Moses' Prayer: Public Relations and Personal Relationships

Rabbi Joel Fleekop

Saturday, March 10, 2007

In the Talmud, Berakoth 34a, the Rabbis discuss the great skill Moses possessed in crafting prayers of all lengths. On one extreme, as we are told in Deuteronomy 9:25, he once prayed for forty days and forty nights, and on the other, in Numbers 12:12 Moses offers a prayer of only six syllables, El Na Refah Na La.

Though neither as long as that in Deuteronomy nor as short as that from Numbers, Moses’ talent in crafting prayers is very much on display in this week’s Torah portion.

As Rachel described for us earlier, in Parshat Ki Tisa the people construct and worship a golden calf. Seeing the calf and the behavior of the people, God announces his desire to destroy the Israelites and make a new nation from the descendents of Moses. In Exodus 32:7-10 God instructs Moses,

Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely. They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I enjoined upon them. They have made themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” The Eternal further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people. Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.

Sensing, as Rashi suggests, that God’s instructions to be left alone was in fact an invitation to plead for the Israelites, Moses offers a beautiful petitionary prayer on their behalf. Part of the prayer, as Rachel mentioned earlier, is to ask God to consider the way destroying the Israelites in the dessert will look to the other nations of the world, particularly the Egyptians. In other words, he makes a case that destroying the Israelites would be bad for public relations.

While this line of appeal is clear from the Torah, the rabbi’s point out that in addition to his argument based on concerns for public relations, Moses also appeals to God on the grounds of personal relationship.

At the beginning of this unit of text, God says to Moses, “your people, whom you led out of Egypt have acted basely.” Later, God refers to the Israelites as “ha-am hazeh, this people.”

God’s choice of possessive determiners is surprising. Even when the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt and, according to the Rabbis, addicted to idolatry, God refers to them as “Ami- my people.” But here, after they have worshipped the golden calf, God refers to the Israelites as “amcha--your people” or “ha-am hazeh -- this people.” – Terms, that as Rabbi Martin Buber observes, belie scorn and estrangement.

It thus becomes Moses’ task to end that estrangement and to recreate a personal relationship between God and the Israelites. To counter the emotional distance created by the divine phrase “this people” Moses reminds God about the covenantal relationship and covenantal commitments God made to that same people’s ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Similarly, whereas God said, “Let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them” Moses responds, “Let not Your anger, O Eternal, blaze forth against Your people.” As Rashbam points out, Moses’ words are crafted to convey the message that the Israelites are in fact God’s people, not Moses’.

This idea is further developed in a midrashic parable from Pesikta de-Rav Kahana about a king who rents his vineyeard to a tenant. When the vineyard produced superior wine the King said, “What fine wine my vineyard produces!” When it produced inferior wine he said, “What rotten wine my tenant produces!” The tenant retorted, “your majesty, when it produced superior wine you claimed it as your own but when the wine is inferior you said it was mine. For better or worse, it is always yours!”

The midrash explains that by using the phrase “your people,” Moses is reminding God that it would be wrong to act like the king in the story who only claims a relationship when things are working well but denies any connection when things go wrong.

Moses’ prayerful petition is ultimately successful, not only in earning a pardon for the Israelites but in reminding God of the special relationship God shares with this often flawed group. In Exodus 32:14 we read, “And the Eternal renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon His people.”

Relationships, whether with people, things, or ideas can be very powerful. But they can also be dangerous. When the things we care about let us down it is extra painful. And so like God in this week’s Torah portion, when we are hurt or disappointed we are often tempted to deny that such a relationship ever existed. If so and so was never my friend, then the gossip they spread won’t hurt as much. If I never really cared about this event or organization, then its failure won’t really matter to me.

It is a good coping technique, but as Moses argued, it is those relationships that make working through the tough times--through the pain and disappointment--worthwhile.

The Talmud tells us that Moses was an excellent crafter of prayers. Though the two examples the Talmud cites and the example from this week’s Torah portion are all of different lengths, they have one thing in common. It is a relationship that motivates Moses to pray.

May loving relationships be the motivation that guides our actions and may all of our prayers come from the heart.