Community Magazine January 2016

12 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Dedicated inmemory of the pure neshamot of the Sassoon children RABBI ELI J. MANSOUR In the Torah reading this month we read about a prayer that was answered – and it might hold the secret for how to ensure that all our prayers are accepted by Gd. I t might be the only instance in the entire Torah where Gd Himself told people not to pray. As Beneh Yisrael found themselves trapped against Sea of Reeds by the pursuing Egyptian army, Gd spoke to Moshe and said, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites that they should journey forth” (Shemot 14:15). Moshe had been standing in prayer, pleading with Gd to rescue His people, whom He had just released from Egypt less than a week earlier. Surprisingly, Gd told him to stop, and to order Beneh Yisrael to proceed into the sea, which, as we know, miraculously split and allowed them to pass. The reason why Gd ordered Moshe to stop praying can be found in Targum Onkelos , the ancient Aramaic translation of the Torah, which translates Gd’s command to Moshe to mean, “I have accepted your prayer” (“ Kabbalit tzelotach ”). Gd was telling Moshe that his prayers for help were accepted, and so the time had come to stop praying and to proceed onto the next leg of the Jewish People’s historical journey. The acceptance of our prayers is a desire that all believing, practicing Jews share. We pray three times each day. Is there anything we want more than for Gd to lovingly accept our prayers and grant our requests? By carefully examining Gd’s response to Moshe at the banks of the Sea of Reeds – after first learning some background information – we can perhaps unlock this most precious treasure, and find the secret to having our prayers answered. When Sin Becomes a Retroactive Asset Many rabbinic sources underscore the importance and centrality of humility in the Jewish religious experience. One would be hard-pressed to find a character trait more vital for the Torah Jew than humility. It is no coincidence that Moshe Rabbenu, the greatest teacher and prophet who ever lived, is described by the Torah as the humblest of all men on Earth (Bamidbar 12:3). Personally, I find most striking the comments of Rabbenu Bahya ben Pakuda (11 th century), the great Spanish philosopher, in his famous work Hovot Halevavot (Gate of Repentance, chapter 8). He cites the well-known rabbinic dictum, “The place where penitent sinners stand – even the completely righteous cannot stand there.” Our sages, astonishingly, viewed the ba’al teshuvah – the penitent sinner – as occupying a higher spiritual plane than a completely righteous individual whose soul had never been tarnished by sin. Rabbenu Bahya’s explanation of this statement is even more astonishing than the statement itself. He writes that a sinner who repents is, more often than not, protected from arrogance. Once a sinner sincerely repents, undergoing the grueling process of acknowledging failure, experiencing genuine shame, and wholeheartedly committing to improve, he lives with a sense of embarrassment and lowliness. If a person recognizes the true gravity of sin, then some feeling of lowliness will accompany him for the rest of his life. He will always live with the realization that A Local Call... Heavens to the