Cry Out to Hashem Until Redemption

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” and emuna.

An Inner Truth 

In our times we are inundated with “magic solutions”, with promises of instant change: “This course will change your life!” advertisements scream at us. “This book will take you out of darkness and reveal the light in one moment”; “This preparation will fill you with joy and energy”; “If only you do this one thing, you will experience immense improvement.” 

Promises, selling illusions… 

These promises attract millions of people, even though we all know very well that there are no magical solutions. There is no cheap advice that will really change your life deeply and for the long term. Neither in bodily matters nor in issues of the soul. It doesn’t work that way. Only thorough internal work changes people’s lives. 

But we know as well that lies have nothing to stand on, and that in every lie there is a germ of truth that supports it. In the desire for a magical solution there is also an element of truth, because there is a spiritual act that really is a “magical solution”, that can really bring about a revolution in a person’s life, as well as in the world at large. 

You probably would like to know what that act is… 

Let us look at this week’s parasha. The book of Shemot is the book of the Geula (redemption). The Jewish people are being freed from slavery and are achieving freedom. From unbearable slavery and servitude, from a bitter existence, from pain and suffering and death – they are moving on to a great light, to freedom, to wonders and miracles, to revelation of the Shechina (Divine Presence), to the Giving of the Torah, to happiness and wealth.  

How does this happen? What causes this amazing change? 

Just Cry Out to Hashem 

In all the descriptions of the Geula in the Torah, with no exceptions, there is only one factor that brings about the Geula: Crying out to Hashem! 

Only crying out to Hashem. Even the merit of the Patriarchs is awakened only after and following the cry to Hashem.  

This can be seen throughout the scriptures. In our parasha it says: “Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. The Israelites sighed in their enslavement and cried out, and from their servitude their plea for help rose up to G-d. And G-d heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant with Avraham, with Yitzchak, and with Yaakov. G-d saw Bnei Yisrael, and G-d knew.” 

And when Hashem reveals Himself to Moshe and commands him to lead the Jews out of Egypt, He tells him that the crying out is what caused Him to decide to save the nation: “I have seen My people’s suffering in Egypt; I have heard them cry out amid their oppressors; I know their anguish, so I have come to rescue them.” And Hashem repeats it again, later on: “Now the cry of Bnei Yisrael has reached me; I have seen the oppression the Egyptians subject them to. So go – I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people, Bnei Yisrael, out of Egypt.” 

In the “summary” of the story of the Exodus from Egypt brought as part of the mikra bikkurim (the text recited by a person bringing his first fruits to the Temple), and which we read on Leil Haseder on Pesach, it says: “… and the Egyptians dealt cruelly with us and oppressed us, subjecting us to harsh labor. We cried out to Hashem, G-d of our ancestors. And Hashem heard our voice and He saw our oppression, our toil, and our enslavement. Hashem brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and His arm stretched forth, with terrifying power, with signs and with wonders.” 

So this is something very much emphasized in the Torah: There was an exile, Bnei Yisrael cried out, and the Geula came. Just so.  

Father, Until When?? 

Because really, this is the only true solution to every problem in life: to call out to Hashem.  

Are things hard for you? Are you distressed? Are you in some sort of Mitzrayim – a tight spot, subjugation, in your life? Call out and you will be saved. That is the Torah. That is what we learn about the past, and that is what we tell our children. And that is the simplest message for life for each and every one of us.  

And that is exactly what each of us feels now. We all feel that we want to cry out, that this is the time to cry out. That is what each and every one of us felt when we heard about the terrible and cruel massacre on Simchat Torah, and that is what we feel every day during this entire period when we wake up every morning to the painful news of yet more Jewish blood being spilt. We just want to scream: “Father, enough! Father, until when?!” 

And that is exactly what we should be doing.  

Dear holy Jews, what we have been through, this terrible distress, causes all of us to feel that we want an end to our troubles. We don’t want an end to Hamas or to the missiles; we want an end to all the troubles, the end of the galut (exile). 

I said already at the beginning of the war that now we must cry out and ask for the complete Geula – nothing less. That is what Hashem wants from us and we ought to be exerting ourselves with all our might.  

How Can You Sleep? Rise up and Cry to Your G-d! 

In Egypt, as well, all the subjugation and pressure just caused the Jews to call out more. If they had had less pressure, they would have “calmed down” and they wouldn’t have been so heartfelt about their calls to Hashem – and then they wouldn’t have had complete salvation. 

About the passuk we brought above, “Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. The Israelites sighed in their enslavement and cried out,” the commentators give two commentaries, both of which emphasize this idea.  

One commentary says that Pharaoh became a leper and began to slaughter babies, and that that is what caused the Jewish people to cry out. In other words, true, even before that Bnei Yisrael worked and suffered and were beaten, but they had not yet reached the breaking point that produces the cry. They needed the hideous decree of slaughtering babies to bring them to call out, and only then did salvation come.  

Another commentary says that before the king died, the Jews hoped that when he died, his decrees would be annulled. In other words, they hung their hopes on the situation improving due to some reason or other, and that’s why they didn’t call out. But when the king died and a new king started to reign, and the decrees were maintained and even made worse, and they no longer had what to look forward to – only then did they call out from the depths of their hearts, as was needed. And now, as well, we all feel that on Simchat Torah Hashem awakened us with stress and sorrow, way beyond what we have been experiencing in the past decades until now, and the hearts of the Jewish people are searching for Hashem. And that is why we must awaken within us the desire to cry out endlessly until the Geula comes; we must not “go to sleep”; we must not stop crying out. If we don’t shout enough, it shows that it doesn’t hurt us enough, because when one is in pain, one cries out! And if we don’t cry out, we might, chalila, have to be awakened by even more difficult things. But if we want to plead to Hashem for an end to all our troubles, we must show Him that we have understood the message, that it hurts us enough, and that we are calling out now already, and are not counting on any military or political solutions – only on Hashem yitbarach. 

One Nation – One Heart 

We have published a booklet called “To Love Every Jew Like My Own Child”. And every one of us must feel that every soldier and every Jew in any place of danger and difficulty is his son and daughter, and he should call out for them just like he calls out to Hashem about his own children, like those mothers who don’t sleep at night and pray endlessly. We don’t cry out only about ourselves and our own personal problems, rather about all the problems of all Jews, and about the sorrow of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Who suffers very much when his children suffer. And mainly, we call out about problems in the emotional realm – anxieties and panic, addiction and depression, single people who can’t seem to get married, and homes that are falling apart, children who are getting into trouble – those are the huge emotional problems that all of us should be crying out about all the time and especially now, when it is easier to feel the pain of the Jewish people. 

Holy Jews, “How can you sleep? Rise up and call to your G-d.” The simple message of the Torah in this week’s parasha is that when people rise and cry out, the Geula comes. If we want these troubles to truly be the last ones, if we want to see miracles and wonders and the revelation of Hashem’s kingship in the world, and only good coming to the Jewish people, we must cry out from the depths of our hearts. To say Tehillim from the heart, to shout during hitbodedut when no one else is around, to call out from the heart in Shemonah Esrei, at the graves of tzaddikim. 

“Do not give Him quiet,” says the prophet. In other words, don’t give Hashem peace and quiet. Make a lot of noise down here and up there, “until He has established, until He has raised Jerusalem to be the glory of this earth,” and we will merit the final Geula with great mercy, speedily in our days, Amen.