Beshalach                                                                                                   Pollack Family

Action as Prayer

There Bnei Yisrael stood frightened as they were trapped by the sea at their front and by the Egyptians at their back. Realizing their tenuous situation, Moshe attempts to allay the people’s fears and tells them: “Do not fear. Stand fast and see the salvation of Hashem that he will perform for you today… Hashem will do battle for you, and you shall remain silent.” (14:13-14). As Bnei Yisrael continue to remain fearful, Moshe prays to Hashem and asks for his mercy to save them from peril. God’s response to Moshe’s prayers is at first glance perplexing: “Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to Bnei Yisrael and let them journey! And you - lift up your staff and stretch out your arm over the sea and split it; and Bnei Yisrael shall come into the midst of the sea on dry land.” (14:15-16).

As the Or Hachaim Hakadosh asks, what does Hashem mean when He admonishes Moshe for crying out to Him? Who else are the Jewish people supposed to turn to? And if Hashem is criticizing Moshe for praying too much, don’t we believe in the idea that a person should not weaken their hands from prayer until they are answered? Further, where is Bnei Yisrael supposed to journey with the sea in front of them and the Egyptians at their backs? If Hashem is referring to journeying after the splitting of the sea, then His command to Moshe to “lift up” his staff should have preceded this command to journey!

The Or Hachaim answers that at this point in time the Jewish people were receiving their just judgment for their extensive idol worship and immoral acts in Egypt, and in order to elicit God’s mercy, they needed to perform a good act first. Therefore, Hashem reproaches Moshe and says “why do you cry out to me?” as if the situation is not in God’s hands at all as He wants to perform a miracle. Since, however, Bnei Yisrael is not worthy at this moment, He pleads with them to take action to allow Him to use His power of mercy. By instructing Bnei Yisrael to journey first then, God is essentially saying that in order to gain mercy they must first exhibit dedication with all of their hearts, enter the sea before it splits, and then on the merit of this tremendous act of faith and trust, the sea will split and salvation will come.

This explanation of the Or Hachaim fits in very well with the Gemara in Sota’s recounting of the action of Nachshon ben Aminadav, the future head of the tribe of Yehuda. His courageous act of jumping into the sea contrasted with God’s refusal to hear Moshe’s prayers, as a leap of faith was necessary before a miracle could transpire. It is as if God is declaring: action is needed at this moment, not prayer.

Chanan Porat zt”l, a paratrooper who liberated the Kotel and became a leader of the settlement movement and a Knesset member, adds to this explanation of the Or Hachaim and says that Moshe expected salvation to come from above and therefore originally instructed Bnei Yisrael to remain silent as God would take care of things and used prayer by mouth in order to receive God’s assistance. But God teaches Moshe here that the power of prayer sometimes is not sufficient in oral form and instead needs to be expressed through physical actions in order to be effective. As stated in Tehillim: “all my bones (atzmosai) shall say”. Through this understanding, he adds, we can view prayer as something which is involved in all areas of life through which our actions can open up the gates of heaven. It is the sacrifices of people like Nachshon, the soldiers of the IDF, and even us, whose actions can serve as the most effective means of prayer. It is no coincidence that Nachshon merited that his descendant Dovid would be the man who would best embody this concept of prayer through action to the point where Dovid declared “Va’ani Tefilla”- “I am prayer.”