When You Talk to God

When you talk to God, you’re praying…When God speaks to you, you’re a schizophrenic.

An early prayer in the Torah is in the fifth chapter of Exodus. God sent Moses to Pharaoh with a demand. Pharaoh responded by increasing the Israelites’ burdens. Then, the people mock Moses. “Moses turned to יהוה and said, “O my lord, why did You bring harm upon this people? Why did You send me?”

Yes, prayer can be in the form of a question. Prayer can be supplicatory or questioning, personal or communal. Moses talks to God and says, “Why, why, why?” Moses’ question is sparked by awe and wonder, frequent elements of prayer.

Recently, my prayers followed Moses’ model. “God, what more are you asking of us? We’ve endured destruction, genocide, and terrorism. What more are you asking of us?”

I imagine God intended that Eden was only a small local park.  Left to our own devices, it took only two humans to misbehave and get evicted from paradise. The earth is not a utopia, and humans are not angels. God created it for our benefit. We haven’t yet learned how to direct our collective existence into peaceful coexistence. I want to talk to God about this dilemma.

Moses had similar questions. Moses heard back from God. He was not a schizophrenic.

I’m willing to believe in a God that communicates with us. I’m having trouble with the God that abides by human suffering and says nothing. Could God speak to us in ways we can’t understand, or perhaps we are not listening? Or maybe God has thrown God’s proverbial hands up in the air and said, I can’t do better than the Garden of Eden, and you didn’t make it there for a week!

God was still speaking when Moses came along. Moses and God continued their conversations over 40 years. God said, as reported in Chapter 6: “I have now heard the moaning of the Israelites because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.”   Why does God say “now” he has heard the moaning? Perhaps he was waiting for someone to seek God’s help. Perhaps, Moses was the first to say God, we need a major intervention here and now!

Moses’s request demanded an explanation. God left the answer to Moses’ imagination. Yet, God does respond in a different way. God assured Moses that it was time for God and Moses together to take action.

Like Moses, my questions/prayers also ask why. Why is there terror in Israeli homes and destruction in Gaza? Why are there tyrants in power and willing supplicants to support them? When, if ever, will this end? I may not get explanations. However, a fundamental teaching of the exodus story is that change begins when we call out and ask, “Why?” And the answer may be that we and God take action together.

Rabbi Evan J. Krame