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Staying Inspired
Author: Rabbi Moshe Pruzansky
Va’eira
After the plagues of frogs, beasts, and hail, respectively, Pharaoh begged Moshe to daven for his salvation in exchange for the emancipation of the Jewish nation. Moshe complied each time, but immediately afterward, Pharaoh hardened his own heart and continued to refuse to allow the Jewish nation to leave. This happened multiple times.
What was Pharaoh thinking? Were his intentions to dare to toy with Moshe Rabbeinu and Hashem Himself? Was Pharaoh, a hard- ened and experienced king, childishly feigning remorse? Furthermore, if indeed Pharaoh was insincere and he never really intended to let the Jews leave, why did Moshe heed Pharaoh’s pleas? Why did he take Pharaoh’s promise to let the Jews leave seriously?
A man was driving to an important meeting in Manhattan, one that would decide his financial future. To his horror he hit terrible traffic. By the time he pulled up to the building where his meet- ing would be taking place, there were barely a few minutes left before it would begin. To top it off, there was no parking spot in sight. The man, feeling a surge of desperation, turned his eyes heavenward and said, “hashem, I know that I haven’t been tak- ing my responsibilities to You seriously enough. hashem, if you help me find a parking spot I promise that I will change my entire life around. I will serve You with all my heart and soul. Please, oh please, hear my cry!” Miraculously, at that exact moment, a car pulled out of the perfect parking spot… right in front of the building! Without skipping a beat, the man quickly turned heavenwards and said, “Never mind, hashem; I just found a spot.”
Rav Avraham Pam explains that each and every time Pharaoh admitted to his sin of enslaving the Jews and promised to let them free, he indeed did so sincerely! In his moment of pain he genuinely felt a humble recognition of Hashem’s power. As a result of this sin- cere repentance, Moshe agreed to daven on his behalf. However, the instant the affliction ended, Pharaoh lost his brief moment of clarity and understanding that Hashem runs the world, and he reneged on his promise.
Rav Pam also states that although Pharaoh’s actions (and the above parable) are a bit extreme, we can all relate to this experience to some degree. Often, when we are going through a tough situation, it suddenly becomes so clear to us how small and powerless we are and how dependent we are on Hashem. Our suffering inspires us to daven like never before and to perform incredible acts. However, im- mediately after we are saved, it becomes very difficult to retain that inspiration.
How many Times have you gone to an inspiring speech or experienced an inspiring event, felt like you would turn your life around, and found that feeling completely dissipate after a few days or even a few hours? everyone experiences this. Inspiration is like a bolt of light- ning in a dark forest: it affords a moment of brilliant illumination and clarity but then disappears. This begs the question: How does one keep his inspiration alive? Chazal recommend to immediately adopt an easy practice that you can do consistently, no matter how “small.”
If you do so each time you’re inspired, you are guaranteed to achieve genuine greatness. Now, in case you feel that “small” positive actions are insignificant and not worth your attention, consider the following case in point. Shifra and Puah, discussed in last week’s parashah, were yocheved and Miriam. Why did the Torah refer to two of the holiest women in history by the way they coddled babies?* Rav yerucham Levovitz explains that Hashem did so to teach us that contrary to popular belief, it’s not the big things that make great people. Rather, the Torah is teaching us that it’s the small and constant gestures that do so. Relatively “small” kabbalos like deciding to say Tehillim for one minute a day, daily study of a few sentences of shemiras halashon, mussar, and the like are the keys to achieving and retaining greatness, when done on a consistent basis.
We all have moments in our lives — an uplifting Torah class, a great yom Kippur davening, or a miraculous “sign” from Heaven — when we see, hear, or experience something that gives us a tremen- dous flash of inspiration and excitement to change. yet, so often, the passage of time wears away at that enthusiasm and we are left with nothing. The Torah is teaching us that the best way to seize such mo- ments is to immediately make concrete, practical, and consistent resolu- tions to apply the inspiration, so that we may keep it with us forever.