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, when we saw the stream red with blood at the foot of the restored cleft.
Both this and this are miraculous intercessions on the part of Hashem, changing nature in a seemingly impossible way. Both saved the Jewish people and enabled them to pass on. So why tell of one and not the other?
On a simple level, one could say that lots of miracles happened during the transit, the Torah doesn't relate them all, and the splitting of the Red Sea just after the emergence of Am Yisrael from Egypt, right when everyone, upon seeing the pursuing Egyptians, is ready to abandon everything which has been achieved - and who could blame them? - is much more dramatic, and obviously had a lasting impact, as evidence by the Song of the Sea (but see there in B'midbar - there was another song that reference that later event).
But I think we can say more: Closing the unclosable and opening the unopenable are both equally astonishing, but only one serves as an example and metaphor for our journey in life. As Jews, we are bidden to repeatedly pull open our ever-encrusting natures, in order to move on, in order to allow a new flow of divine life-creating stuff into the world. What we've achieved remains, but becomes a substrate for the next outflow of burning, glowing lava, which will add its energy and substance, until it cools and congeals and nature reasserts its dominance.
Opening, passage and long-overdue punishment (Egypt) inspires faith and models a way of being, and thus its account is trumpeted publicly; closure, blockage and preemptive punishment (Edomites), though indispensable the larger scheme of things, need not be modeled for imitation for us finite creatures who are all too given to acting in this mode, as we gain our being, identity and justification from separation and constriction. Hashem, in His wisdom, performed "behind the scenes" and left it for us to re-discover and apply ever so judiciously.
May we, tonight, see the Great Hand of Hashem set against Egypt, and awestruck, may we trust in the miracle that it is possible to serve the Infinite One of Israel! Chag Sameach.
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