Zayin Adar

Today is zayin Adar, the 7th of Adar, the birthday and yom hilloula of Moshe Rabbenu.  It is a very special day. 

I was thinking about Moshe Rabbenu’s greatness. He was such a huge tzadik and he spoke face to face to Hashem yet Moshe was always defending the Jewish nation and complaining to Hashem why He mistreated the people. Why would he do that? Surely he had such immense faith and trust in Hashem that he would never question His ways.

So how could he become upset when a Jew was suffering? Or when the Jewish nation was suffering?

We learn that when Moshe met G-d at the burning bush, G-d was ready to show Moshe the reasons for all the suffering the Jews were going to go through until the coming of Moshiach. And Moshe refused. He hid his face. He did not want to see or know. Because if he would know and understand then he would be unable to pray with the same devotion and sincerity to Hashem to end the suffering.

So from this we learn a big lesson: when it comes to the suffering of another Jew, we need to cry out and protest and pray . We cannot be complacent or assume the person deserves that or needs that suffering. We cannot try to judge why the person is going through the suffering. We must emulate Moshe and cry out for Hashem to end the suffering and bring perfection and redemption to the world.

Of course we retain our faith knowing Hashem does what is best for each person. But we must not be silent when we see another person suffering: we need to cry out. Because if we lose our sensitivity to another’s suffering, we lose our spiritual sensitivity. We need to feel another’s pain, just as we need to feel another’s rejoicing. We need to cry out because in reality Hashem also is pained when someone is suffering. And when we pray and cry out Hashem often changes decrees. He wants us to cry out and to pray. He loved when Moshe Rabbenu would pray and defend the Jews. He wanted Moshe to do so. And He wants each of us to do so as well.

Moshe was the first redeemer and will be the last redeemer, because every tzadik has a spark of Moshe in him. And in fact each Jew has a spark of Moshe in him. And so may we all merit personal redemption from our personal limitations and problems as well as the complete geulah for all the Jewish nation and the entire world.  Let us pray that even before Pesach we should all merit the redemption through our righteous Moshiach! THIS YEAR IN YERUSHALAYIM!!