Taking Advantage of Leaving Egypt

Planting Emuna (Faith) 

In a few hours we will all be sitting around the festive table, the house clean, everyone wearing new clothes, special food in front of us. 

But the main thing is what we wrote last week (When the Heart is Open) in the name of the Ohev Yisrael – that we must take full advantage of this night. Because on this night a great light comes down, and the children’s hearts are open and ready to receive missives of emuna, and this is our opportunity to instill in them the sweet messages of emuna and bitachon (trust). 

In this essay we will deal with the simple missives of emuna and bitachon that are suitable for the Seder, so that every person will be able to take them into his or her heart, and from his or her heart – send them to the children’s hearts, because what comes from the heart goes into the heart of the other, and the emuna will be planted in our children’s hearts for generations to come.  

How Did We Get to Egypt? 

In the Brit bein Habetarim (the covenant made with Avraham Avinu), Hashem told Avraham that the Jewish People will be migrants in a land not their own. He didn’t say where this would be. So why were they exiled to Egypt, of all places? 

One of the surprising explanations of this can be found in the Ramban’s commentary on the Torah, parashat Lech Lecha. 

Avraham Avinu arrived in the Land of Israel, following the command of “Lech Lecha – Go from your land…”¹ Right after he arrived in the land, famine struck. There was nothing to eat. So, Avraham Avinu had no choice but to go down to Egypt with his family. 

When he came to Egypt, he was afraid that the Egyptians would kidnap his wife, and therefore he hid her in a box and told her to lie and say she is not his wife. Avraham’s fear was very reasonable, because the Egyptians were very promiscuous, so this effort on his part was to be expected. 

Was Avraham Avinu right in what he did? Or did he make a mistake? 

Rabbeinu Moshe ben Nachman, the Ramban, condemns Avraham for this act, saying that Avraham made a severe mistake and endangered his wife. Sarah was taken to Pharaoh’s house precisely because Avraham sinned: He didn’t have enough bitachon! 

If it weren’t written in a holy book written by one of the greatest luminaries of the Rishonim, it would be frightening even to consider this notion.  

Says the Ramban²: “You should know that Avraham Avinu sinned greatly – unintentionally – by exposing his righteous wife to a possibility of sin due to his fear that he might be killed. He should have trusted in Hashem to save him and his wife and all that he owns, and it is within G-d’s power to help and to save…” 

He writes further that the very fact that Avraham Avinu went down to Egypt during the famine – that too was a mistake and an expression of lack of bitachon: “Also his leaving the country that he had been commanded about at first because of the famine – was a sin, because G-d can save him from death during famine…” 

But that’s not all. The Ramban concludes by saying that the entire exile in Egypt was because of this: “And due to this act, it was decreed that his descendants would be in exile in the land of Egypt, in the hands of Pharaoh. The evil and the sin are in the place where the trial was.” 

And so, part of the exile in Egypt was an atonement for the lack of bitachon – to a very slightest degree – but for Avraham Avinu it was considered a sin, due to his high spiritual level and his complete faith.  

Not To Pray at a Time of Trouble?! 

This explains the Splitting of the Sea, all of which was the complete tikkun (rectification) of Avraham’s sin: strengthening the trait of bitachon, as opposed to Avraham’s slight lack of it. 

The Jewish people who were leaving Egypt reached Yam Suf (the Sea of Reeds) and were in great danger. They were then merely a nation of slaves who didn’t know how to fight. The Egyptians were behind them with horses and chariots, and they outnumbered the Jews three to one. And the sea was in front of them, blocking their way. A death trap. 

The Jews, when they left Egypt, were still idol worshipers, which is why the angels said to Hashem: “Why are you saving Yisrael from the Egyptians – after all, those are idol worshipers and those are idol worshipers?” 

The Jewish people, led by Moshe, made use of their forefathers’ special skill and called out to Hashem with all their might.  

And then Hashem said something surprising: “Hashem said to Moshe: ‘Why are you crying out to me? Speak to Bnei Yisrael; have them move forward.”³ 

What did He mean by saying, “Why are you crying out to me”? What else can a Jew do when he’s in trouble, besides calling out to Hashem?! Why did Hashem ask them, “Why are you praying?” 

Holy Rashi only increases the question: “We learn that Moshe was standing and praying. The Holy One, Blessed Be He said to him: ‘This is not the time to pray at length, when Yisrael are in trouble.’” 

And that is even more puzzling – when there is trouble, isn’t that the time to pray at length? So, when should we pray – when there is no trouble?! It would seem that that is precisely the time to indeed pray at length! 

This is what Rabbeinu Chaim ben Attar, the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, asks: “This is difficult to understand – and to whom should he call out if not to Hashem, his G-d, and particularly at a time of trouble?” 

This is the Time for Bitachon! 

The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh gives a wonderful explanation: Hashem yitbarach said to Moshe Rabbeinu that prayers wouldn’t help here. Middat hadin (measure of strict justice) was at work on the Jews, claiming, “These are idol worshipers and those are idol worshipers” – so I can’t save them. “It’s not in My hands,” says Hashem (so-to-speak). 

So what can one do in such a situation? 

The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh says something wonderful: In such a situation the Jewish people were supposed to strengthen their complete and absolute bitachon in Hashem, and by doing so they would be able to do away with all the accusations and bring upon themselves all the miracles. 

This is what he says: “It is not in My hands, even though I would like to make a miracle for them, because they are not worthy…. This is the way to empower the side of chessed and mercy: Speak to Bnei Yisrael that they should strengthen their emuna wholeheartedly and travel to the sea before it splits, based on the bitachon that I will make a miracle for them and through that, the mercy will increase… because that emuna and bitachon have the power to determine their future for the good.” 

And to counter their weakening of emuna upon seeing the Egyptians, the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh explains, their rectification was “to justify the emuna with all their might”. According to what we brought from the Ramban, that is indeed the tikkun for the slight mistake of our forefather.  

When Everything is Blocked 

We can take from all this a few sweet, useful and wonderful messages that can give us strength: 

First of all, Hashem does miracles for those who trust in Him even if they are not worthy, such as in this case, when the middat hadin was criticizing them. Even so, thanks to their bitachon, Hashem performed a miracle! 

 

Also, we see from this that in order to have a yeshua (salvation) in the merit of one’s bitachon, the bitachon has to be complete and absolute – to the point of jumping into the sea, like Nachshon ben Aminadav did when he jumped in to the sea, literally, until the water reached his neck. Can there be greater bitachon than that?! According to the holy Ohr Hachaim, that absolute bitachon was what made the sea split. 

 

We learn from here, also, that whoever trusts in Hashem, will never be disappointed. There are many psukim that say so. And here too, even though the people were not worthy of a miracle, when they trusted in Hashem, Hashem yitbarach (so-to-speak) had to save them! 

 

Also, we see that bitachon helps even when prayer does not. Even when there is justified criticism of the prayer, there is no such criticism of one’s bitachon! 

And so, every time that a person encounters troubles and dinim (bad decrees) and he prays much but does not feel that he’s getting results, and he still feels dinim and severe inhibitors – he should know that in such cases the complete bitachon in Hashem will help him, and he will be saved completely thanks to this trait of bitachon, because bitachon is greater and more powerful than prayer. 

Dear Jews, on Leil Haseder and during the entire holiday, there is a tremendous light illuminating the world. We just have to open the window and allow this wonderful light to penetrate our souls and the souls of our children, and load them up with emuna and bitachon for the entire year and for one’s entire life. Chag same’ach vechasher! Have a happy and kosher Pesach! 

¹ Bereishit (Genesis) 12:1 

² Ramban on Bereishit 12 

³ Shemot (Exodus) 14:15