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#936, Tuesday, January 20, 2004
City Scientists Say Red-Sea Miracle Can Be Explained
By Galina Stolyarova
STAFF WRITER
"And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground: the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left."
Exodus 14
Two Russian mathematicians have attempted to explain the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, which according to the Old Testament and the Torah allowed the Jews to escape slavery in Egypt.
The Egyptians who followed them were drowned in the waves as they attempted to follow, the Bible story says.
St. Petersburg mathematician Naum Volzinger, who wrote a study in collaboration with colleague Alexei Androsov, who lives in Hamburg, is a senior researcher with the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He said the Red Sea might have parted under special conditions, which their study has discovered.
The study focuses on a reef that runs from the well-documented starting point of the Jews to the north side of the Sea. In Biblical times the reef was much closer to the surface, Volzinger said Monday in a telephone interview.
The study took almost six months to complete and was a purely mathematical task, he said.
Called "Modeling of the Hydrodynamic Situation During the Exodus," and published in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"In purely professional terms, I can say that it was done through a system of differential equations," Volzinger said.
Put simply, the task facing the scientists was to establish the conditions under which the waves might have parted.
The questions the Russian researchers were interested in for the Exodus study were, for instance, the speed of the wind and the strength of the storm needed to leave the reef high and dry at low tide; how long would the reef stay would dry and how quickly the waters would return.
"If the [east] wind blew all night at a speed of 30 meters per second then the reef would be dry," Volzinger said. "It would take the Jews - there were 600,000 of them - four hours to cross the 7 kilometer reef that runs from one coast to another. Then, in half an hour, the waters would come back."
At the Institute of Oceanology, Volzinger researches various ocean phenomena, including flooding and tidal waves.
The miracle of the parting of the sea is mentioned in the Shema, one of the most important Jewish prayers, which is said by religious Jews three times daily. Not only did the Jews cross the sea to escape from slavery in Egypt, but the Egyptians who followed them drowned in the sea, according to the book of Exodus in the Old Testament and in the Torah.
Mark Grubarg, the head of the Jewish community in St. Petersburg, said the spiritual value of this miracle is immense for Jews.
"Jews were the first nation in history to accept monotheism but they could hardly assert it while in slavery in Egypt," Grubarg said. "God told them to return to the Promised Land, and this is why it was so important. When the Jews reached the sea, they needed a miracle to complete their journey, and they were granted that miracle as a reward for their strong faith. The idea of monotheism is reflected in the Shema prayer."
This extraordinary event has long preoccupied people's minds: Medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas said the parting of the Red Sea was possible.
A number of researchers around the globe have tried to determine the probability of such an event taking place and to calculate the odds but now Volzinger and Androsov decided to focus on what it would take for the miracle to happen.
Volzinger said he and Androsov studied the issue "strictly from Isaac Newton's point of view" as he puts it. "I am convinced that the God rules the Earth through the laws of physics," he smiles. Yet he acknowledges the religious importance of the miracle. "To fulfill their historical mission, the Jews needed to return to a free land," the scientist said.
"The miracle really did influence the formation of the nation's character, strengthening the belief in their historical path," Grubarg said.
When the Jews reached the shores of the Red Sea they were divided as to what to do next. One quarter wanted to return to Egypt, longing for guaranteed meals despite the humiliation of slavery; another quarter considered a hand-to-hand fight with the enemy; another quarter resorted to prayers, and only the remaining 25 percent believed they should head towards their land across the sea - because God told them to do so.
"There is so much wisdom to learn from that episode - from just how easily many of us can forget and even accept the horrors of slavery to the importance of being able to listen to God and follow him without any doubts," Grubarg said. "Naturally, for us, the parting of the Red Sea was a miracle and nothing else."
Volzinger said he hasn't yet informed any religious organizations about the scientists' findings and they haven't had any reaction yet.
But the parting of the Red Sea, Volzinger argues, isn't likely to happen again. The reef has now been severed to create a passage for ships and the water is now much deeper. Unless, that is, another miracle occurs.
http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/936/top/t_11445.htm