Toldos Parsha Lesson- Prayer
For Year 2 of Parsha Lesson, I will be focusing on one practical middah, character trait, to think about in the week ahead and steps we can take to attain it.
Background
At the end of last week’s Parsha, Chaye Sarah, the Torah tells us about how Yitzchak and Rivka got married. The beginning of this week’s Parsha starts off with telling us of the painful situation that Yitzchak and Rivka found themselves in- they were unable to have any children.
They both davened (prayed) to Hashem with all of their heart and all of their soul. They knew that they were destined to be the forebears of the Jewish nation, the Chosen people who would be the destiny for the world. Their childlessness was painful and disheartening.
Hashem then answered their prayers and granted them children. Rashi tells us that Hashem answered the prayers of Yitzchak and not Rivka, because ‘the prayers of a righteous person who is the child of a righteous person are not comparable with the prayers of a righteous person who is the child of a rasha (wicked person).’
Question
Being that Rivka was a tremendous tzaddekes (righteous woman) why weren’t her prayers answered? Even though the prayers of Yitzchak may have been more meritorious, why does that mean that Rivka’s prayers weren’t answered!?
Comparably, Yitzchak’s prayer may have been better, but Rivka was one of the most righteous women in the history of the world- and she was tremendously pained- wouldn’t her prayers be answered as well?
Answer
Perhaps what Rashi means when he says that ‘it is not comparable (or similar) to the prayers of someone who is righteous…’ is not that the merit of Rivka’s prayer was insufficient to be answered by Hashem, but rather it was because of the manner of prayer with which she prayed to Hashem.
Perhaps what was different about Rivka’s prayer was that since she was the child of reshaim, wicked people, she did not feel as if she could rightfully ask for such a miracle of Hashem. Perhaps Rivka felt that her prayers wouldn’t work because of her less-than-seemly forebears. And THAT was why Hashem did not answer her prayers- because she didn’t pray with the conviction that she would be answered.
Of course a tzaddekes such as Rivka had more than enough of her own personal merit to be answered, on some level however, she just didn’t believe Hashem would grant her request because of her wicked parents.
Yitzchak, on the other hand, davened to Hashem with the confidence of someone who knew that Hashem would answer his prayers, as he was the children of devoted servants of Hashem.
Lesson
I think there are two very important lessons to be learned from here:
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In order for our prayers to be answered, we need to believe that they can be answered. We need to realize that we are talking to the Master of the World who is listening to us, who cares about us tremendously and who has the ability to do ANYTHING.
- We are the descendants of tremendously righteous people, all of us! If we are alive and identify as Jewish people in the year 2020 it means, automatically, that there were tremendously devoted ancestors of ours who were very righteous and devoted to Hashem and the Torah. When we turn to Hashem to pray we are not strangers, we are part of Hashem’s ‘inner circle.’ We are special and have ‘pull’ with the Master of the World on account of our ancestors being his close and loyal servants. Our requests and prayers are therefore meaningful and carry weight with Hashem. We need to realize this and feel it.
First Step
When davening, or praying to Hashem, we need to start off by focusing on the fact that Hashem is listening to us. We need to focus as well on the fact that he loves us and that we, the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov, are precious to him and therefore Hashem is inclined to answering our prayers.
We can start by thinking about the second word of just about every bracha: ‘אתה’, which means ‘you.’ This ‘you’ refers to Hashem. Hashem is listening to us and we refer to him in our prayers as ‘You’, because he is right there, attentive to our prayer to him.
Have a wonderful Shabbos!
Rabbi Eli Meir Kramer
