Sea. What was the difficulty? It says that the Attribute of Judgment argued, “These worship idols, and those worship idols. Why should these drown in the sea while Hakadosh Boruch Hu saves those?” That was the difficulty: there was an accusation. There was the Attribute of Judgment. That is what is meant by difficulty regarding a person’s sustenance, regarding a person’s match, and also on the seventh day of Pesach. The difficulty comes from the accusation, from the Attribute of Judgment raising an objection: “This doesn’t seem just. Why is this happening?” So this is the meaning of the seventh day of Pesach: Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed miracles for us, brought us through the sea, and took us out of Egypt. “As in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.” The future Geulah will be wondrous even compared with the Exodus from Egypt. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu performs wonders for us. Have a joyous Yom Tov.

04:01 Speaker 2 Have a joyous Yom Tov.

04:01 Speaker 1 May we only do good things, with Hashem’s help.