Print version: Ibn Ezra Shemot

The Cure to Hidden Pain (Shemot)

“If pain could have cured us we should long ago have been saved.” -George Santayana

Something gnaws at your mind. A pain, dull yet sometimes sharp. At times specific, at others amorphous. Catastrophic one moment, minor the next. It is a pain you hesitate to admit to yourself, let alone to another human being. But it is real. It hurts. And it does not seem to go away.

The Jewish slaves of Egypt suffered a variety of torments, physical, mental, and spiritual. They were demeaned in every way possible. They cried out to God. Sometimes their cries were shrill calls of agony, heard by fellow sufferers. Other times they were whimpering whispers of defeat, heard by no human ears.

Ibn Ezra, commenting on Exodus 3:7, explains that God heard both types of pain. He heard the visible, public pain, and He also saw the hidden, private pain.

When God released the Jews from their bondage, He also cured them. He saved them from physical torture and enslavement, and He freed them from the spiritual anguish they could not reveal.

God’s healing touch is something we strive to recall and recapture on a daily basis. Sometimes He is the only one listening. Let us take advantage.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben Tzion

Dedication

To the removal of Nicolas Maduro from office.