“She opened it [the basket] and saw him, the child, and behold! A youth was crying …” (Shemos 2:6)
Moshe Rabbeinu was a newborn infant in a basket, yet the Torah calls him a “na’ar – a youth.”
Rashi says that the voice of Moshe Rabbeinu was like that of an adolescent, as cited in Sotah (12b). However, the Ramban finds this explanation perplexing, because it gives the impression that Moshe’s voice modulation was physically defective. Although the commentaries suggest many interpretations, the Ramban challenges them as unnecessary, as the word na’ar is also used with regard to the infant Yishmael, after he and Hagar were expelled from the house of Avraham. The pasuk says (Bereishis 21:17), “Hashem heard the cry of the youth.”
One commentary says that Moshe’s limbs were developed as that of a child. The Medrash Aggadah says that Moshe’s cry was not like the constant wailing of an infant. Rather, the Angel Gavriel came and struck him so that Moshe cried like a youngster in pain, which aroused the mercy of Basyah, the daughter of Pharaoh.
The Baal HaTurim suggests that the crying youth does not refer to Moshe, but to Aharon HaKohen, who was older than Moshe, and was standing nearby. Basyah understood that there must be a relationship between the crying Jewish child and the infant in the basket.
The Sifrei Chassidus notes that Basyah must have already heard the crying. Why did she have to open the basket to see? It is clarified that the cry was soft like a sigh, the silent cry of the Jewish nation to Hashem that has no voice and sometimes has no words as used in the Unesaneh Tokef: “a still soft voice is heard.”
R’ Meir Shapiro of Lublin, in his sefer Imrei Daas, offers a fascinating observation. He notes that an infant cries when something hurts him, or he is hungry. But he doesn’t have the understanding or the wisdom to be in distress for others, whether it is for his parents or for the community. However, a na’ar who is already grown feels the pain of others and will cry for them, not only when something bothers him personally.
Moshe Rabbeinu was a displaced child floating in the water. His life was in danger, so he cried, and Pharaoh’s daughter rescued him. Yet, when he was already safe in her arms, he continued to cry. Why? He was not a child crying about his own pain; he was crying for the pain of his nation. Moshe realized that it had been a miracle that he had been rescued, but what would be the fate of the other Jewish children who did not merit such a miracle? We have to listen when a child cries. It is our responsibility to try to calm the child and relieve his distress.
Rav Zilberstein related an interesting shailah that was presented to HaGaon R’ Chaim Kanievsky.
As is well known, there are numerous kinds of pacifiers on the market, and many infants can only be soothed with one specific brand which is comfortable for them or to which they have become attached.
One family, who had been visiting their parents, left behind the child’s pacifiers, and nothing else they had was quieting the baby. In an effort to help her daughter, and with no one available to bring the pacifier to where her daughter lived, the mother came up with an ingenious idea. She put the pacifier into a plastic bag and taped it to the back of a bus that traveled from her neighborhood to the bus station in her daughter’s neighborhood. Indeed, when the bus arrived at the bus station, the daughter found the pacifier exactly where it had been taped.
Later, the parents reconsidered whether it had been permissible to do this and not pay a bus fare. Although the Talmud (Bava Kamma 20a) does discuss situations where “this one derives benefit and this one does not have any loss,” they wondered whether it was indeed proper.
HaGaon R’ Chaim Kanievsky ruled that they did not have to pay for the service, although ideally it would be preferable not to do such a thing. However, in order to calm down a crying baby who could not be soothed, one could be lenient and do what she had done.
R’ Shmuel Abba of Zichlin once came, on Tisha B’Av, to the beis medrash of the tzaddik, R’ Yechezkel of Kuzmir. He noticed a person approach his friend and ask him for a favor. “Please,” he said, “I need help writing a very important letter.”
The individual he had approached was sitting reciting the Kinnos and he gestured to him that he couldn’t help him because he was reciting the Kinnos. He gestured to him that he should come back a different time.
The person pleaded again, “It’s very, very important. I need this letter now. Please help me.” But the individual kept pointing to his Kinnos, shrugging his shoulders, and signaling that he should return later.
R’ Yechezkel of Kuzmir went over to the Yid reciting the Kinnos and said to him: “You are sitting here and mourning the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, yet you are not using the opportunity to rectify that which happened on Tisha B’Av. By helping out another Yid in his time of need, you can help to rebuild the Beis HaMikdash.”
If a member of Klal Yisrael comes to ask for assistance, and you have the chance to do something for him that will make his life easier, even if you are involved with something very important for yourself, help him out. When you do so, you will in essence be building the Beis HaMikdash.