Praying for Heaven's Honor Brings Redemption

1“And I also have heard the groaning of Bnei Yisrael, whom Egypt is enslaving.”¹ Notice the word “also,” gam. We know that gam comes to include something more, as Chazal say: “The words es and gam come to include.”² Why, then, does the verse say “and also” here? What does it add?

2We may suggest the following. Several of the holy sefarim, the Ohr HaMeir, the Ohr LaShamayim, the Yismach Yisrael and the Sfas Emes, explain a saying of Chazal: “Why did the early generations pray and have their prayers answered? Because they prayed with the Name.”³ This means that what a person must pray for above all is the pain of the Shechinah, and for the holy soul, “a portion of God from Above,”⁴ which is in exile. The Tanya writes in the same spirit on the verse “Let him return to Hashem, and He will have mercy on him.”⁵ Every person, it says, must arouse great compassion for the portion of God from Above that is within him. This portion came down from its source, the Life of all life, and was clothed in a body as far as can be from the light of the King's face. This is the mystery of the exile of the Shechinah, Who “dwells with us in the midst of our impurity.” So far the words of the Tanya.⁶ When Chazal say that the early generations “prayed with the Name,” then, they mean that what mattered most to them was to ask for the honor of Heaven, and that is why their prayer was accepted. Not everyone, though, can reach this level, only rare individuals in each generation, the true tzaddikim. And when the tzaddikim of the generation pray for the honor of Heaven, they awaken Israel to pray for the honor of Hashem's Name as well.

3aWith this we can explain the earlier verse “Moshe returned to Hashem.”⁷ The verse hints that Moshe Rabbeinu prayed only “to Hashem,” that is, for the sake of the honor of Heaven. That is why he went on, “My Lord, why have You done evil to this people?” Moshe meant: “I see that things are still bad for them, so it seems my prayers were not accepted. That is a sign that I am not fit to be Israel's messenger, since I cannot pray as the true tzaddikim do. So ‘why is it that You sent me?’ Why did You choose me as the messenger to take Israel out? You should have sent ‘by the hand of whom You will send,’⁸ by the true tzaddikim of the generation, whose prayers are answered because they pray as they should for the pain of the Shechinah.”

3bThis is what the Midrash says: “At that moment the attribute of judgment wanted to strike Moshe. But since the Holy One, blessed be He, saw that he was speaking for the sake of Israel, the attribute of judgment did not strike him.”⁹ The Midrash also says: “Because of this, the attribute of judgment wanted to strike Moshe, as it is written, ‘God spoke to Moshe.’ But since He perceived that Moshe had spoken this way because of Israel's suffering, He turned back and dealt with him with the attribute of mercy, as it is written, ‘He said to him, I am Hashem.’”¹⁰ The verse first uses the Name Elokim, “God,” which stands for judgment, and then the Name Hashem, which stands for mercy.

3cThis is what Chazal mean. The attribute of judgment claimed that Moshe was complaining, as it were, against the Holy One, blessed be He, and so it wanted to strike him. But Hashem, Who searches the innermost thoughts and the heart,¹¹ understood how deep Moshe Rabbeinu's intent went. Moshe's complaint was not against Hashem. He was blaming himself for being unable to pray “with the Name,” for the honor of Heaven; had he been able to, his prayer would have been accepted, as with the early generations. Everything Moshe said was for Israel's good. And Hashem answered him: “It is precisely now, through the power of your prayer for Israel, that Bnei Yisrael too have been privileged to pray to Me for the honor of Heaven. So from now on I will deal with them with the attribute of mercy.” That is why the verse says, “He said to him, I am Hashem.” In other words, Hashem was telling Moshe that his prayer had helped after all, though he thought it had not: it had influenced Israel's prayer. At once Hashem was filled with mercy, as it says, “He said to him, I am Hashem,” with the Name of mercy.

4This is the meaning of “And I also have heard the groaning of Bnei Yisrael.” The word “also” adds that, through the power of Moshe's prayer, Bnei Yisrael too prayed to Hashem, and so Hashem says, “I have heard” their prayer. For when Bnei Yisrael pray for the honor of Heaven, their prayer is accepted not only for what they asked concerning the honor of Heaven but for Israel's troubles as well. After all, Israel's troubles are themselves a matter of the honor of Heaven; the one depends on the other. When the Shechinah is in pain, She says, “My head is heavy, my arm is heavy.”¹² That is why Hashem said that He heard the groaning of those “whom Egypt is enslaving,” and said, “I have remembered My covenant.”

5The Torah reading awakens the time in which it is read. So may it be His will that the Holy One, blessed be He, awaken us to pray for the honor of Heaven. In this merit may our prayer be accepted before Him, “and may our words be pleasing before the Master of all.” And may we soon be privileged to hear “the voice of the herald who proclaims.”¹³ Amen, may it be His will.