Welcome to Daily Bitachon. Today we have a powerful lesson from one of the pesukim in Parashat Ki Tavo : וַנִּצְעַק אֶל־יְיָ אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵינוּ Vanitzak el Hashem Elokei Avoteinu / And we cried out to Hashem, the God of our fathers . The Baal Hagada cites Shemot 2:23, where it says the Jewish people groaned because of the workload: וַיִּזְעָ֑קוּ וַתַּ֧עַל שַׁוְעָתָ֛ם אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים מִן־הָעֲבֹדָֽה׃ Vayizaku / (same root as the word vanitzak ) And they cried out Vataal shavatam / Their outcry went up Elokim to God, Min ha'avoda/Because of the work. There are two points to make note of. Firstly, there is no mention of prayer, just crying out . Groaning , outcry , these are terms that are not necessarily referring to prayer. Secondly, the stress is on because of the work. The Ramban on this pasuk says that they were not really fit to be answered. They were answered, in his words, Mipnei hatzaaka / Because of the outcry. Libel tefilatam b'rachamim. Their prayers were accepted with mercy. Yes, they prayed, he says, but prayer alone was not enough. What made it happen was the tzaaka / the outcry . Rabbenu Bachya adds that the reason why the words Min ha'avoda are stressed twice is to teach us a lesson: There is no more complete prayer than a prayer Mitoch hatzara vehadochak / From extreme difficulty and oppression, Sheyoter mekubelet/It is more accepted and goes up to Hashem. Interestingly, the Ramban, in Mishpatim ( Shemot 22:20), when it talks about being nice to the convert, says, The soul of the convert is humble. He groans and cries out constantly for Hashem's mercy , that He should have mercy on him. And Hashem has mercy on him because he constantly cries out, So too, Hashem had mercy on the Jewish people when they groaned, as it says in our pasuk . Not in in their merit; rather Hashem had mercy on them because of the avoda. What is it about this Tzaaka/Crying out, groaning that makes our prayers be answered? Rav Yitzchak Isaac Chaver , in his Haggadah Yad Mitzrayim, explains based on a Gemara that says anacha shoveret chatzi gufo shel adam / A groan breaks a person's body. Groaning causes a person to become humble, and because he's humbled, he is close to Hashem and his prayers are answered. As the pasuk says, Karov Hashem l'nishberei lev / Hashem is close to the brokenhearted. This is an unbelievable concept, that we've mentioned more than once- that the purpose of Galut Mitzrayim was to bring them to humility, to humble them, like we said in the pasuk, Vaya'anun u/ And he pained them. The root of the word ya'anunu / pain is anava . A pained man is humble. So we're learning an unbelievable concept here- vanitzak is not just to cry out and scream, it's it just that there's a power to screaming . It's not about the scream. A very arrogant person could say, " Okay, I'm going to scream now because I'll get what I want by screaming." The screaming that causes God to answer us is the screaming that comes from humility, that comes from brokenness, from realizing I'm not in control, I have a broken heart, I'm stuck. Help me, I don't know what to do. That feeling of humility, that outcry of humility is what causes vataal shavatam their outcry went up to Hashem min ha'avoda from the work. They were broken. The work had done its job. The job of the avoda was to break them. That's the term used, " I'm going to break you." Of course, Hashem is not doing it in a angry, mean way, but He needs our ego and arrogance to be broken, so we realize that we're not in charge, we can't do anything, and we don't know what to do- the outcry of, Hashem , I don't know what to do. I'm stuck, I just don't know how to get out of this quagmire of mud, or quicksand. It's like the current situation in Gaza. If some of the people making the decisions would say, I don't know what to do, I'm stuck. There's no way out of this, and if we'd all collectively feel that vayeianchu /that groan , vanitzak that outcry , shavatam min ha'avoda , then, vataal shavatam the outcry goes up- then the next pasuk, which we'll see tomorrow, is vayishma Hashem et koleinu . And Hashem heard our voices