With an Uplifted Hand: Faith in Our Own Deeds

1“And Bnei Yisrael were going out with an uplifted hand.”¹ Rashi explains: “With mighty strength, lofty and well-known.” But how are these ideas hinted at and contained in the plain words “with an uplifted hand”? The verse speaks only of a hand; it says nothing about might. The Targum, the Aramaic translation of the Torah, renders “with an uplifted hand” as b'reish gali, “with head uncovered,” that is, openly. This too needs explaining: how is the Targum's phrase contained in the words “with an uplifted hand”? On this, see also the Ramban.²

2Further on, the Torah says, “Amalek came and fought with Israel in Refidim.”³ The Mechilta comments: “Refidim means nothing other than rifyon yadayim, slackness of the hands. Because Israel let their hands grow slack from words of Torah, the enemy came upon them, for the enemy comes only when there is slackness in Torah.”⁴ The holy sefarim, the Yitav Lev and the Shomer Emunim, raise a question here.⁵ Torah study is carried out with thought, in the mind, and with speech. It has nothing to do with the hands, which stand for action. Why, then, the expression “they let their hands grow slack”?

3A little later the Torah says, “And it was, when Moshe raised his hand, Israel prevailed.”⁶ On this Chazal ask: “Do Moshe's hands make war or break war? Rather, it tells you that as long as Israel looked upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they prevailed; and if not, they fell.”⁷ But where does the verse, in speaking of Moshe raising his hands, hint that the people looked upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven?

4aWe may explain it this way. On the verse “Amalek came,” Rashi gives a parable. A man set his son on his shoulders and went on his way. Whenever the son saw something, he would say, “Father, pick that up and give it to me,” and his father would give it to him. This happened a second time, and a third. Then they met someone, and the son asked him, “Have you seen my father?” His father said to him, “Don't you know where I am?” He threw the boy down off his shoulders, and a dog came and bit him.⁸

4bThe parable makes clear that when Israel's faith is lacking, that is what brings on every trouble, Heaven forbid. We find the same idea in the words of Chazal: “R' Shimon ben Elazar says: Have you ever seen a beast or a bird that has a trade? Yet they are sustained without distress. And they were created only to serve me, while I was created to serve my Maker. Is it not right, then, that I should be sustained without distress? But I have done evil, and so I have forfeited my livelihood.”⁹ In the same way, whatever a person does with his hands, or achieves by his own strength, holds a hard test of faith: to believe that everything comes from Hashem, blessed be He. For a person may think, “My strength and the might of my hand made me this wealth.”¹⁰ It is above all in these matters that one must strengthen one's faith that everything comes from the power of the Creator.

5This lets us explain that at the time of the Exodus, Bnei Yisrael were privileged to attain clear and complete faith. They saw Hashem's deeds, His might and His wonders, and His watchful care over every detail of their lives. In them the verse came true: “And you shall know that I am Hashem your God, Who brings you out from under the burdens of Egypt.”¹¹ They came to recognize that even in what they did and accomplished themselves, they had no power to do anything at all without His power. Everything came from the power of Hashem, blessed be He, Who gave them the strength to succeed. That is what the verse means by “And Bnei Yisrael were going out beyad ramah, with an uplifted hand.” They lifted up even the work of their own hands in physical matters, and declared that it all comes from Hashem's power, from the uplifted Hand above.

6But afterward they fell from this clear and complete faith. Doubts began to stir within them, and they said, “Is Hashem among us or not?”¹² This explains Chazal's words “they let their hands grow slack from words of Torah.” They did not bring the work of their hands into the way of the Torah, and they wondered whether perhaps it was all chance, Heaven forbid, rather than hashgachah pratis, Hashem's watchful care over each one of them. So Moshe came and raised his hands upward. In other words, he lifted the people up and lit this awareness in them, so that once again they would feel that even the work of their hands comes entirely from the power of the Creator. And this is the meaning of Chazal's words that the people subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven.

7This also lets us explain what Chazal said about the footsteps of Moshiach, the time before his coming: brazenness will increase and prices will soar; the vine will give its fruit, yet wine will be dear, and so on; “and upon whom can we rely? Upon our Father in Heaven.”¹³ This means that when a person is in doubt and asks, “Upon whom can we rely?” and his faith is lacking, then all the troubles of the footsteps of Moshiach come, Heaven forbid. Instead, we must rely on our Father in Heaven without any questions or doubts. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, will bestow on us from on high an abundance of blessing and success in everything, until the coming of the righteous Redeemer. Amen, may it be His will.