The pressure mounts… as Israel leaves Egypt, Egypt is in hot pursuit. Hashem leads them right up to the Sea of Reeds, where they turn to see the Egyptian army well-armed and pursuing quickly. They are stuck - the waters of the Sea in one direction, and their enemies in the other direction. They cry out. There doesn't seem to be any way out.
Sometimes Hashem leads us down an alley to a dead end. We might find ourselves completely stuck, with nowhere to go. But it is at those moments that we, like Israel, can enter an entirely new dimension. Of course there's a way out - walk through the water. Break down a wall. Learn to fly.
Sometimes Hashem leads us down that alley just so we can see that it is time to grow in a new way, to reach into a part of ourselves that we have not yet touched. If we were not pushed, we would never have come to see it.
We even see a new revelation of Hashem in this Parsha. Hashem tells Moshe, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to march!" The Zohar explains, "Why are you crying out to me? This situation is dependent on a level of G-d's revelation that is beyond prayer, or crying out."
When we are backed into that alley, it is not only a time to see a new depth in ourselves, it is a time to see a new depth in our relationship to G-d, to let G-d show us that G-d is in our lives in a much deeper way than we ever imagined.
Rav Gavriel Goldfeder
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Rav Gavriel Goldfeder is one of the first semicha recipients of the yeshiva. A graduate of Drew University in Religious Studies, he came to Bat Ayin after stints in other yeshivot and found a spiritual and intellectual home. Here he met his wife, Ketriellah, who was a student in our short-lived Women's Yeshiva. Upon graduation, Gavriel took the position of rabbi of the Aish Kodesh Congregation in Boulder, Colorado and together with Ketriellah and their growing family, they are busy creating (in Gavriel's words), "a community infused with Torah values, passion for learning and prayer, consideration of one another, and action, as well as deep celebration of the joys of life." |