Defending the People
Adjustment to the harsh realities of life in the wilderness was not easy for the newly freed slaves. "The people began to complain.... When God heard, He displayed His anger, and God's fire flared out, consuming the edge of the camp." (Numbers 11:1)
The people cried out to Moses for help, and Moses defended them before God: "Moses prayed to God, and the fire died down."
The Torah does not tell us what exactly Moses said to God. But the sages wrote that Moses spoke out forcefully in defense of the people. In fact, the Talmud suggests that Moses' prayer was so audacious, that Moses didn't pray to God - he prayed against God (Berachot 32a).
Praying Against God?
Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook noted that the expression "praying to God" is uncommon. Often, the Torah just says, "he prayed." It is understood that prayer is directed towards God. Yet, there is an additional reason why the phrase "to pray to God" is abnormal.
The Hebrew verb lehitpaleil ("to pray") is in the reflexive tense. This grammatical form emphasizes the emotional impact of prayer back on the soul. The introspective nature of prayer brings out an outpouring of enlightened emotion within the soul.
It is therefore fitting to speak of praying lifnei HaShem, meaning to pray "before God" or "facing God". This phrase indicates that one has directed one's heart and mind to contemplate God in prayer. However, it is unrealistic to speak about praying "to God." The clarity of enlightenment that one may attain through intellectual study and reflection goes far beyond the emotional inspiration experienced in prayer. Praying "to God" would indicate that one attained a heightened awareness of the Creator, and through concentrated prayer was somehow able to achieve an emotional uplifting of the soul at this elevated cognitive level.
Moses' Remarkable Prayer
Therefore, the sages emphasized the tremendous struggle and conflict in Moses' extraordinary prayer. It was as if he had prayed "against God." Moses needed to defy the normal limitations of prayer. This explanation is reinforced from a literal reading of the Midrashic text, which states that Moses "hurled words towards Heaven," providing us with an image of one who forcefully heaves an object upwards, fighting against the laws of gravity as he throws it higher than he can reach.
What enabled Moses to attain such a remarkable prayer? His holy soul poured forth with such passionate yearnings towards perfection that his inspired prayer was able to surpass his intellectual grasp of Divine providence. This unusual phenomenon sometimes occurs with giants of the spirit; it testifies to the purity of their natural inner longings for good and perfection.
[Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I, p. 140]