Amudim Unfiltered - When the Answer is No

Have you ever poured your heart into something and still didn't get the answer you were hoping for? Maybe asked your boss for some time off, got shut down, or maybe asked your spouse for something or your children or a friend and they just didn't hear it or didn't hear it the way you meant it. Maybe you davined for something, you got no response. That's how this week's para is begins. Mosher Rabenu, our greatest leader in history, begs Hashem to let him interro once, not casually. The Medish says heaven 550 times, 515, and Hashem still said no. It's painful. It almost seems unfair. But here's what we can learn. Hashem doesn't ignore Moshe. He records the forever in the Torah itself. Why? Because even though the answer was no, the cry still matters. The pain matters. The person matters. What does that mean for us? There are people around us right now who are crying out. Not always with words. The person battling addiction hoping somebody will take their pain seriously. Their survivor of abuse just wishing somebody would believe them. Someone struggling, praying that they're not alone anymore. Too often the world says no without even listening. But we can say something different. I hear you. I'm with you. You're not alone. The para also gives us the shama is shama means more than hearing. It means deep focused listening with empathy. It is what every struggling person in our lives and in our communities is yearning for to be heard to be safe and to matter. You shall teach your children what are we teaching? Because if it's just about the rules in the mitzvah and not also about compassion, kindness for the brokenhearted, then we're missing the heart of the Torah. Real Torah is when someone opens up and we say, "I'm here for you. There is no judgment, just love." Moshe didn't get the yes that he wanted, but he also was not ignored. His pain was validated and recorded for eternity. Let us do the same for the people around us. Thank you and have a great chabas.