From: "Yeshivat Har Etzion's
Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To: yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject: INTPARSHA -07: Parashat Vayetze
YESHIVAT
HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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INTRODUCTION TO
PARASHAT HASHAVUA
by
Rav Michael Hattin
PARASHAT
VAYETZE
Yaacov
and Prayer
Yaacov Leaves Home
"Yaacov left from Be'er Sheva and journeyed
towards
Charan. He encountered the place and prepared to sleep
there because the sun had set. He took some of
the
stones of the place and put them under his head, and
there he lied down. He began to dream...." So begins
this week's Parasha. Opening with a description
of
Yaacov's flight eastwards to Charan in escape of his
brother's wrath, it concludes with a parallel description
of his flight westwards to Canaan in evasion of his
father-in-law's anger! In the intervening twenty-odd
years, a protracted series of difficult and troubling
events unfold in the life of this most tormented of the
Patriarchs.
Plumbing the depths of his thoughts on that fateful night
that sees him disappear into the darkness and
the
unknown, a single word captures his state of mind: fear.
Fear of pursuit by a brother half-mad with
rage,
apprehension of never again seeing a tearful mother who
sacrificed her own future for his, dismay at forever
leaving behind an aged father blind and infirm, and dread
of leaving the Promised Land. Not to mention fear of the
terrors yet ahead: alone and lonely on a journey to a
distant land, an alien culture, and an uncertain future.
The lone figure plods onwards, all the while considering
the tragic and sudden series of events
that have
catapulted him so far from home, and the sun begins to
set. Having secured through sacrifice the birthright and
the blessing, the twin promise of progeny and land,
Yaacov now finds himself bereft of family and far from
the covenanted earth of Canaan. The Divine
oath
vouchsafed to his forebears remains painfully distant
from fulfillment.
Pondering these paradoxes, Yaacov sees the sky light up
with the faltering hues of sunset. His pace quickens and
his heart skips a beat, but as the blood-red orb of fire
sinks below the horizon, there are no familiar landmarks
to comfort him or to set his mind at ease. Darkness
falls and he is alone in the gathering gloom and the
stoic silence. Setting down his meager belongings, he
gathers some stones and arranges them about his head,
anticipating a fitful sleep punctuated by spectral images
and pangs of terror. We can almost
hear Yaacov
unburdening his soul in the cathartic moment before
slumber seizes him. Crying out to God, his plaintive
prayer ascends heavenwards, and his heavy heart
is
assuaged.
Unexpectedly, God appears to the sleeping, solitary
individual and instead comforts him with a message of
encouragement and hope: "Yaacov dreamt and saw a ladder
standing on the earth, but with its top touching the
heavens, and the angels of God were ascending
and
descending upon it. Behold, God stood over him and said:
'I am Hashem, the God of your ancestor Avraham and the
God of Yitzchak. The land upon which you are sleeping
shall belong to you and your descendents. Your offspring
shall be as numerous as the dust of the earth, breaking
out to the west, east north and south, and all of the
nations of the world shall be blessed through them.'"
The continuation of God's pledge helps us to decipher
Yaacov's palpable but unspoken fears: "Behold, I will be
with you and I will guard you wherever you go; I will
return you to this land. For I will not forsake you
until all that I have spoken is fulfilled." In other
words, God reassures Yaacov concerning those
very
concerns that must have been uppermost in his mind: "I
am so alone. Where will my travels take me and who will
protect me on my journey? When will my brother's wrath
subside? Will I ever merit to return to my own land and
family?"
The Institution of the Night-time Prayer
Significantly, according to some opinions expressed in
the traditional sources, Yaacov's prayer at
that
encounter constitutes the precedent for the nighttime
service. The remainder of this week's discussion will be
devoted to investigating the ramifications of
this
notion: "It has been stated: Rabbi Yossi ben
Rabbi
Chanina said: the daily prayers were instituted by the
Patriarchs ('Avot'). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: the
daily prayers were instituted by the
Sages in
correspondence to the daily sacrifices
('Temidim')"
(Berakhot 26b).
The Talmud here records a dispute concerning the origins
of the three daily prayers that form the nucleus of the
devotional life of the Jew. According to R. Yossi b. R.
Chanina, the beginnings of the practice of praying three
times daily refer back to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaacov:
"Avraham instituted the morning service (Shacharit) as it
says: 'And Avraham got up early in the morning
and
returned to the place where he had stood before God's
presence' (Bereishit 19:27)...Yitzchak instituted the
afternoon service (Mincha) as it says: 'Yitzchak went out
to meditate in the field as evening fell. He looked up
and saw that camels were approaching'
(Bereishit
24:63)...Yaacov instituted the nighttime prayer (Ma'ariv)
as it says: 'and he encountered the place and slept there
because the sun had set' (Bereishit 28:11).
In contrast, R. Yehoshua b. Levi maintains that the
origins of thrice daily worship are to be found in the
precedent of the daily sacrificial service (Korban Tamid)
in the Temple: "Thus shall you offer on the altar daily:
two year-old lambs in perpetuity. One shall be offered
in the morning and the second shall be offered in the
afternoon" (Shemot 29:38-39). The night time
prayer
(Ma'ariv), according to this model, corresponds to the
remaining limbs and fat of the afternoon sacrifice which
continued to burn on the altar all night long until
consumed.
A parallel source in Bereishit Rabba 68:9 records these
two views and includes a third as well (quoted elsewhere
with slight variations): "Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachman said:
the three services correspond to the three changes in the
day. At nighttime one must say: 'May it be Thy will God
my Lord to bring me forth from darkness to light.' In
the morning one must say: 'I give thanks to Thee God my
Lord for having brought me forth from darkness to light.'
In the afternoon one must say: 'I give thanks to Thee
God my Lord, for just as I merited to see the sun in the
east, so too You merited me to see the sun in the west.'"
Three Aspects of Prayer - (#1) The Personal
At first glance, these disparate opinions seem to reflect
nothing more then homiletic gymnastics. One
view
connects the derivation of three daily prayers to the
Avot, another to the Temidim, and yet another
view
suggests that the changes of the day call forth the need
to pray. Upon closer examination, however, we will find
that these differing views in fact reflect fundamentally
different notions of prayer.
It will be recalled that according to R. Yossi
b.
Chanina, it is the prayer of Yaacov implied in this
week's Parasha that constitutes the source of
the
nighttime prayer. We have already seen that the context
of that prayer was a foreboding night that found the
Patriarch alone, despondent, and fearful. The impetus
for the prayer was thus a singular combination
of
conditions experienced by Yaacov, within the particular
parameters of his personal circumstances. No one else
shared his sentiments and emotions at that moment, and
the resultant "prayer" was a spontaneous and
unique
outpouring of his soul. Never before in the history of
the world or, for that matter, in the lifetime of Yaacov
himself, had just such a prayer been uttered, for the
factors that inspired it were without precedent.
An investigation of the other two Patriarchal prayers
yields a similar pattern. "Avraham instituted
the
morning service (Shacharit) as it says: 'And Avraham got
up early in the morning and returned to the place where
he had stood before God's presence' (Bereishit 19:27).
The context of this quote is none other than the morning
after the destruction of Sodom and its satellite towns.
"The sun rose on the earth and Lot arrived in Zoar. God
rained down fire and brimstone on the citiof Sodom and
Amora...He overturned these cities and the whole plain,
the inhabitants and the vegetation. Lot's wife looked
back and became petrified with salt. Avraham got up
early in the morning and returned to the place where he
had stood before God's presence. He looked out over
Sodom and Amora and over the whole plain, and behold the
thick haze of the inferno resembled a smoking furnace"
(Bereishit 19:23-28).
It will be recalled that earlier,
Avraham had
passionately pleaded for the preservation of the cities:
"The men turned and headed towards Sodom, and Avraham
remained standing before God. Approaching God, he said:
'will You truly sweep away the righteous with
the
wicked?! Perhaps there are fifty righteous people within
the city. Will You sweep them away rather than forgive
them all on account of the fifty righteous ones who are
in its midst? It would be a profanity for You to destroy
the righteous with the wicked...Shall the Judge of all
the world not act with justice?" (Bereishit 18:22-25).
The parley between the Patriarch and God
actually
continued until Avraham had stated his final position of
ten righteous people being sufficient to preserve the
city. To this, God readily agreed.
After a no-doubt erratic night of sleep, Avraham arises
early the next morning to discover that the cities have
been destroyed, that his fervent hopes of yesterday have
been dashed to pieces. What a feeling of sadness must
have come over him, tinged with intense disappointment
and perhaps even colored with anger. This moment of
intense and singular pathos is the catalyst for Avraham's
'morning prayer.' Again, this is a prayer inspired by
unique and special circumstances that can only make it
absolutely personal, individualistic, and unpremeditated.
It is a prayer that has no need for a liturgy, because to
assign it a set formula would destroy its
sincere
poignancy.
Yitzchak instituted the afternoon service (Mincha) as it
says: 'Yitzchak went out to meditate in the field as
evening fell. He looked up and saw that camels were
approaching' (Bereishit 24:63). Here again, context is
the critical ingredient that allows us to correctly
interpret the incident for our purposes: "Rivka and her
handmaids arose, rode on the camels, and followed the man
(Eliezer). The servant took Rivka and they
went.
Yitzchak returned from his visit to the well of Lechai
Roei, for he was dwelling in the land of the Negev.
Yitzchak went out to meditate in the field as evening
fell. He looked up and saw that camels were approaching"
(Bereishit 24:61-63).
What precipitates Yitzchak's 'afternoon prayer'? About
three years have passed since the death of Sarah his
mother but Yitzchak still feels the pain of her passing.
At the same time, he is anxiously awaiting the return of
the servant who may or may not be
accompanied by
Yitzchak's future wife. No doubt he is experiencing
mixed emotions as he goes out to the field to commune
with God, but the most intense sentiments he experiences
are longing, cautious expectation, and guarded hope.
These intimate, personal, and distinctive feelings serve
as the backdrop for his prayer.
We may summarize thus far by pointing out that the so-
called "Patriarchal Prayer" is actually a paradigm for an
intensely individualistic, sincere, and spontaneous
outpouring of the spirit which transcends any set ritual,
and defies to be shackled by a protocol that tends to
degenerate into rote. This type of prayer addresses the
immediate needs or concerns of the individual and relates
to no larger communal or national context. In this form
of prayer, the single, particular, and completely unique
human being stands alone before God, and cries out from
the depths of his/her being and from the singularity of
the event. This form of prayer cannot be anticipated
ahead of time but is a direct and forthright response to
a never-to-be repeated moment in time.
(#2) The Communal/National
There is of course another dimension of prayer, signified
by the second opinion, that of Rabbi Yehoshua b. Levi:
"the daily prayers were instituted by the Sages
in
correspondence to the daily sacrifices ('Temidim')."
Here again, we will assume that not only the source of
prayer is being suggested, but more importantly, its
archetype. The daily sacrifice was the most important of
the services conducted in the Temple.
The two
unblemished lambs offered in the morning and afternoon
respectively, were brought daily on behalf of the entire
Jewish people. They were purchased with public treasury
funds that were collected yearly from every eligible
adult, and their sacrifice was
overseen by a
representative body drawn from all regions of
the
country. In glaring contrast to the "Avot
Prayer,"
therefore, the "Temidim Prayer" is completely communal
and national. There is no individualistic component in
it whatsoever. The unblemished year-old lambs from which
it is brought are indistinguishable in their monotony.
Any shred of the individual Jew and his/her discrete
personage is completely subsumed by the much
more
encompassing concept of polity.
At the same time, the Daily Sacrifice was quite literally
quotidian, and incessant to a remarkable degree. It was
the epitome of habit, and the exemplar of predictability.
Day in day out, year in year out, it was perpetually
offered according to an unchanging routine that spanned
the entire period during which the Temple stood. There
was certainly nothing spontaneous or unexpected about its
service at all.
Transposed to our context of prayer, the
"Tamid"
(constant, eternal, perpetual) paragon addresses a scope
of living which is habitual and routine. Most of our
days are in fact consumed with rather predictable and
pedestrian needs and pursuits, and rarely carry the
imprimatur of distinctive and unusual (and almost never
singular) occurrences. In terms of basic needs
and
fundamental constant concerns, most of us are probably
rather alike. There ought to be, therefore, an aspect of
prayer that speaks of these ongoing communal or national
needs, stressing the ordinary and the commonplace, rather
than the anomalous and the
exceptional. Its
corresponding linguistic structure, of course, would tend
to be formalized and highly liturgical,
employing
conventional terms and making use of the plural form.
This aspect of prayer is the "Tamid."
(#3) The Universal
"Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachman said: the three services
correspond to the three changes in the
day. At
nighttime one must say: 'May it be Thy will God my
Lord to bring me forth from darkness to light.' In
the morning one must say: 'I give thanks to
Thee
God my Lord for having brought
me forth from
darkness to light.' In the afternoon one must say:
'I give thanks to Thee God my Lord, for just as
I
merited to see the sun in the east, so
too You
merited me to see the sun in the west.'"
In Rabbi Shemuel's formulation, prayer is not
the
preserve of the individual nor does it
necessarily
reflect the concerns of the nation. It is dictated, in
fact, not by human needs at all but by the
diurnal
movement of the sun across the expanse of the heavens.
The call to prayer is not the precious,
singular,
personal event nor the routine, commonplace, communal one
but rather the sweeping motion of the sun disk in its
course.
If "Avot" prayer concerns the personal, and
"Tamid"
prayer deals with the national, then "Yom" ('sun') prayer
addresses the global. In its blinding glare we do not
speak of the Jew, or the Nation of Israel, but rather of
world humanity and its logical extension, the cosmos.
When the motion of the sun conditions prayer and we
answer its call, we become an integral part of the much
larger tapestry of creation that is constantly seeking an
encounter with the Creator. We cease being preoccupied
with our personal needs and national concerns and instead
consider things from the perspective of eternity. In the
cosmic dimension of God's transcendence, our
most
pressing individual and communal problems vaporize and
vanish, as we are overawed by the grandeur of
His
presence.
The Ideal Prayer
Which of these three aspects corresponds to our daily
prayers? Is the ideal prayer for which we must strive
the 'Avot,' the 'Tamid,' or the 'Sun?' Of course it is a
combination of all three. The times of prayer in Jewish
tradition are dictated by the positions of the sun. In
fact, the name of each service is derived from the light
conditions prevailing at the time of its recital. The
morning prayer is therefore called Shacharit, which
literally means 'dawn' or the 'lifting of
night's
blackness.' The afternoon prayer is named Mincha, which
is a derivation of the biblical root 'NOaCh', meaning
rest or respite. The Ramban (13th century,
Spain)
explains that 'Mincha' time is really a description of
the hour that the sun's heat and light begin to subside
and decrease (See his commentary to Shemot 12:6, end).
Figuratively speaking, at Mincha time or afternoon, the
sun is coming to rest and preparing to
set. The
nighttime prayer 'Maariv' comes from the biblical root
'EreV,' which means to 'mix' or to 'combine.' As Avraham
Ibn Ezra (11th century, Spain) explains, in the darkness
of night the perception of an object's distinct and
discrete material qualities dissipates, and different
objects seem to become commingled and fused together. In
the absence of the light of day, colors disappear and
proportions become ambiguous and undefined (see his
commentary to Bereishit 1:5).
Additionally, it is indeed striking that although the
entire morning is acceptable for the recitation of the
'Shacharit' prayer, the most ideal time
for its
recitation is at the moment of sunrise. Reciting the
prayer at this special time ('Vatikin') is considered
particularly meritorious and worthwhile. Similarly,
there were those who felt that the 'Mincha' prayer ought
to be ideally recited during the final moments before
sunset. Normative practice discouraged this, however,
lest the supplicant miss the time and with it the prayer.
In any case, it is clear that when prayer is linked to
the positions of the sun, it implies a universal and
cosmic framework that links together all of creation in
attempting to achieve fellowship with the Creator.
The 'Tamid' character of our prayers is, of the three,
the most obvious. The 'Shemona Esrei' or
'Eighteen
Benedictions' in their current configuration
are
primarily concerned with expressing our ongoing, daily,
common and conventional needs. The prayer follows a set
formula that is phrased in the plural, for its tone is
communal and national. In its recitation, the supplicant
attaches him/herself to the Jewish people as a whole.
The liturgy of the prayer and its rigid
formulary
phrases, reflect personal needs and desires through the
prism of peoplehood. The times of prayer are, according
to this model, a function of the times of the daily
offering in the Temple, and thus tend to be much broader
than the precise moment of sunrise or sunset. In this
model of the prayer, one does not wait for the special
moment of inspiration (which may never come!),
but
instead becomes accustomed to seek God's presence on an
ongoing basis and according to a constant and unvarying
routine.
The 'Avot' property of our prayers is, for many of us,
the most absent from our devotional lives. It should be
quite clear by now, though, why the Deity is introduced
in the beginning of the 'Shemona Esrei' as the 'God of
Avraham, the God of Yitzchak, and the God of Yaacov,' for
these three individuals were able to master this aspect
addressing Him. In this form, we stand before God as
unique personalities, and describe to
Him in
unpremeditated language our intimate and particular
needs. This type of prayer requires no
social or
communal context, nor is it served well by ritualism or
institutionalism.
We tend to think that the current state of
worship
practiced in many of our synagogues stifles
'Avot'
expression, and indeed, there is truth to this assertion.
At the same time, it should be emphasized that
the
development of a set form and liturgy of prayer was never
meant to replace or to suffocate personal expression.
Quite the contrary. The 'Tamid' form serves
as a
framework to allow individuals to succinctly
and
eloquently express basic requirements, while remaining
cognizant of the communal and national dimension of their
lives. The Halakha actually mandates the inclusion of
personal supplications in the appropriate blessing of the
'Shemona Esrei,' each person according to his needs and
powers of expression (see Shulchan Arukh Orach Chaim Ch.
98, and Ch. 119:1-2).
The ideal prayer, therefore, must include all three of
these attributes. It must have
a personal,
communal/national, and universal quality, because our
relationship with God is lived out on all three levels.
Tradition is teaching us that prayer that lacks one of
these aspects is not complete. Our objective, therefore,
must be to overcome indifference, to transcend rote and
to master the art of standing in God's presence.
Shabbat Shalom.
For further study: see Rambam's (12th century, Egypt)
incisive analysis of the origins of prayer in his Laws of
Prayer Chapter 1. Rather than viewing 'Avot' and 'Tamid'
as two independent aspects, he instead perceives them as
two stages in an evolving process.
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
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