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ben Durdiya is welcomed to the life of the world-to- trained troops with horses and chariots. The children of Israel had “It is true that without attaining the goal that I am working on, my
come….” the terrifying feeling that they were hanging over an abyss. The life is not a life. But I am doing what I am obligated to in the realm
midrash gives the image of a dove in the cleft of a rock. Inside is of prayer. And if that means that for years more I will continue to
…Rabbi [Yehudah Hanasi) wept and said: “There is a a snake and outside is an eagle, and the dove cannot do anything sin and lust, to be a degraded person even if I do not technically
person who acquires his world in a few years, and there but cry out with all its might. The midrash tells that the children of violate the Torah, and I will be addicted to all sorts of nonsense and
is a person who acquires his world in a single hour.” Israel “made use of the skill of their forefathers” and cried out foolishness, and I will transgress the will of Hashem, until Hashem
to Hashem with all their might. finally saves me—what alternative do I have?” Thus, we do not feel
And Rabbi [Yehudah Hanasi also] said: “Not only are that our spiritual danger is, in the most basic sense, life-threatening.
Rabbi Yerucham Leibovitz (Divrei Torah: Shemot) comments on this
penitents accepted by heaven, but heaven calls them midrash. What is the meaning of “the skill of their forefathers”? He Our primary and most significant factor in doing the work of
‘rabbi.’” explains that every time the holy forefathers prayed for spiritual the will is that we do not see how transgressing Hashem’s will,
salvation, they felt exactly like the children of Israel who were how being filled with cravings and addictions, constitutes an actual
We see from here that a person can rise in a single hour of strong
prayer from the lowest level of Sheol to the level of being a rabbi trapped between the Egyptians and the sea, and who had no staff danger to our lives. Therefore, we do not cry out, “I need You to
save me right now!” If we felt this threat to our lives, we would cry
and support but prayer and outcry to Hashem. The forefathers felt
ordained by heaven.
that if they are not saved spiritually this very moment, they will out to Hashem and ask Him to save us here and now: “Without
literally experience death. They felt as though they were standing this, I am not alive! I cannot bear it any more. I cannot continue to
From One Extreme to the Other between the sea and Egypt. That means that they experienced a sin for another moment! This is a question of life and death, and I
sense of tremendous danger here and now, a sense that that they need to be saved here and now, this very second. A second later
This idea is taught in the Hasidic work, Yismach Yisrael (Shabbat had not a moment to lose, and so they pleaded for spiritual salvation will be too late—there won’t be anyone left to save.”
Hagadol): at this very moment, here and now. As a result, their prayers were
always effective. Thus, they attained what they attained and became The intermediate conclusion is thus: only a person who feels that
Out of Hashem’s great compassion—which is high and the fathers of the world. We see here how they laid the foundation sinning endangers his life is able to cry out to Hashem and tell
elevated, beyond the conception of any created being— of the people of Israel, who are called “believers, the children of Hashem that he must be saved immediately, at this very moment.
when a baal teshuvah [a person doing teshuvah] cries out believers,” because they inherited the skill to always feel themselves
from the midst and depth of his heart, seeing that his sins between the Egyptians and the sea—the skill of our forefathers, Learning from Our Forefathers
have grown frequent and that he is in the realm of who knew to live and experience their danger in every prayer.
troops of wild beasts and bandits, “plagues of human Rabbi Yerucham states that this is “the great secret of prayer”! It does not suffice to have a general feeling that the spiritual
beings” who drag him like sheep to the slaughter with the He writes: danger is life-threatening. We must feel and visualize in the
ropes of a meaningless life (may the Compassionate One greatest detail that our spiritual danger—i.e., our sin, craving
protect us) to follow them, and he has no refuge and We have a tremendous piece of information: we know that even or addiction—is a tangible and immediate threat to our lives. We
place to escape, then he cries out, “Please, Hashem, when the holy forefathers were well-off, they always prayed out of should think about the examples that Rabbi Nachman described.
save me, please!” That is to say, “With the power and a sense of ultimate urgency, no less than the urgent prayers of all We should try to enter into the heart of a person who is hanging by
his hands from a wall, and then cry out to Hashem.
might of Your infinite and unlimited holiness, have of the children of Israel in their great distress at the sea. The secret
compassion on me, elevate me to the heights, where of the matter is that the children of Israel are always on the level of In the Torah reading of Beshalach, the midrash describes how
those entities have no permission to enter. May those ‘from the straits….’ They never have anyone but Hashem on whom the children of Israel stood before the Sea of Reeds in terrible
insolent dogs may not rise and not enter. Then, when to rely and turn to. They cry out only to Hashem. distress, with the sea before them, the snake and scorpion-infested
you save me from them and I can rest a little, I will This illustrates a wondrous passage that I saw in Michtav wilderness on each side, and behind them the host of Egypt, which
was three times their size, consisting of bloodthirsty and vengeful,