Unity from division: The lesson of God splitting the Red Sea and the Jews

Normally, when we think of unity we think of the oneness of various different parts coming together to create a whole. The last thing we might imagine is that an act of separation can result in strengthened unity. 

The classic expression divide et impera, “divide and conquer,” attributed to Philip II of Macedon and used by Julius Caesar and Napoleon, is defined by Webster as “to make a group of people disagree and fight with one another so that they will not join together against one.” 

In military terminology, this means that the best way to defeat your enemy is to let them destroy themselves. 

Anwar Sadat, who brokered the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, writes in his autobiography that “to destroy Israel” is “to wage peace.” 

By creating an environment of peace, he explained, the Israelis will then turn inwards against themselves. Their unity will be lost and they will destroy each other. It is only when they are threatened from the outside do they unify. Sadly, his words still ring true today in Israel. 

Since the ongoing nightmare of October 7 began, many Israelis quietly held their breath wondering how long the country could hold on to the concept of unity. Some people gave it six months.

Perhaps the core problem is in understanding, from a Jewish perspective, what unity actually is. Maybe if we have a better, more true-to-life definition, it will make this seemingly elusive goal easier to obtain. 

Many Torah sages throughout history correctly pointed to the Mount Sinai experience as the ultimate example of national unity. 

Together, the entire nation stood, as Rashi says, “like one person with one heart,” committed to taking on whatever God was ready to give. Tragically, this total unity ended in an instant with a terrible spiritual drop into the pit of the golden calf – which then brought on Israel’s first civil war, led by Moses and the Levites.

“Moses said to them, ‘The God of Israel says: Each of you put a sword on your thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay sibling, neighbor, and kin.’ The men of Levi did as Moses had bidden and some 3,000 of the people died that day.”

Splitting of the Red Sea: Learning what went wrong with Jewish unity

To understand what went wrong with what appeared to be the perfect unity and how we could have gotten it right – and still can, we need to rewind from the dramatic scene of Moses bringing down the Ten Commandments (which he broke at the foot of Mount Sinai; and had to bring down new ones later) to the splitting of the sea.

According to our tradition, the sea did not split into one giant highway. Numerous sources point out that the sea split into 12 different parallel paths, one for each of the 12 tribes. As one delves into the Midrash, the imagery becomes fantastic almost to the point of disbelief. The Me’om Lo’az writes that the walls between the 12 paths were transparent. He writes that this was extremely important because it showed each tribe that all of the other tribes were experiencing the exact same miracle they were. 

It wasn’t merely that God provided a separate path for each tribe but that each tribe had to “see” the other tribes and “know” this. This was a great message in the splitting of the Sea of Reeds – that our differences can serve to unify us rather than be a source of division. 

This message was brought home a second time shortly after the splitting of the Sea of Reeds when the tribes came to a place called Elim. It is written “And they came to Elim, where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees; and they encamped beside the water.” The sages comment that the 12 springs afforded each tribe its own place to relax and drink. And the 70 palm trees are a reference to the 70 faces of the Torah – meaning that Torah wisdom can be grasped in 70 different facets.

However, the real source of Jewish unity happened many years prior to these events. It was when our Patriarch Jacob was on his deathbed and he summoned his 12 children. He was faced with 12 sons of whom no two were alike. Jacob was apprehensive about their future because the family blessings and traditions had been a purely father-to-son experience.

He was concerned that once he left this world, his sons would divide into 12 new religions. It was at this moment the sons said to their father, “Shema (listen) Yisrael (Jacob), God is our God, God is one.” Suggesting that just as God is one, so we are one and we will always be one, even though no two of us are alike. 

We find this idea continues even hundreds of years later when King Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem with 13 gates – one for each tribe and the 13th for those who do not know which tribe they belong to. Each tribe had its own flag, its own dress, and even its own way of prayer until Ezra, over 400 years later, created a homogeneous prayer for the entire nation (which broke down many years later into the variations we have today). 

Despite the nation’s differences, they all walked into the same Temple yet each through their own unique gate.

Maybe here is the key. As we know, “Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Ehad,” is the Jewish pledge of allegiance throughout time. As we also know from the Torah, the text that follows has a line that reads: “And you will love your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your power.” It does not say, “with all your brain,” reminding us of the old joke that where there are two Jews there are three opinions. 

Even if we don’t see eye to eye, we can always see heart to heart. And when we learn the lesson of the Sea of Reeds to feel unity in our hearts, with all our differences – not despite them – we can be more of the mind to “see” each other, be more forgiving, and be able to focus on the good that the other brings to the national table. 

Knowing how to divide and unify will create true and lasting freedom. ■