This week, Rav Daniel brought us a bunch of stories from the Talmud about what kind of person you need to be in order for your prayers to be answered. In one story, a man who was known to be consistently successful whenever he prayed for rain and his wife both prayed seperately for rain to come, and rainclouds began gathering over the wife's head instead of over his. Why over her head and not his? The Talmud explains: because the wife, unlike her husband, who only gave money to the poor (thereby leaving them with the time-and-energy consuming task of tilling the wheat, mixing the flour with water and yeast, kneading the dough and baking it into loaves of bread), gave them bread that she herself went to the trouble to prepare, thus immediately and precisely filling the needs of their hungry bellies.
In another story, a severe drought caused Rebbe Yehuda to declare a public fast, but it did no good -- the rain would still not come. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Rebbe Ilphi appeared and began to daven, and the heavens just as suddenly opened up with rain. When R. Yehuda astoundedly asked R. Ilphi, "Who are you?!?" R. Ilphi replied, "Well, I live in a poor village where not a single Jew can afford wine for Kiddush or Havdala on Shabbat -- so, each week, I go around to everyone's house with a bottle of wine and make Kiddush and Havdala for them."
Notice that in these two examples, the Talmud defines these people by their actions; the wife gives tzedaka (charity) through the work of her own hands, and R. Ilphi gives tzedaka by walking to others' homes and helping them himself. The quality and immediacy of their actions seem to determine the quality and immediacy of G-d's response; a causality is implied between how well you do what you do, and the degree to which your prayers are answered.
In this week's parsha, Isaac prays for a wife, and is immediately answered with a wife. We know that Isaac's intense fear of G-d defined his relationship to Him. However, as our pal Josh K. so eloquently paraphrased the Ishbitzer Rebbe above, "Isaac's fear was (actually) an obstable to action; Isaac felt that doing G-d's will meant being passive, for fear that his own actions might be motivated by a desire that was his, but not G-d's." If the above stories tell us that our actions determine the degree to which G-d answers our prayers, then why was Isaac, who had seemingly never acted in the world, answered so completely and immediately?
Another pal of mine told me a nice shtickel by the Slonimer Rebbe that links Isaac to his father Abraham, who was the paradigm of action-in-the-world. Abraham endured ten trials for G-d, the final of which involved obeying G-d's commandment to bind Isaac for sacrifice. We know that Abraham's intense love for G-d defined his relationship with Him. The Slonimer tells us, however, that even though his love for G-d was so strong, it nevertheless could not have been strong enough to motivate him to sacrifice his son; no love, no matter how strong and true, could bring someone to kill. One must fear G-d and hold Him in awe, even just a little bit, in order to take that final step.
Before this trial, Abraham was completely filled with love for G-d and was bursting at the seams to express that love in action; Isaac, conversely, was completely filled with fear and utterly restrained all of his actions. Through the trial, Abraham learned, for the first time in his life, how to truly fear G-d when he saw that his son was so willing to be bound and slaughtered for Him, and Isaac learned how to truly love G-d by observing the enthusiasm and determination with which his father carried out G-d's commandment. The Slonimer says that through learning from one another in this way, Abraham and Isaac became part of one another, and came together as one (which is why the verse repeats that they went up together so many times).
So what was Isaac's action, then? Two answers: 1) Maybe he didn't do anything at all! Perhaps Abraham, who sensed so soon after the binding trial that Isaac's learning of love and action was taking some time to sink in, took the initiative (as was characteristic for him) and immediately began a diligent search to find Isaac a wife. Perhaps, since Abraham and Isaac had become unified through the 10th trial, it was in the merit of Abraham's immediacy and diligence in his daughter-in-law-search that Isaac's prayers were answered. 2) Maybe the prayer itself was Isaac's action! After all, he had only just learned the lesson about action; should he have jumped blindly into it without any previous experience in the matter? Sounds scary -- and dangerous! He didn't even know how to jump yet -- all he could do was take baby-steps! Of course, we must remember that baby-steps for Isaac are like Olympic decathlons for us; perhaps Isaac's first 'baby-step' in the world of action, stepping out into the field to pray, was really SUCH A HUGE STEP for him, that G-d saw it and responded immediately.
Ribbono Shel Olam!!! It seems like such a small thing to do, to go out and talk to You… but really, it's such a huge step!!! And in reality, when we go out and talk to You about what we want and need, it's only a baby-step towards a much bigger avodah (service) -- actually doing Your Will in the world!!! Please -- let us take that one little baby-step closer to You, let us come out to You and begin our relationship with You always out of a newfound love, and let us learn about how to serve You through unifying ourselves with and emulating our loved ones! Amen, and good Shabbes!!!
Jerry Silverman
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Jerry Silverman is a former student of Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He is working in new media, designing and managing media projects. He lives in Riverdale, NY with his wife Sarah and their two children. |