Beshalach: Tefillah "And B'nei Yisroel cried out to the L-rd" (14: 10)
There are times when a person's situation isn't going that well, and he perceives his situation—he's stuck in a bitter rut. Through this he ends up magnifying his inabilities and his uneasiness only grows. There are feelings of pain and despair and he ends up loosening his grip on the yetzer ha'ra (the inclination towards evil).
The depression and despair are all tools of the yetzer ha'ra to bring us down. As our Rabbis tell us; depression and sadness, even though they are not forbidden in themselves, bring on a darkness that even the most severe transgressions cannot cause. The comfortable walls of familiarity start to crumble and we find ourselves lost.
We usually think to ourselves, "How'd I get here? I'd be better off, if only I wasn't in such a situation." However, with the ordeal come specialized and personalized opportunities that can only be reached through the challenge.
It's known that the holy Kotzker Rebbe used to comment on the Mishna (Pirkei Avos 2:4) which states "Do not say, 'When I have the time free, I shall learn (Torah)' – maybe you will never get free time." He would explain that a person should never say "I haven't got the free time. When things get easier, then I'll learn." Maybe G-d's plan is specifically that you should find a way to learn despite the challenge of having no free time.
There is an important Midrash Rabba (21:5) which comments on the cry the Jews made in this week's parsha, when they saw the Egyptians chasing them:
"Pharaoh chasing after the Jews was better for the Jews than a hundred fasts and prayers could have ever been. When the Jews saw their enemies chasing them, they became very afraid, looked to heaven, repented and prayed."
What happened? The Jews said to Moshe, "What have you done to us? Now the Egyptians have come to reciprocate and inflict us with the plagues!" At that moment, they were surrounded: on one side, the sea; on the other side, the Egyptians. To the right and to the left, there were wild desert animals. They didn't know what to do. So, "they cried out to the L-rd."
Why did G-d allow this to happen? Because He desired the earnest prayers of the Jews.
R' Yehoshua ben Leivi explains that this is comparable to a king who was traveling and found a princess under attack from vagabonds. She cried out for him to save her, and he did. He brought her with him on his journey and eventually wanted to marry her.
But when he tried to talk to her, she refused to respond at all. What did the king do? He paid thieves to intimidate her, and she cried out for help once again. The king said that all he had wanted was to hear her sweet voice, crying out to him.
So too,when the Jews were in Egypt being beaten and worked to the bone, they cried out for G-d to save them. Immediately, G-d listened to them and initiated the process of redemption. Now, all G-d wanted was to hear our voice, but we stopped crying. So G-d sent Pharaoh chasing after us, in order to once again hear the sweet sound of our prayers.
The ideas here are central and fundamental. First, we see that G-d has real pleasure, as it were, when our prayers are motivated by a complete hope and reliance on Him. When a person realizes that there is no hope in the world apart from G-d and internalizes that understanding, he will never give up when the going gets tough.
On the contrary, he will feel ecstatic because he will know and feel that the only reason he is in such a situation is because G-d cares for him and craves his prayers. If a person is void of this emotional connection and everything is "la-ti-da", G-d will still want to hear his prayers and will help him into a situation that will ensure the connection must be made.
The Chofetz Chaim states, in his work "Meir Oni Yisroel", that at times a person will say to himself, "Had I been in a different situation, I would have served G-d properly. Had I been in a different generation, had a different chevrusa (learning partner), been in different surroundings… if not this, if not that…" And this is a huge mistake.
The ground on which you stand is holy ground. Your situation, with all its mishaps and details is a holy space and it is custom fitted and personalized with the tools you need to reach up to the next level. Step away from the computer and just take a step back; a second's thought will show you that there is no help other than G-d. We have the ability to use that mindset and clarity in all our prayers, and these troubles won't ever have to enter the world.
Another fundamental idea: there are times when a person's prayers reach up and a little Divine help comes. Then we forget about it and our prayers once again weaken. What G-d really wants is for us to continue our prayers with that elevated mindset, until the whole world has been put right through Divine help. We have no right taking a little help as soul-morphine. When the Jews escaped Egypt and the story was only half-told, they were satisfied. That was their mistake.
They say a parable about a person holding a valuable object in his hand with a very loose grip. If someone were to grab at it, wouldn't he tighten his grip? At that moment, he would become very conscious just how valuable the object is. In just this way, we can hope and pray that we're deserving to have everything that comes our way tighten our grip and bring us closer to G-d. |
