No Magic Can Split the Sea

Avi asks:

"It's written in the Rambam (in the Laws of the Fundamentals of Torah, Chapter 8) that Israel believed in Moses' prophecy, not because of all the miracles during the Exodus, because those could have been through illusions and magic, but they believed because of the event at Mount Sinai. However, I'm not sure I understand: Did Rambam mean to say that they could have mistakenly thought that the splitting of the Red Sea and all the plagues were done by magic? If so, what makes the Sinai event special? Thank you."

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Hello and blessings Avi, and thank you for your intriguing question.

The Rambam certainly didn't mean to suggest that the plagues in Egypt could have been executed through magic, as he believes that all magic is merely optical illusions and sleight of hand tricks that magicians used to deceive the masses into believing their nonsense. The Torah wanted to distance us from the lies of charlatan idol worshippers, which is why it prohibited engaging in magic and sorcery (as the Rambam explained in the Mishneh Torah, Laws of Idolatry, Chapter 11). Rabbi Saadia Gaon also interpreted the acts of the Egyptian magicians, who made it appear as if their staffs turned into snakes using sleight of hand, while the staff of Moses truly transformed into a snake and swallowed their snakes

Of course, any logical person can understand that no human handiwork, whether magic or sleight of hand, can produce the plagues of Egypt or create control on a grand scale over natural laws. Just as a very strong man might lift a heavy rock but will never be able to move a mountain, likewise a magician or an illusionist might show a small glass of water turning into blood, but they could never turn an entire sea into blood, bring down fire and hail together from the sky, kill all the firstborn in an entire land in an instant, split the sea and drown an army, sustain a nation of millions for 40 years in a desert, and so on with other great miracles witnessed by all of Israel.

The great miracles in the Torah could only have been performed by the Creator of the world because only the Creator has the absolute control over all natural laws on a universal scale. To kill all the firstborn of Egypt instantly, for example, one would have to be everywhere in the land simultaneously and have a superhuman memory to know who was a firstborn and who wasn't. Only the infinite God, present everywhere and at all times, is capable of performing miracles on a national scale. Even the magicians in Egypt understood that the great miracles couldn't be performed through magic and trickery: "And the magicians said to Pharaoh: This is the finger of Hashem" (Exodus 8:15).

The Ramban explained similarly, stating that the difference between a true divine miracle and the acts of a magician is that the miracle creates a change in physical reality, occurring in actuality and altering it, while a magician's actions are only appearances (similar to an optical illusion), so magic cannot truly change physical reality. As he wrote in his holy words: "Because we knew from the Exodus from Egypt that it's a real act, not a vision or spectacle, for to Hashem belongs the land, and He renews and wills and is capable and there is no God besides Him..." (In his commentary on Deuteronomy, Chapter 13, Verse 2).

The proof of the miracles of the Exodus was that they indeed happened in tangible reality, not just in appearance. Magic (or any deceitful act like drugs or hypnosis) cannot bring genuine change to reality, win wars, drown an army at sea, feed an entire nation in the desert and keep them from hunger and thirst to death, swallow Korach and his followers into the earth, collapse the walls of Jericho with trumpet blasts, and conquer the land. The miracles recounted in the Torah indeed changed the nature and history of Israel, showing true divine control over natural laws.

Now let's return to your question. The Rambam's intention was to say that the masses (including the mixed multitude) who mistakenly believed in the existence of magic because of the Egyptians might have had second thoughts. Even though the people did not doubt the miracles of the Exodus, as it is explicitly stated after the splitting of the Red Sea: "And they believed in Hashem and in Moses His servant" (Exodus 14:31), meaning everyone understood that such powerful miracles couldn't be performed through magic, nonetheless, such thoughts could mistakenly enter their minds, and the nation's faith wasn't complete until the event at Mount Sinai, where it is explicitly stated: "So that the people will hear when I speak to you, and they will also believeforever" (Exodus 19:9). Not just "believe", but "believe forever"!

The Rambam explained that the revelation at Mount Sinai was more powerful than the miracles of the Exodus because it was a prophetic revelation: every person of Israel heard the voice of Hashem speaking to them directly, raising the entire nation to the level of prophets. Unlike the ten plagues, the revelation of the divine at Mount Sinai was direct, not through intermediaries like nature or appearances. Anyone who personally heard the voice of Hashem speaking to them within their heart and soul would no longer doubt or question this revelation, just as someone who dies and meets God would no longer question His existence. As the Rambam wrote (there): "Before this event (the revelation at Sinai) they did not believe in Moses with a faith that stands forever, only a faith that can have doubts or thoughts", it was only at Mount Sinai that it was said "and they will believe in you forever" (Exodus 19:9), meaning without any possibility of doubt afterward. This is also the proof that the revelation was indeed genuine, as it removed the last trace of doubt even from those who might think in terms of magic, unable to attribute such a revelation to human acts. My thanks go to Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Segal, who approved and helped improve the article.