I created The Pshat Heard 'Round the World some eighteen years ago, and I posted weekly on the parashah for about two years. Other items were added here and there subsequently, but for a long time it's been inactive. IYH, I will be starting a new series of pieces on tefillah, with special attention to the first beracha of the Amidah. My claim and approach will be that the first beracha of the Amidah teaches us how to pray and how to pray it! We'll start with a few preparatory and introductory pieces before jumping in to the beracha itself, phrase by phrase. I am considering enabling comments and dealing with "hackish" comments as they inevitably come, so keep tuned.
Why does the Torah tell us about the Splitting of the Red Sea, but only hints about the Sealing of the Mountain Pass? "Huh", you ask, "what's the Sealing of the Mountain Pass?" See Rashi on B'midbar 21:15. There he relates what actually transpired as Am Yisrael north on the "Jordanian" side of the Jordan valley, near the Dead Sea: There was a narrow cleft in the Mountains of Edom, one of many running east to west along the extent of the valley. The many caves and crevices make excellent hiding places, and the Amorites hid there, intending to fall upon the unsuspecting Israelites as they passed through. But as they were hiding there, and before Am Yisrael arrived, Hashem made the two sides come together, such that a protruding rock on one side fit perfectly into a recess on the other, crushing the enemy to death in their thousand hiding places, and saving Am Israel from certain destruction. The only way we knew what happened was afterwards, ...