BY: Danielle
Siegel
The
power of words comes to play an important role in Chapter 12 of Parshat
Beha’alotecha. At the beginning of the chapter, Miriam speaks lason hara
about her brother Moshe Rabbbeinu and is punished with leprosy. Her intentions
may have been good but her words were not, and Hashem 'gets angry' on Moshe’s
behalf. This is the power of words at their worst. However, words can also be used
to accomplish a lot of good. Moshe does not hold a grudge, but rather uses his words to pray for
his sister’s forgiveness and demand of God that He heal her.
In a Drisha class about prayer taught by Rabbi Matalon,
we discussed the possibility of prayer being viewed in many different lights,
as determined by the many metaphors used to describe and classify our
relationship with God. For example, the
metaphors of God as our father with us as His children and the of God as our King with us as His servants appear most prominently in our prayers. These
perspectives are supposed to foster in us two feelings- a sense of humility and
a sense of arrogance and pride. Together, these feelings are meant to improve not only
our prayer, but our relationship with God and our opinions of ourselves.
Moshe and his prayer are perfect
examples of these two aspects. Moshe is famous for being humble, “Now the man
Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.”[i]
(Numbers 12:3) One way to look at Moshe`s prayer is by hightlighting the aspect of his humility before God. Moshe approaches Hashem carefully and with intention. He first praises God, then makes his request, and
finally thanks God, a model of prayer we follow to this very day.
On
the other hand, one could look at Moshe`s prayer as anything but humble. In
many ways Moshe’s prayer could foster in him a sense of self-worth because he is
demanding something of God. He stands before God and demands that He remove the
punishment he gave Miriam on Moshe’s behalf, knowing that like before, God will
listen and answer him.
The idea of shmirat halashon, guarding one’s
tongue, is all about watching what words you say and choosing your words
carefully. The Chizkuni, following Onkelos’ translation, points out that
each word in Moshe’s prayer is very carefully chosen. Chizkuni comments on
Moshe’s short five-word prayer of “Please God heal her now.” In his commentary
to Numbers 12: 11-13, Chizkuni says that the repetition of the word “na” in
Moshe`s prayer is not redundant; the first use is an appeal for mercy, the
second an appeal for urgency.
But while the words Moshe chose were important, they
would have been a lot less powerful had it not been for his emotional connection.
Moshe did not waste any time in rushing to pray for his sister, nor did he
spend so much time praying on her behalf that his other responsibilities were
left undone. He went to the place where the connection to God was the strongest
and prayed with heartfelt words for the sake of his sister, even though she had
wronged him. We can learn from Moshe’s example how to structure one’s prayers.
One should pray with emotion, find the place in which our connection to God is
strongest, and speak in an appropriate manner. If we do so then we shall
hopefully merit a positive and an immediate answer to our prayers.
Shabbat Shalom!
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