פרשת בשלח
This week’s Parsha opens with the Jewish people finding themselves in a very difficult predicament. They have successfully left Egypt and fled to the desert, but now the Egyptians are right on their tail and the ocean is in front of them; they find themselves completely trapped. So Moshe Rabenu does the only thing he can, he turns to Hashem and cries out with all his might to save the Jewish people. Hashem responds to Moshe’s fervent prayer by saying that now is not the time for prayer and that instead, the proper action to take is to have the Jewish people move forward.
The Ohr Hachaim on this week’s Parsha asks a powerful question. Generally speaking, the best response to any challenging situation is prayer. How much more so should this policy apply to the week’s Parsha where the Jews have no recourse other then to turn to Hashem! Why then does Hashem tell them not to pray and to simply press on? And where exactly did He expect them to go?
The Ohr Hachaim answers by invoking the words of the Zohar on this week’s Parsha. The Zohar says that during that particular moment in history, Hashem was running the world with the attribute of judgment, and not with mercy, because the Jews did not have enough merit to warrant Hashem’s running the world with mercy. The Ohr Hachaim explains that prayer is far more effective when the world is in a mode of mercy, but when the world is being run with “din” – strict judgment – prayer will not be as effective. For this reason, Hashem told Moshe to move forward and to enter the sea. By this powerful display of Emunah and trust in Hashem, the Jews would be successful in evoking Hashem’s mercy and switching His mode of conduct from strict judgment to compassion and mercy. After this transfer had occurred, their prayer would be heard and accepted.
One point that clearly emerges from this Ohr Hachaim is that an integral component of the Jewish peoples’ salvation during their tribulation at the sea was their rock solid faith in Hashem and His ability to save them. Indeed, R’ Chazkal Levenstein explains that this development of faith was one of the central themes of the Jewish people for their entire sojourn in the desert. For example, he explains, when they left Egypt, they did so with just enough supplies to live for only a few days. Yet they were going into the wilderness for an indeterminate amount of time. Similarly, they entered this wasteland with no water or shelter to speak of, and the Midrash says that it looked to everyone of that time like certain death. The only way they could have done this was if they had fostered a complete faith in Hashem that He would not lead them astray and would care for their needs. When they arrived at the sea, the Midrash says that Pharaoh and the Egyptians were so close that they could reach out and touch the Jewish people. Yet the Jewish people were expected to trust fully in Hashem that He would save them, even at such an ominous hour. Furthermore, when they stepped foot in the sea, Chazal explain that the entire ocean did not split at once, but rather every step they took, the sea split a little bit more until they reached the other side safely. R’ Chazkal concludes that we see from all these examples that Hashem’s primary goal by bringing the Jews into the desert was to increase and develop the Jews’ faith in Him to the point that they would trust in Him completely blindly. R’ Chazkal explains that the only way to do this was to give them difficult trials, one after the other, and only through this process could He galvanize their faith in Him to the point where it would last for all future generations.
R’ Chazkal was often heard quoting his Rebbi, the Sabba from Kelm who used to quote the verse in Psalms (34) which says, “Much evil befalls the righteous one, but Hashem saves him from all of it”. The Sabba used to explain that in fact, the only way for a person to become righteous, is if he has had a lot of difficulties come his way, so much so that he begins to question whether or not he is traveling upon the best path. But despite all of his difficulties, the righteous man’s faith in God and God’s justness never waivers and he continues to do His will with complete dedication. Only through this process can a person ever truly deserve the title Tzadik.
The message for us is clear. We are responsible to build up our faith in Hashem and the justness of His ways in all that befalls us. The way to do this is to involve Hashem in all our daily activities, from the most monumental to the most mundane. To involve Hashem and pray to Him for our success and to truly realize that without His help, we would be completely incapacitated. Many people believe in Hashem on an abstract level, knowing that He is out there and has a basic power over the world and is available for prayer three times a day, but do not necessarily involve Him in their daily interactions. This is not the correct attitude. Rather a person should try to realize that Hashem is with him every second, and turn to Hashem for help throughout every situation that arises during the course of their day, realizing that only He has the power to help them any time they turn to Him. This kind of attitude will foster a deep belief in Hashem – the kind that was intended for all Jews to reach. Parenthetically, there is a wonderful fringe benefit to this kind of existence. When a person lives with this kind of total faith in Hashem it will completely relieve him of all the terrible worries and tension from which the rest of the world suffers. He will no longer be constantly worried about the future, or second guessing the decisions he has made in the past, because he will be completely saturated with the knowledge that nothing could have happened unless Hashem wanted it to. And although some of his decisions may have not turned out as positive as he had hoped, he will be convinced that Hashem chose to make them turn out precisely the way they did for his benefit.
I would just like to conclude with the beautiful words of the Tzadik R’ Gershon Leibman Zt”l. R’ Gershon used to point out that after the Jews sang the song of thanksgiving to Hashem for saving them from the Reed Sea, Miriam led all the women in a song of thanks as well. The verse uses a peculiar term to describe Miriam’s drum that she used to compose her song. Is says that she used “the drum”. R’ Gershon explains that Miriam actually had this drum made before they left Egypt, and she brought it with her in anticipation of Hashem’s salvation and with forethought that she would have the opportunity to give thanks to Him. They explain further that Miriam actually had this drum made when her father Amram remarried his wife Yocheved. Miriam herself convinced him to do this because he had argued that there was no point in staying married since the Egyptians were killing all of the boys and therefore divorced his wife. However Miriam argued that his decree was worse then Pharaoh’s. Pharaoh only killed the boys, but Amram was eradicating the girls as well. It was this argument of faith in Hashem which Miriam used to convince Amram to remarry his wife, and of course, which then heralded the birth of Moshe Rabenu. During this marriage, Miriam constructed her famous drum and played it at the wedding. She then played it again after Hashem had split the sea for the Jews. R’ Gershon explains that her goal in using the same drum was to demonstrate to the entire Jewish nation that it was specifically because of the faith in God that her family displayed back in Egypt when times were rough, that the Jews merited to be redeemed. From this unbelievable series of events, we see that if a person is strong, and trusts in Hashem fully during the difficult times, he will merit to praise God’s glorious Name after everything works out for the best.
May we all merit to foster a powerful faith in Hashem and enjoy the benefits in this world, and the next!