Why specify the wind as the force for Hashem's miracles?

Question

There seems to be a consistent phenomenon where the Torah relays a miracle or sign of Hashem, but only when He carries the act out through wind is the process specified. Why is this?

See parshas Bo 10 13 where the east wind is described as bringing the locust. By no other makeh is the physical process for bringing the plague described.

Famously in parshas Bishalach 14 21 a powerful east wind is described as drying the sea bed.

Again in parshas Beha'alosecha 11 31 the quail are brought through a wind. We are never told how Manna was created or brought.

Also of note is ורוח אלקים מרחפת על פני המים in Bereishis 1:2, as pointed out by @Shokhet. Targum there says it was a רוח מן קדם ה׳, a wind from Hashem.

I am not going into descriptions of wind involvement found in the prophets, but if it would help, feel free to reference them.

So what is special about wind that it is mentioned when used by Hashem? There seems to be no other force consistently mentioned when used by Him.

Answer 1

Ruach was the first herald to the shechinah mentioned in malachim 19:11, followed by ra'ash, then eish, then the kol demamah dakah (shofar).

That also seems to follow the structure of har sinai - the cloud came first (ruach), then the ra'ash came before the eish, and right before it says the dibros it says "Kol hashofar halech vichazek me'od."

Most situations/nisim are resolved primarily with ruach, and only afterwards come the others as needed. See Korach - first the annan is seen, then the ra'ash and the eish when they fail to heed the annan.

Eschatological texts in tanach suggest that we go through a period of eish and ra'ash (including an earthquake in Israel) before we reach "Uvayom hahu yitaka bashofar gadol."

So to summarize, the ru'ach seems to symbolize the "first line" of miracles. Larger miracles invoke eish and ra'ash, and the shechinah itself seems to be heralded after these via the shofar.

Answer 2

The weather has many variables and is therefore still in the hands of Hashem. We pray for good weather, but we don't pray for the rest of nature to continue.

Although Hashem controls the whole world, when something out of the ordinary happens we can't trace it to Hashem unless it stands out in timing or in its wonder. When the wind causes something it is still not seen as simply nature, since there is no constant nature for the wind.

To be a bit more clear, even during a great miracle there is, or might as well be, some kind of scientific phenomenon going on beneath the surface. The splitting of the sea might have been performed by combining seldom known, or unknown, natural phenomena and lining them up through the variables of nature. These wouldn't be mentioned, since the 'how' is unimportant and diverts attention from the point, which is that Hashem runs and rules the world.

On the other hand, watching an unexpected wind bring something grand about only adds to the idea that it is intervention from above.