Parshat Vaera - 5773

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Parshat Vaera 5773

Drasha

Rabbi Shaanan Gelman

The Silent Groan

Immediately before we are told about the four unique promises of

redemption ( , , , ) which we commemorate

on the eve of Passover by drinking four cups of wine, Hakadosh Baruch

Hu introduces Himself to Moshe Rabeinu under a new name:

-

,-;

,.

2 And God spoke unto Moses, and said unto him: 'I

am the LORD;

,--

---;

. ,

3 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto

Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name YHWH I

made Me not known to them.

-,

---

,-.

4 And I have also established My covenant with

them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of

their sojournings, wherein they sojourned.

,-, ,

, ;-.

5 And moreover I have heard the groaning of the

children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in

bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.


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What is the significance behind the name change? Why was God

previously known as " " and now as ?

According to Rashi, the name is an acronym for ,He

who said to His world enough. The Kli Yakar (RavShlomo Ephraim

Luntschitz) elaborated on this idea:

"

(

)

With the name Shadai, God placed a limitation on His World, ceasing to

expand and add to its splendor.

This alludes to a concept known in Chassidut as , the intentional

self-limitationof Gods influence in the world. He does this in order

that the rest of the creatures develop a sense of independence and

responsibility. In order for us to experience that independence, Hashem

must first retreat from His world.

And so connotes the reduction of Gods tangible presence in this

world, His setting of boundaries and restrictions. It is for this reason thatthe name appears on the Mezuzah, since it is an object that

demarcates a boundary at the threshold of every room and home.
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When God uses the name , it means that His presence is not felt as

acutely in the world, He appears to be more aloof and mysterious.

But the name has the exact opposite meaningit is an acronym for

" , , "God was, is and always will be. He is the ever-present

and Omnipotent OneHe has no limits, His presence is not restricted,

His kindness is constantly made known.

Now let us return to the opening of our parsha. Moshe is toldI am

the Lord, and my name is " ", and though I have never made myself

fully knownI am now prepared to reveal Myself to you and through

your proxy.

At this point there is a peculiarity in Gods words:

,-

Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel

The sentence contains a redundancy , literally translated as

I, I have heard. It would have sufficed for Hashem to say , why

the addition of the word " "?

This is the question posited by the , R Yerachmiel Yisrael

Yitzchak, the Rebbe of the Alexander Hassidim.


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, " ... "

,"

When theAlmighty gazes into the inner workings of mans heart and in a

time of pain and crisis, man often lacks the ability to pray in the name of

God and lacks the awareness of the source of his pain, namely the

absence of the Divine Presence

The Rebbe continues:

" ",

... " ,1"

Nonetheless, there are times when man cries in the inner chambers of

his heart and contemplates his origins and his end and his ultimate

purpose in this world, and amidst those thoughts he is able to perceive

his distance from The Holy One Blessed is He.

And this is the meaning of the words :

1The Yismach Yisrael adds that at those times man, who is introspective is able to feel the pain that Hashem

experiences over his status, and that the truly conscientious ones spend their entire lives preoccupied with Gods

pain.


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, "

."

Meaning, that even the I I have heard in their prayers and in their

groans amidst the impossible labor that they have been made to

endure

To the untrained ear, all that could be heard emanating from the lips of

the downtrodden Hebrew slave was a groan, and inarticulate and

meaningless grunt. It would appear as if their pain was not developed

into an actual prayer, but rather a garbled release of anger mixed with

sadness and self pity, and nothing more.

But the truth is that God hears within the groan a prayer. Within the

unrefined complaint, Hashem perceives that from the depths of our souls

we are calling out His Holy Name; a name we had never formally been

told!

Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev once overheard the prayers of a fellow

Jew in the shtiebel. To his dismay, it was clear to him that the man was

not properly articulating his words, instead it sounded garbled and

rushed. Rav Levi, usually known for giving everyone the benefit of thedoubt walked up to the man in an uncharacteristic fashion and began

mumbling in his ear. When the man asked the Rabbi why he was doing


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this, Rav Levi explained that thats the way your prayers sound to

God.

But the man retorted quickly, setting the record straight, when a baby

cries, does the mother or father have any doubt what the infant is asking

for?

In times of pain, and crisis, the words may be muffled and the recipient

of our groans may be concealed, but our Father always hears His name

amidst the cries!

The (Rav Shlomo Radumsker)2

alludes to this idea as well

on the very same verse. He wonders, why is the word used in this

context? Why not another word for crying like or ? He explains

that contains the same letters as , which implies a jealousy for

2.'( .,)

.'.'"()( .',)

"'".'"'"".

'"".( .,)""( .,)"."()".'"'"( .,)

'( .)'.""'""

".""""( .,)."( .",)'.'

""."".'."".""( .,)

."."..'"(,)""'"

"":


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the sake of God, as we see by Pinchas ( ). In other words,

concealed beneath the generic groan exists a very focused and purpose

oriented prayer. The Bnei Yisrael werent merely complaining about

their pain and their circumstance, they were crying out because the

shame that it brought to Godthat his people had been brought to such

a point of depravity and that His name was seemingly nowhere to be

found!

I recently saw a beautiful story in Rabbi Paysach Krohns Reflections

of the Maggid (page 62):


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In each of our actions, our words and our complaints there is a hidden

prayera secret acknowledgment of the Kadosh Baruch Hu.

In card games, experts are able to identify tells little cues which tip

off the other players as to whether an opponent has a good hand or

whether he is bluffing. This is true as well when it comes to our religious

selves as well. We are constantly giving offtells, barely noticeable

indicators of the thoughts which reside in our hearts. And though we

arent consciously aware of them, Hashem takes note; He hears the

" ", the cry for Hashem amidst the nonsensical murmur. He is able todecipher the encoded message of the troubled broken heart.

If we can understand this idea, then we can appreciate one of the

fundamentals of addiction and recovery. We seek to numb pain

physical and emotional pain. Most of the time we are not acutely aware

of the fact that we are trying to do sowe cry out in with a , a

groan, hoping that someone or something will provide relief.

The famous philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

wrote in his Pensees (10.148):

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What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that
http://hindsfoot.org/godshann.htmlhttp://hindsfoot.org/godshann.htmlhttp://hindsfoot.org/godshann.htmlhttp://hindsfoot.org/godshann.html


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there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now

remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with

everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the helphe cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this

infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable

object; in other words by God himself.

We all have a God-sized hole which we seek to fill. It is a desperate

clamoring for reprieve, and it doesnt necessarily present itself in a

form which makes sense to the outside world. A person who is in pain

will keep running to the refrigerator, finish off a gallon of ice cream,

drown away her sorrow in pain killers and addictive television. In the

recesses of a persons mind what they really seek is the ' , the

Name of God, which has long been dormant.

But at the end there is hope for repair. Because amidst the

, the meaningless groan of the Jewish children God hears His

own name being called! He knows that only He can provide meaning,

and mend the brokenness.

Let us recognize the source of our strife and difficulty it stems from

the fact that God has not yet been discovered:


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',

And let us rediscover Godconverting the empty and ethereal into

a meaningful and substantive , zealousness and yearning for

Hashem in our lives, our homes and our community.

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Parshat Vaera - 5773