Answers to Quora Questions by Yair Davidiy
(9 April, 2018, 24 Nisan, 5778)
How is it possible to cross the Red Sea in 4 hours?
https://www.quora.com/How-is-it-possible-to-cross-the-Red-Sea-in-4-hours/answer/Yair-Davidiy
Source of picture: Natural Walkway, Baa Atoll, Maldives - Trending on Twitter
Where did you get the idea of 4 hours from? You asked:
How is it possible to cross the Red Sea in 4 hours?
Anyway, who says the Sea was crossed from one end to the other?
Rabbinical Commentaries ("Tosefot") on the Talmud in France in the Middle Ages opined that the Israelites went in at one end following a pathway that had been laid bare for them. They went in, did a U-turn, and came out.
Exodus (NASB) 14:
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. 22 The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit, and all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. 24 At the morning watch, the LORD looked down on the [n]army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. 25 He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, 'Let us flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against the Egyptians.' 26 Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.' 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh's entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. 29 But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
The opinion in question says that the exposed pathway led into where the Sea had been, continued for a while then did a U-turn, and led back (a little further down) onto the same side of the seashore they had started out on. It was as if the top of an underwater mountain ridge had been temporarily exposed. This became the dried pathway the Israelites passed over on. The Egyptians pursued after them but got caught in the sea when the waters came back whereas the Hebrews managed to reach dry ground. A strong wind had been blowing all night. There may well be a physical explanation for the whole event. If I remember correctly some years ago an article in the French-language Jewish religious magazine 'Kountras' discussed this issue complete with topographic maps of the Red Sea floor, etc.