Water Of Destrution

The Rambam Ch. 8 of Yesoday HaTorah says כל האותות שעשה משה במדבר לפי הצורך עשאם לא להביא ראיה על הנבואה היה צריך להשקיע את המצריים קרע את הים והצלילן בתוכו צרכנו למזון הוריד לנו את המן וכו.  The Rambam says the Egyptians had to be drowned into the sea; this punishment had to befall them.  Why is this the punishment that has to befall the Egyptians?  

The Maharal (Gevurot Hashem Ch. 14) notes that many times punishment is carried out by G-d using water, the mabul, Egyptians, Sisra, the generation of Enosh, etc.  He explains the reason this is the choice method of punishment is water for when something is enveloped in water it totally loses its essence.  The nature of water is that it has no shape of its own, it takes the shape of whatever the container it is placed in.  Water has no innate צורה, no identity and therefore when someone sins to the point where they have no self worth, no צורה of their own, they become washed away in water.  

The word מצרים is a contraction of the words מצר ים, a boundary to the sea.  The Egyptians worshipped the Nile River for it naturally overflowed and gave them water.  They did not pray to G-d to give them rainwater.  they were held in by the nature held the boundaries of nature could not be violated.  Pharaoh said מי ה' אשר אשמע בקולו.  He heard from Yosef there was אלקים, a G-d who worked within the parameters of nature and that he agreed with but he did not agree there is a יקוק to override nature.  They were bound by nature.  Hence the Egyptians were drowned in the ים סוף, the end of the the sea.  They reached the endpoint of nature and there was no place further to go.  

The Maharal (Gevuros Hahem Ch. 18) asks why was Moshe called Moshe since מן המים משיתהו, he should have been named after being picked up from the river since he was rescued from the Nile?  The Maharal explains that water has no shape of its own, it takes the shape of whatever the container it is placed in.  This demonstrates that water has no צורה of its own, it has no identity, it is pure חומר which is malleable and has no sense of self.  He adds, ולכך נקראים תמיד בלשון רבים, ולא תמצא לשון יחיד במים. לפי שכל אחדות מכח הצורה המאחד את הדבר, והמים הם בלי צורה גמורה, ולפיכך המים, שהם בלי צורה מקוימת, בלשון רבים.  Moshe was the opposite of חומר, was complete צורה so it is built into his name that he is separate from water.  Moshe was the antitheses to Egypt.  He was totally above the boundaries of nature.  (That is why his grave can't be found, it is not limited to a specific spot in nature.)