Crying out and Hearing the Outcry

Parshat/Torah Portion Bo (Come to Pharaoh) talks about crying out to the Lord: "a loud cry in all Mitzrayim". A couple of parshiyot /Torah portions before that, when the Divine calls out to Moses from the Burning Bush, the Voice says, among other life  and world changing statements, "I have heard their outcry". The  word used for both instances of crying out due to  suffering is the same: tzaakah. I thought to myself, "There must be a hint here; why else use the same word?"

I was pondering this puzzle, when I noticed a connection. Torah often uses wordplay to teach, to give us little clues that make us want to search more deeply. In  the language of a male centered era, Torah is described as a (virtuous) flirt, giving us just a glimpse of what is underneath her veil.* The hint I received was the spelling of the word "tzaakah"(outcry) and its connection to another word: "tzedakah", often translated as charity, but in actuality, the root comes from the word justice, or doing the right thing. 

A further connection, and this is more of a kabbalistic/gematria inspired notion which appeared to me. If you look at the two words in Hebrew, they each have 4 letters. The number 4 is signifcant in Judaism. The word Tzedakah contains the 4th letter (daled) of the Hebrew alphabet, the Alef-Bet, whose mystical combinations form and are found in the Torah. But wait: there's MORE! The number 4 also can refer to the Tetragrammaton, the four letter, unpronounced Name of God! So, perhaps the message hinted at in these Torah portions is that whenever we hear, TRULY hear  and RESPOND  to the outcry, we are doing Godly work: no matter who is seen as the oppressor and who the oppressed, we need to HEAR THEIR OUTCRY, and find a way to break the cycle. After all, we are all connected to the Tree of Life.

*When I locate the citation, I'll add it here. 

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