We continue with Bitachon-related thoughts from Yetziat Mitzrayim, which is the topic that we're reading about now in the weekly readings.
In the beginning of Parashat Bo , Hashem tells Moshe that one of the reasons for Yetziat Mitzrayim is that you should tell your children and grandchildren that I was HitAlalti
Of course, we go to Rashi first any time we want know the simple explanation of a pasuk, and Rashi says, it means Sichachti/ I made fun of, I made a laughing stock of, and he quotes other pesukim that used this root-word, to prove that it means I taunted them, or made a laughing stock of them. That is the simple explanation.
However, Rabbenu Bachye, another Rishon, says that it’s possible to offer another explanation-that the root of the word HitAlalti is Illah, which means a cause, as we say every day in Hodu, when we say Hodiu B’Amim Alilotav, (Tehilim 105,1). In Shemuel א, chapter two, it says, He sets up the Alilot/causes. In Tehilim 65, 5 it says, Norah Alilah Al benei Adam/God is awesome in His causes. He says that God is called that, because He is the Sibat kol HaSibot/ Cause of all causes, which God showed us at Yetziat Mitzrayim, so that we could understand this concept, that God deals in the approach of causes and causes and causes and steps upon steps.
This is really an important principle, that the Hovot Halevavot says in his Shaar Bitachon, which is this concept of Sibot/ causes. He says, everything in this world comes about through two stages:
First is God's gezera, and the next is the intermediary causes that bring it about. He gives the famous mashal of an ox that's pulling a rope that's connected to a pulley, that's connected to a pail, that's connected to a well. And a man is leading it all.
As the ox walks, the pail comes up out of the well with water. The man that's leading it all is far away. We don't see him. The most visible impact is the pail, which actually has the least impact, but it's the most immediate and direct cause. And all of these causes are ultimately driven by the man.
Rabbenu Bachye discussed this as well, in his sefer Kad HaKemach, on the topic of Pesach, where he gives a beautiful mashal of what our world is like. He says our world is compared to a young boy who is raised solely his house- he never leaves. It’s his whole world. The house has everything that he’d need in it. The only issue is that there's no one in the house beside him. He walks around in it and there's no other person there.
At a certain point in time, he's going realize that there's has to be a Baal HaBayit- somebody that set everything up, even though he couldn’t see him. He’d wonder, Who is he? and Where is he? The was what Avraham Avinu did. As we say in Birkat Hamazon, Shulchano Aruch LaKol/ His table is set for everybody. We just don't see Him. He's the missing Baal HaBayit.
The job of Yetziat Mitzrayim is for us to realize that although there are many, many steps, it's Hashem that's making it happen.
The Sephardic custom is that at the beginning of the Ne’Ilah prayers, there is a piyut with the words El Norah Alilah/ God, who's awesome in His causes.
Ne’Ilah is when web realize that God is making that final decision. He's the cause for everything. And he can make things happen in the most complex ways. Not to beat a dead horse, but the coronavirus, a microscopic virus, wreaked havoc on the world. You can hardly see it. As the saying goes, every bullet has its address, and every coronavirus has its address. And all of it comes from El Nora Alilah.