Prayers... work!

A piece from R' Yehoshua Hartman, from the Maharal (biography here), on a diyuk in Rashi.

וּפַרְעֹה הִקְרִיב וַיִּשְׂאוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת עֵינֵיהֶם וְהִנֵּה מִצְרַיִם נֹסֵעַ אַחֲרֵיהֶם וַיִּירְאוּ מְאֹד וַיִּצְעֲקוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל הֹ - Pharaoh drew near, and the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold! the Egyptians were advancing after them. They were very frightened, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. (14:10)

ויצעקו: תפשו אומנות אבותם. באברהם הוא אומר (בראשית יט כז) אל המקום אשר עמד שם, ביצחק (שם כד סג) לשוח בשדה, ביעקב (שם כח יא) ויפגע במקום: - cried out: They seized the craft of their ancestors [i.e., they prayed]. Concerning Abraham, it [Scripture] says: “to the place where he had stood before the Lord” (Gen. 19:27). 2 Concerning Isaac, [it is stated] “to pray in the field” (Gen. 24:63). Concerning Jacob, “And he entreated the Omnipresent” (Gen. 28:11).

The way this is first understood, this is a wonderful praise of the Jews. No doubt some people this week will focus on this point, that the Jews turned to their heritage, lineage and values in their time of need, and they prayed for salvation. You'd assume that this Rashi is singing the praise of the Jews, that they were so righteous to have prayed as their forefathers had.

There is a problem with this. What is Rashi really saying to us? What prayer is, the way our forefathers did? This is incorrect, as at 2:23 the pasuk says וַיְהִי בַיָּמִים הָרַבִּים הָהֵם, וַיָּמָת מֶלֶךְ מִצְרַיִם, וַיֵּאָנְחוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל מִן-הָעֲבֹדָה, וַיִּזְעָקוּ; וַתַּעַל שַׁוְעָתָם אֶל-הָאֱלֹהִים, מִן-הָעֲבֹדָה - Now it came to pass in those many days that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed from the labor, and they cried out, and their cry ascended to God from the labor.

Rashi does not explain that their cry was prayer (it obviously was), and does not explain the tradition of prayer that dates back to the Patriarchs. So what is our Rashi saying? To reinforce the question of what Rashi is trying to tell us by saying their fathers prayed, the very next pasuk is quite possible the most snide and sarcastic in Tanach: וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל מֹשֶׁה הַמִבְּלִי אֵין קְבָרִים בְּמִצְרַיִם לְקַחְתָּנוּ לָמוּת בַּמִּדְבָּר מַה זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לָּנוּ לְהוֹצִיאָנוּ מִמִּצְרָיִם - They said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the desert? What is this that you have done to us to take us out of Egypt? (14:11)

followed by

הֲלֹא זֶה הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְנוּ אֵלֶיךָ בְמִצְרַיִם לֵאמֹר חֲדַל מִמֶּנּוּ וְנַעַבְדָה אֶת מִצְרָיִם כִּי טוֹב לָנוּ עֲבֹד אֶת מִצְרַיִם מִמֻּתֵנוּ בַּמִּדְבָּר - Isn't this the thing [about] which we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, Leave us alone, and we will serve the Egyptians, because we would rather serve the Egyptians than die in the desert (14:11)

These people are clearly not the most righteous people; they go from prayer to wishing themselves back into slavery and rejecting G-d and Moshe in a heartbeat.

That is the point Rashi is bringing out here.
They did not pray because it was what they felt they should have done, they prayed because it was what their fathers would have done.

If we re-analyze Rashi's words, this is explicit, once we think about it from this angle; תפשו אומנות אבותם - They seized the craft of their ancestors? Their prayer was craftsmanship; it was work, not service!

R' Yitzchok Hutner (biography here) queries this; we say in morning prayers (in Vecharos, just before Az Yashir) how Hashem listened to our cries. But we have established that these crise were hardly the most noble, so what are mentioning this for in our prayers?

He answers with a parable, about a king who has a good friend, whose son is close to the prince. One day, whilst visiting the prince in the royal palace, he bursts into the king's chamber and starts running his mouth off about the area he comes from and things it needs. The king acquiesces, but it's not because of what the prince's friend said: it's because his father is the king's friend.

This also happens to be an explanation as to why we mention zchus avos in the opening paragraph of Shemona Esrei, that in spite of our lack of merit, our lineage should set us in good stead.

Who we are

The following is from a drasha by R' Yehoshua Hartman, adapted from the Maharal.

וַיֵּלְכוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה' אֶת מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן כֵּן עָשׂוּ - So the children of Israel went and did; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. (12:28)

כאשר צוה ה' את משה ואהרן: להגיד שבחן של ישראל, שלא הפילו דבר מכל מצות משה ואהרן. ומהו כן עשו? אף משה ואהרן כן עשו - as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron [This comes] to tell Israel’s praise, that they did not omit anything of all the commandments of Moses and Aaron. And what is the meaning of “so they did” ? Moses and Aaron also did so. (Rashi)

It is quite perplexing as to why the Torah would insert כֵּן עָשׂוּ, talking about Moshe and Ahron, as on what grounds might we have thought that they might not perform the Mitzva of Korban Pesach? This is illogical, as the Pasuk doesn't specify whether or not they kept Shabbos, yet does here.

Additionally, why by this 10th plague is human input necessary? The first nine did not affect Jews in the slightest. By the first plague for example, blood, even a Jew drinking from the same cup as an Egyptian with straws would not be affected, whereas the Egyptian would. Why by the final plague is there a requirement to partake and perform this Mitzva and smear the door posts and lintel in order to be saved?

Furthermore, the Korban Pesach was not the only Mitzva given on the night they set aside the goats, circumcision was instituted that night too. What is particularly special about these two mitzvos that they needed to be instructed to perform them on the night of the Slaying of the Firstborn?

It says in Ezekiel (16:4) that the Jewish People were born in Egypt. There are two aspects of the Jewish People - the doing, and the being.

Every person born to a Jewish mother is a Jew from the moment they open their eyes unitl the moment they close them. This is the being aspect. There is not a thing that can change this. People can convert and practice other religions, but halacha states that they remain Jews. There is no free will in the matter. The reason for this is simple. G-d chose us, and there is nothing anyone can do about that. This is simple to understand: just as you can't change your friend's decision, how much more so are you powerless to change G-d's decisions?

The second aspect, of doing, is much more down to personal choice, to do as we were commanded.

Bris Milah is a Mitzva of being - it is performed 8 days after a boy is born and they have no say in the matter. It is G-d's sign on our flesh, and cannot be undone. Korban Pesach is a personal choice (though not a great one as those who didn't do it died...). It is the only Mitzva in the entire Torah where the word עבודה, service, is used. Interestinly, these are the only two positive commandments who's punishment for not performing them is Kareis, spiritual excommunication.

This is why these Mitzvot were given, at the time that the Jewish People were born. They gave us our identity, of being and acting as Jews. This answers the final question.

So why did the Jews have to work to be saved from the 10th plague? As Hashem performed it Himself. Whereas with the other 9, angels and messengers were used, are unable to harm Jews as Jews are on a higher spiritual level than angels, and as such were unable harm the Children of Israel. But Hashem is above this instruction; He is above everything! He was looking for people to actually bind themselves to Him through the Mitzvos Hegave them; it wasn't like the other 9 where it had been enough to be born to a Jew. They had to demonstrably show they were on G-d's "side" to be saved.

With this in mind, we can answer the first question. If people had to prove they were with G-d, you'd have thought that being G-d's mouthpiece to Egypt and the Jews was enough for Moses and Ahron, they'd shown who their lot was cast with. This is inaccurate. The doing/being aspect has another paralel, to a servant for example. A servant has to serve, and his service is proven by the fact that he serves 24/7. Moses and Ahron were not servants, as they only did what G-d asked them when they were asked, but it was only a 9 to 5 job, so to speak, but whenever they weren't in His service, they were just normal people. So the pasuk said כֵּן עָשׂוּ to explain that actually, Moshe and Ahron also performed the Mitzva, and they too only became servants, עבדים of G-d after performing the עבודה of the Korban Pesach.

The doing/being has another relevancy to us. The mitzvot of Tfilin וּקְשַׁרְתָּם לְאוֹת עַל-יָדֶךָ וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. The brachos we make show this, one is "lehaniach" - on the binding, one is "al mitzvas" - passive, on the mitzva. This is further shown in the fact that if one puts on Tefilin before sunrise, one must retie the arm Tefilin to make the bracha, but does not need to adjust the head Tefilin. The reason for this is that our arms are what we use to do, so they must be active, and perform actions. Our heads are passive, our minds are who we are, and as such no new bracha is required.