What Does the Creator Pray For? 

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself”. 

Our Leadership Model 

The entire world is in a severe leadership crisis. Whoever follows world developments knows that this problem is not only here in the Land of Israel. Everything that happens in the world, happens for the sake of the Jewish People; all the more so regarding what happens here, in the Land of Israel: The most severe crisis is taking place right in front of our eyes, a crisis that has split the people for over three years, with no visible solution. 

Political commentary is meaningless. We must search for the spiritual meaning behind this: What does the Creator want to teach us? What is the Torah’s response to this situation? And what is the Torah’s model regarding the correct relationship between the people and their spiritual leaders? If this will not help on a national level, let us hope that at least on a personal level people will be able to find their position vis-à-vis the Creator and vis-à-vis their rabbis in this complex generation. 

The book of Devarim is an amazing book when it comes to its deep rebukes. Moshe Rabbeinu is parting from the Jewish People. He is not settling accounts; rather, he is very concerned about the people’s future. When he mentions their mistakes, he does so very delicately, usually by way of a hint, and, mainly, he gives the people wonderful guiding points how to be successful as a people of Hashem, a holy people – even in the Land of Israel, even while living a life of working the land and doing, and even when the great leader, the man of G-d, will no longer be among them.  

With this knowledge, one must examine every parsha and every section of the book. And we are going to examine one of the most amazing sections in the Torah. 

Conclusions from the Giving of the Torah 

The Torah repeats the story about the Giving of the Torah. Sounds and lightning; Hashem is speaking in His own voice to the entire Jewish People, face to face. 

Our forefathers achieved prophecy as a whole people, not just as individuals, and they had their faith clarified in the deepest way, after which there is no aspect of doubt; and so, the faith can pass on to all generations. 

This prophecy caused them to understand and recognize the basics of faith: that Hashem exists, that there is prophecy, that the Torah is of Divine origin, and that Moshe Rabbeinu’s prophecy is true. But it caused them to understand one more thing – that they need Moshe Rabbeinu’s mediation. 

They said: “This day we saw that G-d speaks to a person and [that person] lives.” And in the same breath they seemingly contradict themselves and say: “And now, why should we die when this great fire consumes us? If we continue to hear the voice of Hashem our G-d any longer, we will die. For is there any human that has heard the voice of the Living G-d speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?”  

What is happening here? Bnei Yisrael understand that there’s no way they can live as human beings in this world with such a high spiritual level of prophecy. And therefore, they ask Moshe: “You approach and hear whatever Hashem, our G-d, will say, and you will speak to us whatever Hashem, our G-d, will speak to you – then we shall hear and we shall do.” 

The Surprising and Unique Response 

If I had to guess the Creator’s response, I would say that He would be disappointed in the people. Here the Creator has granted them the highest connection possible between a human being and his or her creator, and they are not interested in continuing such a relationship. They want “normal” lives. They prefer that the prophecy continue through Moshe Rabbeinu, and not go to every person directly. 

But what actually happens is the exact opposite. Not only is the Creator not disappointed, but He praises the Jews’ response: “They did well in what they spoke.” What a compliment! And Hashem is not only happy with what they said, but He even prays that this situation continues for many more years: “May their heart remain theirs, to fear Me and observe all My commandments all the days, so that it will be good for them and their children forever.” 

Do you realize what’s happening here? The Creator is praying! What does it mean that the Creator prays – when everything is in His hands? 

But the meaning is that indeed the Creator of the world agrees with Bnei Yisrael that they have had the merit to understand that the ideal situation of the Jewish People that ensures them eternal good, is that all Jews should be aware of the fact that they cannot understand the Creator’s will by themselves. This is because they simply cannot maintain the necessary spiritual level for such a stand, and from that understanding they will recognize the leader’s authority and power and have complete faith in a leader who can maintain such a spiritual level; they then accept happily the fact that their entire connection with the Creator is through that spiritual leader. 

They ask him what G-d’s will is, in every matter. And every answer he provides is accepted with no questions, as the very clear will of the Creator of the world, with no doubts attached. 

Not Only Moshe Rabbeinu 

You could say that all this is true only for Moshe Rabbeinu. But if Moshe mentions this to Bnei Yisrael before his death, that means he wants it to be the model that will continue in subsequent leaders when they enter the land and throughout the generations. This is the way the Jewish people should relate to their rabbis, scholars, the great people of each generation. 

The Creator defines this as “yirat Shamayim” (fear of Heaven). “May their heart remain theirs, to fear Me.” Due to their great fear of the Creator, they want a spiritual leader they can connect to and believe in, and through him receive the word of Hashem.  

And that is the true consolation for the Jewish People. Because Moshe Rabbeinu and the leaders of all generation are “People of daat” (understanding). And whoever has understanding it is as if the Beit Mikdash was built in his days. And when the Jewish People bows to the authority of those who have this understanding, it is as if the entire generation is living in a perfect reality, like that of when there was a Beit Mikdash.  

The root of all churban (destruction) is people who don’t want the Kingship of Hashem revealed through the righteous of the generation, like with the Sin of the Spies – which was also on the night of Tisha B’av, like the destruction of the Temples – and that is the root of the churban. Bnei Yisrael said: “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” They were actually expressing lack of trust in Moshe Rabbeinu, and that caused crying for all generations on that night. 

Signs of a True Leader 

And this is also true for the tzaddik. There is no king without a people, and when the people make life hard for the tzaddik, the tzaddik avoids leading. And when the leader avoids leading, this, too, causes destruction and hiding on the part of Hashem. And therefore, when the people abused their leader, Moshe said, “Eicha – How can I bear on my own your contentiousness, your burdens, and your quarrels?” Chazal say that Moshe used the word eicha to hint to the megillah of Eicha, which is a lament on the destruction. 

But for our purposes, for a Jew to acquire true Fear and Awe of Hashem and for it to be “good for them and their children for all time”, a Jew must understand that he has to submit to a spiritual leader, receive all his statements as the word of G-d, and not swerve from his sayings. And if you have a leader/teacher, and you are not capable of submitting to him completely, you must “make yourself a teacher”. Pray and search and do everything to find for yourself a rabbi to whom you can submit and be a faithful student. That is the prayer of the Creator of the world!  

And that in itself is the mark of a true leader. A true leader lives prayer, and mainly prayers about the Jewish People’s spirituality. And he teaches his students to always pray for fear and awe of Heaven and for becoming closer to a true leader. Because just like Hashem prays that the Jews accept the true leader, because on that depends all fear of Heaven and all the good in the world, so too, the leader himself prays about the Jews that they should have faith in the rabbis and he teaches his students to pray at length for the merit of being close to a true leader and being good students.  

May it be, that in the merit of our living according to Hashem’s will, as simple, wholesome Jews who submit to halacha and to the leaders of the generations, we will receive full consolation and the building of the Beit Mikdash, speedily in our days, Amen