“ויאמר ה’אל משה מה תצעק אלי דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו”
(שמות י”ד ט”ו)
רש”י: מה תצעק אלי – למדנו שהיה משה עומד ומתפלל, אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא לא עת עתה להאריך בתפלה שישראל נתונין בצרה.
Rashi: “Why do you cry out to me – (The Passuk teaches us) that Moshe was standing and praying. Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to him, ‘Now is not the time to prolong in prayer, for Yisroel is in trouble’.”
The question here is obvious. Klal Yisroel was facing imminent destruction: pursued by an enemy army, with nowhere to go but into the raging sea. At such a time, what could be more appropriate than prayer?
Hashem did not tell Moshe not to pray. He told Moshe this was not the time “להאריך בתפילה” – to prolong in prayer. What is the meaning of “להאריך בתפילה” – to daven a fifteen-minute Shemone Esrei instead of a five-minute one? Certainly not. “להאריך בתפילה” is the avodah of incorporating one’s request within Hashem’s greater plan. The request itself is “short”, simple and to the point, but a prayer is intended to be much more than that.
As an illustration, Rashi uses similar terminology in regards to Moshe’s prayer for Miriam in Parshas Beha’aloscha, “קל נא רפא נא לה.” (Bamidbar 12:13) Rashi there writes, “Why didn’t Moshe prolong in prayer? So that Yisroel should not say ‘his sister is in trouble and he stands and increases in prayer’.” What would Moshe have said had he prolonged in prayer then – what more was there to say? There are those who explain that he would have first said the berachos of מגן אברהם, אתה גבור and אתה קדוש, then requested “קל נא רפא נא לה”, followed by the berachos ראה, מודים and שלום. The understanding is as above: Moshe would have taken a personal request for his sister and endeavored to make it a part of Hashem’s plan. This is our aim with our requests in Shemone Esrei. The opening and concluding berachos “frame” our requests in the context of the “bigger picture”. (See Nefesh Hachaim Shaar 2 at length.)
When Hashem told Moshe that this was not the time to prolong in prayer, in effect, He was telling Moshe how important, how central Klal Yisroel is to His plan. If “Yisroel is in trouble”, this avodah of “להאריך בתפילה” is unnecessary, because Klal Yisroel is the key instrument for the revelation of Kavod Hashem; they are His plan. By definition, a danger facing all of Klal Yisroel is relevant to Hashem’s plan.
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We should be able, every once in a while, to take a step back and appreciate our role in the grander scheme of things. And we should care about the bigger picture as well. The Nefesh Hachaim (1:9, based on the passuk in Shir Hashirim 1:9) likens Klal Yisroel to the horse of Pharaoh. Hashem is, so to speak, the rider. At first thought, this analogy might seem strange. Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Klal Yisroel, we know, always look at each other, as the cheruvim did in the Beis Hamikdash. But there is a deep truth here, that Klal Yisroel looks in the same direction as the Borei Olam, as the horse and rider do; they share the same goal.
Good Shabbos.
