Miracles are like a good comedy, timing is the key. In this week's parsha there are a number of miracles performed, or for arguments sake - happening.

First of all there is the famous (and my personal favourite - look out for top ten miracles next conference!) splitting of the sea, whether Reed or Red (but not Read). There is the miracle of the manna which not only seemingly fell from the sky, but went "putrid and maggoty with worms" if left overnight, except on Shabbat when not only did it stay left overnight, but also did not fall the following morning. There is a miracle whereby Moshe is instructed to strike the rock to draw out water at Horev. There is also the miracle of Moshe's hands at the end of the parsha during the battle with The Amalekites, that when Moshe's hands are raised the battle goes in our favour, but when they are not The Amalekites start winning. However, what I wish to focus on is the splitting of the sea. Where exactly was this sea? It is usually translated as the Red Sea, but this is linguistically and geographically wrong. Anyone who translates Yam Suf as Red Sea is tragically ignorant! Yam Suf means Reed Sea (the mistake is probably the result of a medieval type error). Secondly, the Red Sea is on the wrong side of the Sinai Peninsula and would have meant The Israelites crossing the sea close to Eilat. There are several problems with this, most notably the distinct lack of anything mildly resembling godliness in Eilat - which makes a miracle almost out of the question!

When Napolean was on his Egyptian campaign, he ordered his engineers to survey the area around the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. What they discovered was a bank of sand which after a day and night of strong east wind would be revealed. Given that the wind is from the desert and therefore a hot wind makes claim that The Israelites walked through "on dry land" even more plausible. However, the passage also states that "the water was on their right and left like walls". Whether it was two walls or whether it was like the Midrash says - 12 tunnels, one for each tribe - is not really important, the key element is that it happened unexpectedly, but when it needed to happen. There is a saying "ein kol chadash tachat hashemesh", there's nothing new under the sun and if anyone tells you that during the Eighties the Japanese mastered the 'Just In Time' production technique they are sadly misinformed, G-d did about 3,500 years before!