Good morning, everybody. Welcome to class number 82, a lesson for Kriat Yam Suf (splitting of the sea) and Shevi'i shel Pesach. Yet again, we'll continue with our hero, Gidon. As we mentioned yesterday, the angel was waiting under the elm tree for Gidon. Why was he waiting for him? Reason number one was to show him, “I'm here, and I'm ready to save you.” The Radak continues with reason number two, which is related to reason number one: he was waiting there until Gidon found the zechut (merit). A lot of times, the angel is waiting to help us, but we need a zechut. And that's what Hashem is saying: “It's not my end. On my end, everything's taken care of. I have the angel waiting there; you need the zechut.”
We find this when it came to saving Lot in Sodom. The angels came to Lot; they didn't just pull him out. You know why the angels came to Lot, says the Ramban? Because he needed a zechut. What's zechut? He took the guests in. So the angels didn't give him the zechut, but just taking them in wasn't enough for zechut. The angel said, “We don't want to come in.” And Lot said, “Please come in.” The Ramban says, “You know why the angel made it a little bit more difficult for him? Because he needed a little bit more zechut.” Sometimes you try to do a mitzvah (commandment), and it's difficult. Why is it difficult? Because you need extra zechut. Those are the angels. The angels give you the opportunity for zechut, and then they'll save you. And this is a principle always.
We talk about Kriat Yam Suf, and you look in the Torah: it talks about the angel of Hashem that came and separated the Egyptians from the Jewish people. We have angels protecting us and helping us, and we need to arouse the zechut for them to save us. And this works for everything. It works for parnasah (make a buck). We know that one's daily parnasah is as difficult as the splitting of the sea. We're trying to get you depressed and down. You know how hard it is to make a buck? And the Ramban says, “No, we're trying to tell you that God made miracles then; He'll make miracles now.” You got to pray. You got to ask, and you'll get miracles. And God sends his angels. And all this is clear in the Torah. God sends angels for one reason. Because, of course, God does everything. But for us to imagine, we can't imagine God doing everything everywhere at all times. So, in order to make it easier for us to conceptualize, he sends an angel, which is a messenger.
Yaakov Avinu had a dream when he was leaving Lavan's house. Lavan tried to swindle him a thousand times. A hundred times, actually, not to exaggerate. A hundred times he changed the deal. And an angel of God comes to Yaakov in a dream and tells him, “You know what? I've been taking care of you. You know how you're having so many sheep? I was gone in the middle of the night and moving over the spotted sheep for you. You didn't know about it. You weren't cheating. You weren't stealing. But I was moving them over. Every time he switched the deal on you, that's why I was allowed to do what the angel said. He switched the deal on you. First they said checkered sheep. Then they said spotted sheep. I, in the middle of the night, came and moved the spotted sheep over. I was working for you.” We have angels working for us. We don't see them, but they're working for us.
But Rabbi Ginsburg once said, “Imagine a person's in a taxi cab and he loses his phone. He drops his phone, and it slides in the cab between the seats. And another three people are in the car. And then the fourth person comes in. He's a religious Jew. And he puts his hand in, finds the phone, and decides to check who it belongs to. And he sees who it is, calls you, and returns your phone. He says, ‘You know how that happened? How come that guy found it and the other three guys didn't? You didn't see, but there's a little angel that pulled the phone out and made it noticeable for the guy to pick it up and return it to you.’” We believe in angels. There's forces out there that we don't see that do things for us. But the trick is, you need a zechut. You need a merit. One of the greatest merits you can have: by Kriat Yam Suf, we need a merit. You know what the merit was? What was the merit? What was the zechut? It says at that time, they're idol worshipers. They're idol worshipers. They're bad guys. They're bad guys. Why are we killing the Egyptians and saving Jews? What was the zechut? “Daber el B'nei Yisrael v'yisa'u.” Travel. Go straight into the Yam Suf and show your bitachon in G-d.
The Or HaChayim HaKadosh says that when he told Moshe, “Moshe, why are you praying? It's not a time to pray. Not a time to pray.” I thought praying is great. We need something stronger than prayer. You know what's stronger than prayer? Bitachon. Just rely on G-d. I don't care what. I'm forging forward, and I'm relying on HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's the most powerful zechut: relying on HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And that's why sometimes we have challenges in life. You know why I have a challenge? It's an opportunity to exercise your bitachon and then get what you need. You need that zechut. You need bitachon. And B'ezrat HaShem (with God's help), HaShem will see that we're working on bitachon. Every single day, we're listening and we're working on bitachon. And now's the time to exercise the bitachon. And we're supposed to tonight, when we... pray.
And tomorrow morning, for those of us that get up early. Some people get up early at the crack of dawn to read Az Yashir. And it's a segulah (auspicious practice). It's as if someone needs a shiduch (marriage match), or someone has problems with parnasah. At Alot HaShachar (dawn) or at netz (sunrise) this morning, he gets up and says Az Yashir. And he imagines he was standing there at the Yam Suf saying shira (song of praise). And that bitachon is powerful. There are shuls that get up early. If you're in a shul that gets up early, wonderful. If you're not, I know people get up at the hour. They say Az Yashir and they go back to sleep. But it's a powerful tool. B'ezrat HaShem. We will all rely on HaShem, and we'll all see the yeshuot (salvations) and niflaot (wonders) that we need in our lives. Amen (so be it).