Posted on January 17, 2019 (5779) By Rabbi Naftali Reich
| Series: L egacy | Level: B
If ever there was anyone caught between a rock
and a hard place it was the Jewish people on the shores of the Sea of Reeds. With their backs to the churning waters, they watched in wide- eyed horror as thousands of Egyptian chariots thundered towards them, murderous steel blades flashing in the sun. Desperately, the people plunged into the depths of the sea, and wonder of wonders, Hashem parted the waters and led them through to safety.
At this transcendent moment, their hearts filled with joy and gratitude, they burst into a thrilling song of praise which the Torah records verbatim. In one of the most passionate lines, they cry out, “Who is like You among the lords, O Hashem?” The Sages perceive a deeper dimension in this declaration. The Torah uses the Hebrew word eilim for lords, and the Sages detect in this an allusion to the Hebrew word ilmim, silent ones. Accordingly, the Jewish people were also saying, “Who is like You among the silent ones, O Hashem?” This, the Sages explain, was a prophetic reference to the destruction of the Second Temple and the devastation of Jerusalem by the evil Roman general Titus, who desecrated the sanctuary and spilled rivers of innocent Jewish blood while Hashem remained silent.
The question immediately arises: Why choose the occasion of
the splitting of the sea to mention Hashem’s silence during the holocaust that
destroyed Jerusalem?
We all know that when we go through periods of anguish we are
inclined to feel alienation and anger towards Hashem – even if we ordinarily
strive for high levels of faith and observance. Enough is enough, we scream
silently. How can You let us suffer so much pain? And this feeling of
abandonment, irrational as it is, just makes the suffering that much worse. Wouldn’t
our suffering be more bearable if we could see Hashem watching over us
throughout our ordeal, if we realized that, even in His silence, Hashem does
not abandon a single person to random fate.
At the Sea of Reeds, this realization struck the Jewish
people with great clarity. For so many years they had suffered the cruel agony
of Egyptian shackles, their backs bent in backbreaking labor, their hearts and
spirits shriveled inside their tortured bodies. It seemed as if the Creator had
forgotten them. But now, in the most stunning miraculous display, He had split
the sea to lead them to safety. Suddenly, they realized He had been watching
over them all along, that His love for them stretched back hundreds of years to
the Patriarchs. The
pain and suffering had been an indispensable feature of the
“iron crucible” of Egypt in which the Jewish people were molded and formed. From the perspective
of hindsight, their suffering was not random, and the silence was very eloquent
indeed.
As this important revelation sunk into the Jewish
consciousness beside the sea, they realized how important it was to remember it
for all future trials and travails. There would undoubtedly be other times of
divine silence in the face of Jewish suffering and misfortune. But if the
Jewish people would have the wisdom to perceive the benevolent presence of the
silent Creator they would be able to accept their lot with courage and hope,
and their suffering would be mitigated. Even during times of such profound
darkness as the destruction of Jerusalem by the evil Titus, they would not fall
victim to despair.
A young boy was wheeled into the operating
room for a serious procedure. He was frightened but all alone. He yearned for
the comforting hand of his father, but his father had been barred from the
sterile operating room.
I want my father, the boy thought desperately.
I want him here. But his father did not come, and the boy was terribly upset
and resentful. How could his father abandon him at this time, the most trying
of his entire life?
The operation was successful, and the boy was returned to his
room. There stood his father, tears streaming down his face. He hugged and
kissed his son with a greater outpouring of love than ever before. “My son, my
precious son,” he said. “How sad that you had to be in that operating room all by yourself, but I was in constant touch
with the doctors. You did not leave my thoughts, not even for a moment.”
In our own lives, all of us go through difficult periods at
one time or another. Grief and suffering are part of the very fabric of life.
But the way we deal with them is up to us. If we recognize that our warm and
loving Father in Heaven pays meticulous attention to every minute detail of our
lives, that He is with us constantly even in our darkest moments, we can find
peace and serenity that are not vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life.
Text Copyright ©
2009 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and T orah.org.
Rabbi
Reich is on the faculty of t he Ohr Somayach Tanenbaum Education Center.
Posted
on January 25, 2018 (5778) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah |
Level: B eginner It came to pass when Pharaoh sent the people, that G-d
did not lead them [by] way of the land of the Philistines for it was near,
because G-d said, “Lest the people reconsider when they see war and return to
Egypt.” (Shemos 13:17)
“Lest the people
reconsider: They will have [second] thoughts about [the fact] that they
left Egypt and they will think about returning. (Rashi)
The Jewish People have finally been granted permission to
leave Egypt, after 10 powerful plagues. There is a short cut to go to the
“Promised Land” and they take a detour that leads them into a trap by the Red
Sea and a circuitous route through the desert. Why were they led the longer
way?
They were sent by Pharaoh. The umbilical cord had not yet
been severed. They were still like a yoyo on the end of his string. The
greatest proof for this is when they were trapped by the sea. Pharaoh was
accompanied by 600 chosen chariots and they managed to terrorize a group of
more than 3 million people. The Jewish People were still under the spell of
Pharaoh as their boss. They were not ready to confront the warrior resistance
required to enter Eretz Yisrael.
As a nation we needed to go through some enormous training
sessions that would fully install the lessons of Emunah and Bitachon – absolute
trust in G-d! They were in need of experiencing, the splitting of the sea, a
war with Amalek, the daily gift of Bread from Heaven before they could begin to
be ready to face the real challenges of life.
We are granted here a window into the one of the ways of
HASHEM. It’s helpful to understand what happened here at this point in history
and it is instructive for many other situations as well. |
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I once heard the following profoundly
practical answer from Rabbi Nota Schiller the Dean of Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem
in response to an oft asked question: “Rabbi, why do bad things happen to good
people? Why is there suffering and disappointment in this world?” Rabbi Schiller pithily stated that when it comes to answering
the question of suffering on any scale there is a difference between an answer
and an approach. An answer eliminates the question. If I ask what 2 plus 2 is,
the number 4 negates the need for the question. We have our answer.
Any single approach might include understanding life in a
greater context from a number of angles. There are a few approaches that can be
rattled off here and now. There are transmigrating souls finishing parts of
previous missions. There’s a “pay now” versus “pay later” plan- in the face of
eternity. Sometimes people are being saved from becoming corrupted and ruined.
Then there is the possibility that someone is currently not ready for the size
of the challenge. Even though we may not know which approach applies in a
particular situation, some approach we may be aware of or another which is way
beyond our understanding must apply. An approach unlike an answer allows us to
live with the question.
I have learned (the hard way) to trust my GPS-
WAZE. One Friday morning I went to pick up my son at the airport. I was taken
off the parkway and sent on a long series of side roads. When I was directed to merge back onto the
Hutchinson River Parkway from the service road, just behind the ramp to go on
was a truck stuck under an overpass. The traffic was backed up for miles. I was
spared that whole mess. I picked up my son on time.
A family in Bnei Brak was granted a much-needed free vacation
in Sefad. When they arrived they were shocked to discover that the rental had
been double-booked and someone was already there. Before heading back home,
deeply disappointed the father and his son stopped to Daven Mincha.
The son channeled his family’s frustration into his prayers.
Impressed by the quality of his devotion, the Rabbi of the Shul took notice of
him and thought he might be a good match for his daughter. The idea was
pursued. They were introduced and later wed. It was certainly worthwhile to
take that detour and follow trustingly the WAZE of HASHEM.
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