Parshas Beshalach
1. Continuing the account of the Exodus of the Children of Israel from the land of Egypt and the Egyptians' pursuit of them, our Parsha says:1 "ופרעה הקריב וישאו בנ"י את עיניהם והנה מצרים נוסע אחריהם ויראו מאד ויצעקו בנ"י אל ה'" ("Pharaoh drew near, and the Children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, Egypt was advancing after them; and they were very frightened, and the Children of Israel cried out to the L‑rd"). Rashi copies from the verse the word "ויצעקו" ("and they cried out") and explains: "תפסו אומנות אבותם" ("They seized the craft of their forefathers").2
This needs clarification:
a) What is difficult in the content of the verse, such that Rashi needed to give this explanation? The meaning of the verse is simply understood: when the Children of Israel saw that they were in trouble, because "Egypt was advancing after them," they cried out and prayed to the Holy One, blessed be He, to save them.
b) One cannot explain that Rashi comes to rule out the interpretation that "they cried out" is an expression of complaint3 — for at first glance only according to that interpretation is the continuation understood: "They cried out… 'What is this that you have done to us…'" — for if so, the main point is missing, and he should have said: "They cried out — they prayed; they seized," etc.
c) On the other hand, if there is a need to explain and clarify the reason for their crying out and praying to the Holy One, blessed be He, Rashi should have explained it on the verse in which the crying out and praying of the Children of Israel to G‑d is related for the first time — namely in Parshas Shemos, where it says, "ויזעקו (בנ"י) ותעל שועתם אל האלקים" ("They [the Children of Israel] cried out, and their outcry rose up to G‑d").4 For one must say, according to the plain meaning of Scripture, that this refers to the crying out and outcry of prayer to the Holy One, blessed be He,5 and not a cry arising from the intensity of the suffering and the harshness of the servitude,6 since it was already stated before this, "ויאנחו בני ישראל מן העבודה" ("The Children of Israel sighed from the labor").
d) How is it at all appropriate to describe prayer by the name "the craft (of their forefathers)"? Moreover: the "craft" (in the sense of a regular occupation with some work or trade) of the forefathers was, according to the plain meaning of Scripture, shepherding sheep, as the Torah relates.
2. Rashi continues: "Regarding Avraham it says,7 'אל המקום אשר עמד שם' ('to the place where he had stood'). Regarding Yitzchak: 'לשוח בשדה' ('to converse in the field').8 Regarding Yaakov: 'ויפגע במקום' ('he encountered the place')."9 That is, the expressions "stood," "to converse," and "encountered" allude to prayer.
At first glance this is not understood: why did Rashi cite these verses, in which the prayers of the forefathers are mentioned only by way of allusion, and not cite instead other verses in which this matter is stated explicitly?
Regarding Avraham it says (in Parshas Lech,10 which also comes before the verse that Rashi cites): "ויבן שם מזבח לה' ויקרא בשם ה'" ("He built an altar there to the L‑rd and called out in the Name of the L‑rd") [or the verse before it, "He built an altar there to the L‑rd Who had appeared to him"]. Even more so: the verse "to the place where he had stood" is said in the passage (of Sedom and Amorah) in which it is stated explicitly, and at great length, that Avraham made many requests and prayers on behalf of Sedom and Amorah — yet Rashi does not cite these prayers, but rather what is said at the conclusion of the episode (after the overturning of Sedom and Amorah), by allusion: "where he had stood"?
Furthermore: in the Mechilta — which, according to the printers' reference,11 is the source of this comment of Rashi — the verse cited is indeed the aforementioned verse said (in Parshas Lech), "He built an altar there…," and not the verse that Rashi cites.
[However, one cannot prove from this change that Rashi found such a reading in the Mechilta (although even then there would be room to ask why Rashi chose a rare version and not the common version, etc.) — since Rashi did not bring his explanation in the name of the Mechilta, but as an explanation according to the plain meaning of Scripture, it can be said that he changed the exposition of the verse from what is written in the Mechilta in a way that would fit the plain meaning of Scripture (as is Rashi's way in many places)];
Similarly regarding Yitzchak, about whom we find explicitly at the beginning of Parshas Toldos:12 "ויעתר יצחק" ("Yitzchak entreated") — "he prayed abundantly and insistently" — on behalf of Rivkah his wife;
And likewise regarding Yaakov, whose prayer is stated explicitly in Parshas Vayishlach:13 "הצילני נא מיד אחי גו'" ("Please save me from the hand of my brother…");
— so in all these verses the prayer of the forefathers is stated explicitly, and not only by way of allusion as in the verses in Rashi's comment.
3. The explanation of this: the difficulty in the verse (in the word "they cried out") that Rashi comes to resolve is:
What place was there to pray, and with an outcry, to the Holy One, blessed be He — the Holy One, blessed be He, had already assured them that the Children of Israel would come to the Land of Israel,14 and to the extent that the Children of Israel were going out "with an upraised hand"15 (even though "he pursued the Children of Israel"). Accordingly it is not understood, either way: if they believed in the assurance of the Holy One, blessed be He — there was no need to pray. And if they did not believe (because, seeing that "Egypt was advancing after them" and the sea was before them, etc., doubts fell upon them, etc.), then what place was there to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He?
Therefore Rashi explains: "They seized the craft of their forefathers." That is, the prayers we find among the forefathers were not only that they prayed at a time of trouble, or in a similar situation that brings one to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He; rather, this was their craft16 (similar to Rashi's wording regarding Israel and Bilam17), for they always conducted themselves, at every time, to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He (as he proves from the verses, as will be explained below).
So too it was with the Congregation of Israel (children of "their forefathers"),18 that they too prayed [OCR unclear: the end of page 2 and the start of page 3 are missing from the source, including the rest of this section and the places of notes19, 20 and 21] … It can also be said that these words did not come from a lack of faith in G‑d (with their intention in this being to complain, etc.), but that they spoke so because of their distressed situation, as is the nature of people who find themselves in a time of trouble, etc., who speak out of anguish without intention — as our Sages say, "a person is not held accountable at a time of his anguish," for he does not speak with wickedness but without awareness.22 But their faith in the assurance of the Holy One, blessed be He, was firm, as stated explicitly in Rashi's commentary later on the verse,23 "דבר אל בנ"י ויסעו" ("Speak to the Children of Israel, and let them travel") — "The merit of their forefathers, and their own merit, and the faith with which they believed in Me, is worthy" — so it is explicit that the Children of Israel believed in G‑d, and in this merit they were "worthy… for the sea to be split for them."]
4. Accordingly it is also understood why Rashi is precise to cite specifically these verses as proof of the prayer of the forefathers — that it was in the manner of a "craft":
The prayer of Avraham our father in Parshas Lech was for a special reason (as Rashi explains there: he prophesied that [his descendants] were destined, etc., and prayed there for them; and similarly in the verse before it, it was a kind of prayer of thanksgiving, as Rashi explains there: for the tidings of offspring and the tidings of the Land of Israel). Likewise his prayer for the people of Sedom and Amorah was in order to save them from being overturned. Similarly, the prayer of Yitzchak at the beginning of Parshas Toldos was for a special request — that Rivkah his wife be remembered [with children]. And likewise with Yaakov — his prayer was: "Please save me from the hand of my brother…"
Therefore Rashi specifically cites the verses "where he had stood…," "Yitzchak went out to converse in the field," and "he encountered the place" — in all of which there were no special reasons for which they came to pray. It is proven from this that prayer was for them akin to a "craft," a constant occupation, even without a special reason that would arouse them to pray to the Holy One, blessed be He.
Accordingly it is simply understood that this explanation cannot apply to the prayer of the Jewish people in Parshas Shemos, since that prayer of theirs, in their distress, had the content of a special request: they prayed to G‑d to save them from their hardship [and similarly in Parshas Bo,24 "ויקד העם" ("The people bowed"), for which there was a special reason, as Rashi explains there — "for the tidings of the redemption," etc.].
5. The lesson from this in a person's Divine service: prayer, and similarly Torah study, etc., must be akin to a "craft." That is, one's Torah study must not be only in order to know "the deed that they should do" and the deed that should not be done, and the like, but for the sake of Torah study itself. Similarly in the fulfillment of the mitzvos and the service of prayer: occupying oneself with them need not be for the sake of some particular purpose and aim, etc., but in the manner of a craft — that this is one's entire concern and entire being: to serve the Holy One, blessed be He, as explained above.
So too must it be in "working with another": one should not take into account that outwardly it does not appear that the "other" has any connection to Torah and prayer, etc.; for one must know that in essence and inwardly, this is the "craft" of every single Jew, since this is the craft of every Jew's forefathers — only it is hidden within him, and one need only bring it out from concealment into revelation.
(From the sicha of Shabbos Parshas Beshalach, 5735)
Notes
1) 14:10.
2) Tanchuma 9; Mechilta on the verse (and cited in the Ramban here). In both of them a verse is cited regarding Avraham (as in the text, section 2 [the OCR reads "12"]), but not regarding Yitzchak and Yaakov.
3) Ramban, in explaining the view of the Targum.
4) 2:23.
5) Cf. the second interpretation in the Ohr HaChaim there, and the Kli Yakar there at the beginning.
6) As written in the Sforno and the first interpretation in the Ohr HaChaim there.
7) Vayera 19:27.
8) Chayei Sarah 24:63.
9) Vayetzei 28:11.
10) 12:8.
11) In my humble opinion, it is from the Tanchuma: a) it is closer to his wording; b) and mainly — in the adjacent comment Rashi himself refers to the Tanchuma — so why would he go off to another place?! And the Tanchuma also cites from Parshas Lech — but a later verse (13:4)!
12) 25:21, and Rashi's commentary there.
13) 32:10–13.
14) [OCR unclear: the text of this note is missing from the source.]
15) [OCR unclear: the text of this note is missing from the source.]
16) [OCR unclear: the text of this note is missing from the source.]
17) [OCR unclear: the text of this note is missing from the source.]
18) [OCR unclear: the text of this note is missing from the source.]
19) [OCR unclear: the beginning of this note is missing.] … that their complaining was after "they cried out" and were not answered, etc. Or it can be said, as Rashi already explained (Vayeshev 37:20), that the one who said this is not the one who said that (similar to the Ramban's conclusion here, verse 10).
20) And similar to what the Ramban writes here (verse 11), and elsewhere — in the words of the Mechilta.
21) Bava Basra 16b, and Rashi's commentary there.
22) 14:15.
23) The past tense. And Rashi did not explain which faith — since it is explicit in the verse and in Rashi's commentary earlier: Shemos 4:31; 12:27, 39.
24) 12:27.
Key Lesson
The forefathers prayed not only when trouble or a special need arose, but constantly, as their "craft." So too, a Jew's Torah study, prayer and mitzvos should not be only a means to some particular goal, but his very occupation and being. And when reaching out to another Jew, one should remember that this "craft" of the forefathers lies hidden within every Jew and only needs to be revealed.