Parashat Beshalach – Higher Than Tefilah

In our Parasha, Bnei Israel were for the first time facing a deadly situation, the sea in the front, the Egyptians in the back and it seemed like it’s the end of Geulat Mitzraim. At that moment Moshe was praying to Hashem and surprisingly Hashem’s response to Moshe was “what are you praying to me for?!, speak to Bnei Israel and start moving”.

The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh asks what does “what are you praying to me for” mean? when’s a better time to pray if not now?, so many times we see that Moshe prayed to Hashem, even later in our parasha yet we never see Hashem telling Moshe to stop praying so what happened by the sea that Hashem told Moshe to stop?

The answer might actually be understood through a Midrash. The Midrash says that when Bnei Israel came out of Egypt they looked like Egyptians so much that the Malachim came infront of Hashem and told him “Halalu ovdei avoda zara ve halalu ovdei avodah zara” meaning those are worshipping idols and those are worshipping idols, that Midrash says that Bnei Israel were so deep in the “Gates of Tumah” that if they stayed in Egypt even an extra second they would never be able to come out and in fact, only twenty percent came out at the end. When Bnei Israel were standing by the sea, they did not have enough zechuyot (merits) that their Tefilah will be answered and such a miracle as the splitting of the sea will be performed for them, at that moment Tefilah was just not enough, however, there is something much stronger than Tefilah and it’s Bitachon in Hashem, to have FULL trust in Hashem, knowing that no matter what, Hashem has a plan, Hashem is running the show, and so he will be our savior in the worst situations and therefore Hashem told Moshe “what are you praying to me for?, speak to Bnei Israel and start moving”. Nachshon Ben Aminadav was the first one to be Moser Nefesh on Hashem and he jumped into the water till they reached his mouth, at that moment “hegiu mayim ad nafesh” the sea split, but in order to have such mesirut nefesh we must first have full bitachon in Hashem.

When we have full bitachon in Hashem we understand that any situation in life, no matter how bad things get is the matter of 50/50 chances, 50% chances it will get better, 50% chances it won’t. There’s no such thing is “hardly any chances it’ll be ok”, nothing is too hard for Hashem and he can literally take a person from the bottom of the dirt to the highest of life, the yeshua (salvation) of Hashem is like the blink of an Eye as David Hamelech says.

When we come to Tefilah with the approach that NOTHING is too hard for Hashem to do and that he is the only one that decides what’s next, then BeEzrat Hashem, Hashem will listen to our Tefilot and help us because he sees we understand that if not for him, no one else could help us, as the pasuk says “Hashem tzuri, ve lo avlata bo” Hashem is my rock and he is never unfair.

The way we can reach such a level of Bitachon is actually in the end of our Parasha. The Torah tells us that when Bnei Israel went to fight Amalek, Moshe went up hill overlooking the war zone, when Moshe held his hands up Bnei Israel were winning and when he was putting them down Bnei Israel were losing. The Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashana says “DID THE HANDS OF MOSHE WAGE WAR OR CRUSH THE ENEMY? NOT SO; ONLY THE TEXT SIGNIFIES THAT SO LONG AS ISRAEL TURNED THEIR THOUGHTS ABOVE AND SUBJECTED THEIR HEARTS TO THEIR FATHER IN HEAVEN THEY PREVAILED, BUT OTHERWISE THEY FELL.” we learn from this gemara that a way for us to develop such bitachon in Hashem is by stopping for a moment and thinking about how powerful Hashem is, what a wonderful creation he made like the Navi says “Lift up your eyes on high and see, who created these, who takes out their host by number; all of them He calls by name; because of His great might and because He is strong in power, no one is missing.”

May Hashem help us all grow in Emuna and Bitachon and may we all truly live with Hashem 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year..

Shavua tov!

Almost end of the year

The clock is ticking, the time is running out, we are 15 days away from the end of the year.

It's time to take a second and rethink about everything we had been through in the last 11 and half months, from our happiest times to our most despairing ones, every single experience we went through was written already on Rosh Hashana last year and was sealed at the end of the Neila on Yom Kippur.

It's that time of the year again where we can make a change, where our next year is somewhat in our hands because everything is still open. Our daily actions from now till Rosh Hashana will determine how much happiness or chas ve shalom the opposite we will have in the upcoming year.

The Chachmei hakabala explain that on Yom Kippur it is decided how much pain or happiness a person will have in the upcoming year, if we try to prevent what might look like a guaranteed suffering, it is most likely that the suffering will come from a different direction, however now it's our time to try to increase the amount of smachot we will have next year and to decrease the pain and suffering and yehi ratzon that there will be no suffering at all!

The main way to do it is by Teshuva.

When we hear the word Teshuva we right away think about turning our life around, becoming ultra shomrei Torah umitzvoth but the Truth is that Teshuva is probably the simplest and easiest mitzva to fulfill,As the Pasuk says "ki karov eleicha hadavar meod, beficha ubilvavcha laasoto".

Naturally we would think that once the avera was done, theres no way we can go back and fix it, neither physically or spiritually. However, the Mesilat Yesharim explains that the greatness of the Teshuva is not only that our sins are forgiven but that they're literally being uprooted from our past, just as if we had never done any of it before!! That is also why the Teshuva is one of the things that Hashem created before this world, Teshuva is not bound to nature and with the power of Teshuva the "worst" sins one had ever done can be corrected and erased.

In order to do Teshuva correctly we have to engage in a 4 step process which the Rambam explains in Hilchot Teshuva, perek Bet Halacha Bet (Sefer Hamada): "what is the Teshuva?, leaving the sin, regret, confess. acceptance of future", not only that, the Rambam says that when a person confesses the sin to Hashem he has to speak it (not just think) but obviously quietly, and not only speak the confession but to also SAY "I am taking upon myself to not fall in this Sin from now on". Once a person can check through each part of the Teshuva that is the complete Teshuva the Torah speaks about.

The last part of it "acceptance of future" sounds a little worrying, as we all know we are human beings and are subjected to fall so how can we come and take upon ourselves to not do the same Avera over again?!?!, the answer is that when we truly regret our Averot and we do Teshuva and accept upon ourselves to not fall again, that is true Teshuva regardless if we will fall in the future or not, what matters is that at the time of confession and acceptance we truly regret and are ashed with out averot. The source for it we learn from Yishmael, when Sarah sent Hagar out on her own with her son Yishmael, it came to a point that Hagar had no water and could not feed her son anymore, so she put  him between the bushes and left because she couldn't see him dying. Yishmael then cried to Hashem and then Hashem opened Hagars eyes and she saw an oasis right Infront of her. The Malachim then asked Hashem why would he let Yishmael live? Some of the worst human beings will come out of him in the future, so Hashem told them, at this moment he is a Tzadik so for me he is a Tzadik.

Imagine coming Infront of Hashem on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and being judged as Tzadikim? With the undoubtable power of Teshuva we can all do it.

Remember now it's the time that with true repentance we can all enjoy the best upcoming year of our life bH!

Small things we do now will save us from big things later, we can't comprehend the greatness of giving out few quarters to Tzdaka daily, and going to Shiurim, doing Teshuva and prepare for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and of course the 10 days in between.

Yehi Ratzon that we will all do Teshuva and get as close to Hashem as we can and may whoever needs a shidduch, refua, Parnasah, Shalom Bayit, all of the above, will be given it this upcoming year with the Geula Shlema and with the pure Beracha of Hashem, Amen.

The mission – Compassion

At the end of Parashat Shmot Pharaoh makes Bnei Israel work harder than before. Now they had no rest and they had to find the materials for the bricks themselves. At this point Moshe turns to Hashem and tells him “Why are you making this nation suffer so much?.”

At first I didn’t get it, why does Moshe ask Hashem such a question?, Hashem spoke to Moshe directly, he told him the entire plan from beginning to end, he gave him all the details and after all that Moshe questioned him for something he was doing?! The truth is that behind Moshe’s question lays a fundamental teaching that we all must know.

There’s a Gemara in Bava Kama 60. That learns from psukim in the Torah that Tribulation visits the world when the wicked are in the world but it initiates upon the righteous first, and as a matter of fact we see this throughout history, the number of shomrei torah umitzvoth jews that died in the Holocaust was much bigger than non-religious, and so if we analyze the pogroms, inquisition, etc, we will see that the righteous ones are effected first.

So the Gemara continues and says that when Rav Yosef heard this he cried and asked “are the righteous also like nothingness that they are first in line for punishment?”, Abaye then told him that this is not a misfortune for the righteous ones rather it is a favor to them so that they won’t have to witness the tragedies that will befall their generation as the pasuk says “it is because of the impending evil that the righteous one was gathered in.”

At first it was very hard for me to understand this Gemara, the righteous knows that everything is from Hashem even the worst tragedies and they have such bitachon in Hashem that nothing can make them worry, yet at tribulation Hashem takes them first in their favor?!, those are the people that we need here at the hardest times. The truth is however, that there’s one thing that’s very hard for the righteous to see, and that’s our suffering. The tzadikim are part of each one of us and when we suffer they go through as much pain as we go, and imagine going through the pain of thousands or millions of people at ones? That’s what why it is in their favor that Hashem takes them first.

In contrast, our world’s “leaders”, when hard times come they try to run into their offices or houses and hide there, they will send their whole nation to total loss as long as they’re safe, and most unfortunately we are looking up to some of those people as if they will be there for us when we need them. However, a true leader lives with his people, with his nation, he does not see himself anything higher and in fact he will be the first to do what it takes to protect his nation, and that was Moshe Rabenu’s complaint to Hashem, although Moshe knew the whole plan, he could not take seeing his brothers and sisters suffering.

Those are the kind of people we should look up to and not movie stars, politicians, singers, and other public “leaders” that care about nothing but themselves. When others come to tell us their problems we must feel that their problems are our own problem.

There’s no doubt that when we get to this level of compassion towards each other we will be successful in our personal and public life and we will bring true salvation to the world.

Shavua Tov, Rosh Chodesh Tov!

The Lesson of Gratitude

Shlomo hamelech says "Mikol melamedai hiskalty" the pshat is that you must learn from your teachers or mentors but if you look closely at the language being used you can see a slightly different interpretation, "mikol melamedai" meaning every person has something to teach me or rather there's something for me to learn from every person.

In our Parasha we learn a fundamental lesson from Pharaoh himself. The pasuk says "vayomer Pharaoh el amo hine am bnei israel Rav ve Atzum mimenu" (Bnei Israel are growing and  taking over Egypt), how does that make pharaoh so cruel?, when Yosef was alive he turned the entire nation into slaves for pharaoh, he made them move around all the time, they had no freedom, no land, no possessions, yet you had this one nation who emigrated from a different country and was free all over the country and very wealthy while the Egyptians themselves had nothing.

Looking at it from the eyes of Pharaoh and the Egyptians they werent doing anything wrong by doing the right thing for their country and making Bnei Yisrael salves so what is it that makes Pharaoh so cruel? You can easily argue that he just wanted the best for his land.

The "Emet leYaakov" brings this question and he gives an answer which is fundamental for our lives.

Really you can argue that Pharaoh was a great king only seeking the best of his nation, however what makes him a relentless leader is his lack of "hakarat Hatov" (gratitude).

If not for Yosef and Yaakov Avinu the entire Egyptian nation would not last for the 7 years of Hunger. Yosef's wisdom kept Egypt wealthy and thanks to Yaakov the hunger lasted for only 2 years. It's as if Yaakov and Yosef gave the Egyption nation life again yet Pharaoh disregarded the past "Asher lo Yada et Yosef" he didn't "know" Yosef and Rashi says didn't want to know.

We must always have hakarat hatov to our fellows and people who helped us even a little in our life.. A person can be very caring, passionate, great speaker but the lesson from Pharaoh is if you don't have gratitude then it all means nothing.

From here you can understand how much hakarat hatov (gratitude) we must have to our parents that if not for them we wouldn't be here and from the moment we were born they ran their whole life around us.

Look even further, how much gratitude we must give to Hashem Itbarach that give us our life every morning, and not just then but every second we live it's with the mercy of Hashem and who knows if we even deserve all of this chessed.

Let's all learn from Pharaoh what's the wrong thing to do and try to have more Hakarat Hatov to the people around us.

Nursing & Kindness

"וַתִּירֶאןָ הַמְיַלְּדֹת אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים וְלֹא עָשׂוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֲלֵיהֶן מֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם וַתְּחַיֶּיןָ אֶת הַיְלָדִים"

"The midwives, however, feared God; so they did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but they enabled the boys to live."

Pharaoh saw that Bnei Israel keep growing and taking over mitzraim so he put a decree to throw every baby boy that is born into the Yeor (the main lake in Egypt). The two nurses that were in charge of assisting the Jewish ladies to give birth were Pua and and Shifra and they did not follow Pharaos command due to their fear of Hashem.

The question to be asked is why does the Torah has to specifically tell us that they didn’t follow Pharaoh’s command due to their fear of Hashem.

Many times in our life we do acts of Chesed (kindness), we see an old man gets on the train and we get up to let them sit, we see a lady with a carriage trying to get up or down the stairs and we help her, the question is what pushes us to help and do what we do.

Most of us do things in order for others to see how kind we are and as great as it is, it’s not the real reason we should be doing things for. What should lead us to do kindness and help others is “Irat Hashem” “fear” of Hashem. That doesn’t mean an actual “fear”, what it really means is knowing that Hashem is everywhere and watches us every second and is putting us through situations to see if we will do the right thing in his “eyes”.

We can be people of True kindness or people of Selfish kindness, it’s all about the Kavana, the motif behind the action and that, only Hashem knows as the pasuk says “HaAdam ire laayin ve hashem ire lalevav” “the person can only see what his eyes show him but Hashem sees the heart of a person” and at the end of day that’s what matters.

If one is truly devoted to Hashem, he will always help others and always try to fulfill the will of Hashem regardless if there are people around watching him or not. That was the mainspring of the Nurses when they kept the Baby boys alive regardless of the decree of the king of the world at the time.

We always need to ask ourselves, do we give tzdaka in shul leshem shamaim or so that people will think how charitable we are?, do we learn Torah so that Hashem will send us blessings in our business or do we learn Torah becauase that is the ratzon of Hashem Itbarach?, Do we give a friend a ride so that one day if we need something he will “return the favor” or do we want to fulfill a mitzvah from the Torah of “VeAhavta leraacha kamoach” “Love your friend like you love yourself”?

Now we can also understand the Gemara Masechet Berachot daf 28: before Rabbi Yochanan's passing, his students came to him and asked for a blessing, so he blessed them that they should have fear of Hashem as much as they have fear of human beings.

Always ask yourself “Would you do the same thing if you were all alone and nobody was watching?”

it says in Tehilim “Ki Amarti, Olam Chessed Ibane” “I said, A world will be built on Kindness”, A world can only be built on Chessed however the kind of Chessed that builds the world is the Chessed we do leshem shamaim, for “heavenly sake” as the pasuk says “Ki amarti” “I said” (Hashem said).

That is the lesson from the Shifra and Pua (midwives) to the entire world.

(Based on the teaching of Harav Elazar Menachem Shach in his book Talmudo Beyado)

The First Chapter to LIFE.

"Moses received the Torah from Sinai and gave it over to Joshua. Joshua gave it over to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets gave it over to the Men of the Great Assembly."

The first paragraph of Ethics of the Fathers start off with the line above, and many ask the question why does it matter that Moshe received Torah from Sinai and passed it on and on and on....

Also why does it say Moshe received Torah from Sinai?, Moshe received Torah from GOD.

The simple explanation to the first question is to show you that our Torah has a source, it's not just made up and came from no where. A deeper lesson you can learn from this is what we see at the end of Pirkei Avot and in Masechet Megila daf 15. "haomer davar beshem omro mevi geula laolam" (one who says something in the name of its speaker brings redemption to the world)

When the Sages wrote Pirkei Avot (ethics of the fathers) they wanted to teach us right in the beginning that no matter what we say we must always bring the source. Our gaava (pride) makes us say things as if we came up with them and many times we take credit for ideas and statements we didn't originate, However the lesson is to overcome this desire of Kavod and learn to be Anav (humble).

That is also the answer to why it says "Moshe received Torah from Sinai", the Midrash tells us that the mountains came in front of Hashem and told him that the Torah should be given upon them due to their size and height, yet Hashem chose the smallest of all, what looked like a Hill next to all the other mountains, that was mount Sinai.

We learn from here that Torah can only be "bought"/"Studied" by Anava (humbleness). Our biggest rabbais are undoubtedly the most humble people in the world, they never think of themselves as anything more than other people and they welcome each person with much love and caring and that is the foundation for receiving our Torah!

(Inspired by the words of Rabbai Greenman)

Shavua Tov everyone much Hatzlacha!