This week’s Parsha (Shemos 15:2) details the unprecedented miracle of Kriyas Yam Suf, the splitting of the sea. Upon witnessing the immense miracle, the Jewish people exuberantly proclaim, “Zeh Keili v’anvei’hu, Elokei Avi v’Arrom’menhu – This is my G-d, and I will glorify Him; the G-d of my father I will adore him.
The order in this phrase, however, is seemingly incorrect. After all, our tradition and our heritage is predicated on the relationship our ancestors had with Hashem. Therefore, the pasuk should have first said, “This is the G-d of my father” before it said, “This is my G-d”!
I heard from my father, Rav Yitzchok Fingerer shlita that the Imrei Emes answers that these people who stood at the Sea, witnessing the great miracle, were the same children who were born in defiance of Pharaoh’s decree of genocide. Where were they born? In the fields, where they were clandestinely raised by none other than the angels of Hashem!
Therefore, they had a direct connection with Hashem where they felt His love. Way before they met the G-d of their fathers, they met G-d personally. That is why they said, “This is my G-d” first, because only later were they reunited with their parents and met the “G-d of my father.” This is why the pasuk first said this is my G-d and then after it said the G-d of my father.
The efforts of those who draw close to Hashem, after growing up secular without a father in their lives, are the very means that will bring Moshiach! It’s what brought about the exodus from Egypt and will do the same now with the final redemption.
We are now living in a generation where many people don’t have a connection to Hashem through their fathers because they were raised in non-observant homes, and they discovered Hashem on their own. Some of these amazing people have been successful in even bringing back their fathers! Especially now in the light of what’s going on in the world, we are seeing this more than ever.
A Beautiful modern-day example of someone who was able to fulfill this maxim of zeh keli v’anvei’hu…- of making Hashem personal to him and also returning his father to Yiddishkeit is the famous author Yisroel (Roy) Neuberger. Mr. Neuberger is a baal teshuvah, who grew up devoid of any Judaism. His father was a successful hedge fund manager and a multi-millionaire who never put on tefillin in his life. He was over one hundred years old, and no matter what he refused to put on tefillin.
One day that changed. One day, Yisroel brought tefillin with him when he went to visit his father and for the first time in his life at the age of 105 Roy’s father put on tefillin for the first time in his life! It’s never too late to change!
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