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Harav Hagaon Meir Tzvi Shpitzer Shlita

The Tzarah Exists to Create the Tefillah

Parashas Toldos
Harav Hagaon Meir Tzvi Shpitzer Shlita

Twenty years after Yitzchak and Rivka married, they still had no children. The passuk says: וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַה’ לְנֹכַח אִשְׁתּוֹ, and Chazal say both Yitzchak and Rivka davened, and they derive from here that הקדוש ברוך הוא מתאוה לתפילתן של צדיקים.

How can it be, wonders Rabbeinu Bachaye, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu matched Yitzchak with Rivka if she was an akarah? Part of Hashem’s masterplan for the world was that there would be a Klal Yisrael, with three Avos and four Imahos, but they can’t be Avos and Imahos if they don’t have children!

Rabbeinu Bachaye explains that they were created with the ability to have children naturally, but because Hashem desires the tefillos of tzaddikim, He withheld children from them. He deduces this from the sequence of the passuk: וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַה’ לְנֹכַח אִשְׁתּוֹ כִּי עֲקָרָה הִוא — chronologically, it should have said first that she was an akarah, and then that Yitzchak davened to rectify the problem. But the passuk first states that he davened, and then tells us that she was an akarah. We see from here, says Rabbeinu Bachaye, that this is actually the way it works in Shomayim: First there’s a decision that we want Yitzchak to daven, and because of that Rivka is made an akarah.

This concept applies not only to tzaddikim, but to all of us. The tefillah is not the solution to the problem; rather, Hakadosh Baruch Hu creates the problem because he wants us to daven.

In a similar vein, in Parashas Beshalach Klal Yisrael find themselves on the banks of the Yam Suf, unable to move forward or backward or to the right or the left. Why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu place them in this situation? Rashi gives a mashal of a king who heard a girl crying and saved her. Later, he wanted her to speak to him again but she refused to do so. What did the king do? He brought the bandits to come and capture her again, and lo and behold, she cried out to the king. Similarly, says Rashi, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted Klal Yisrael to daven, but we were not davening. What did he do? He created a situation in which we were standing on the banks of the Yam Suf desperate for a yeshuah, so that He could hear us crying and davening to Him: הַשְׁמִיעִינִי אֶת קוֹלֵךְ.

This sentiment is echoed in the Gemara’s teaching that קשין מזונותיו של אדם כקריעת ים סוף. Hakadosh Baruch Hu allots each and every one of us our parnassah from the day that we were born until the day we die. But he also creates situations in which we don’t obtain that parnassah, in order that we should daven, and as soon as we daven we get whatever Hakadosh Baruch Hu intended to give us anyway.

We say every day in Ashrei: רְצוֹן יְרֵאָיו יַעֲשֶׂה וְאֶת שַׁוְעָתָם יִשְׁמַע וְיוֹשִׁיעֵם, and the Alshich explains that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to fulfill the will of those who fear Him regardless, but He places them in situations that force them to daven to Him: וְאֶת שַׁוְעָתָם יִשְׁמַע וְיוֹשִׁיעֵם.

Similarly, another passuk in Tehillim states (perek 34): עֵינֵי ה’ אֶל צַדִּיקִים וְאָזְנָיו אֶל שַׁוְעָתָם, meaning that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has already seen what the tzaddik needs and wants and He wants to give it. Why the delay? Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to hear our voice, so He makes us feel that we are lacking in order that we should daven.

The Maharitz, in sefer Tzofnas Panei’ach, sees the same idea in yet another passuk in Tehillim (perek 21): תַּאֲוַת לִבּוֹ נָתַתָּה לּוֹ וַאֲרֶשֶׁת שְׂפָתָיו בַּל מָנַעְתָּ סֶּלָה. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is prepared to give a person what he wants and needs, but until he actually formulates the request to Hakadosh Baruch Hu with his mouth and realizes how desperate he is for it he doesn’t get it.

In last week’s parashah we find that Eliezer enjoyed kfitzas haderech on his way to Charan, arriving the same day he left; clearly, Hakadosh Baruch Hu was arranging Yitzchak’s shidduch posthaste. Yet on the way back Eliezer trudges along with his camels, and the trip is extremely long. The Chasam Sofer wonders: What happened to the kfitzas haderech? He explains that the passuk itself gives us the answer when it says: וַיֵּצֵא יִצְחָק לָשׂוּחַ בַּשָּׂדֶה. Until then, Yitzchak hadn’t davened, and if a person doesn’t daven, there might be a shidduch arranged, and ten camels coming, and even a shtar endowing him with all the properties of Avraham Avinu, but without tefillah he won’t get it. So as long as Yitzchak didn’t daven there was a built-in delay in Eliezer’s travels. But as soon as Yitzchak starts to daven — וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה גְמַלִּים בָּאִים, the camels arrived immediately, exactly as Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s had planned.

Who knows how many great gifts Hakadosh Baruch Hu has waiting for us, gifts that He wants to give to us and that we want, and the only reason we don’t get them is because we don’t daven for them! This mechanism exists since briyas ha’olam, as we know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu made the whole world for Adam Harishon, and as long as Adam was not around — וְאָדָם אַיִן לַעֲבֹד אֶת הָאֲדָמָה — there was no rain, and nothing grew, because he hadn’t davened. And if you don’t daven you don’t get anything at all. That’s the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, because He’s מתאוה, He wants us to daven.

Digging Toward Hashem

The Lev Aryeh (Chullin 60) wonders why it is that Hashem desires tefillos. Does Hakadosh Baruch Hu need my tefillah? Why should I suffer, why should Yitzchak suffer, why should Klal Yisrael suffer, just because Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants our tefillos?

The answer is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to daven not because He needs our tefillos, but because we need our tefillos. We are the ones who gain from davening, and we are the ones who need the opportunity to daven. This idea is explicit in this week’s parashah: on the passuk וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַה’ לְנֹכַח אִשְׁתּוֹ כִּי עֲקָרָה הִוא וַיֵּעָתֶר לוֹ ה’, the Midrash teaches that the word וַיֶּעְתַּר — a strange word for tefillah — connotes digging. (Atirah is etymologically similar to chatirah, as ayin and ches can be interchanged.) The Midrash gives a mashal to a king who has his throne room bedecked in gold, silver and precious stones. He wants to bequeath his entire kingdom to his son, the prince, but the kingdom has a set of rules, and there are guards who decide who may enter the throne room and who examine what people take out of the throne room. If the king wants to circumvent the rules and give his treasures to his own son, what does he do? He tells his son, “Go outside the palace and start digging under the ground towards my throne room, and I’ll dig from inside my throne room, and when we meet in the subterranean tunnel I’ll give you those brilliant diamonds from my throne room.”

Similarly, says the Midrash, וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַה’ – Yitzchak “dug” towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu: when a person davens he is granted an audience with Hakadosh Baruch Hu and is able to circumvent all the guards and angels and Middas Hadin that prevents us from getting what we want. In response, וַיֵּעָתֶר לוֹ ה’, Hakadosh Baruch Hu “digs” from His side, coming to meet you and granting you what you want and davened for.

Rav Shneur Kotler zt”l, in Noam Siach,  asks: What’s the message of this Midrash? The same way that the king wants an opportunity for his son to get into the throne room and this opportunity is denied by the guards who are standing outside — as the Beer Moshe explains that there are all sorts of shomrim who obstruct our access to Hashem and the brachah coming to us from Him — Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us the opportunity to meet him directly, through our davening. When we daven, we “dig” towards Hashem, and He “digs” on the other side, as Chazal teach: פתחו לי פתח כחודה של מחט ואני אפתח לכם פתח כפתחו של אולם.

The Gemara (Berachos 6b) says that there are some things that stand at the pinnacle of the world, yet people belittle them: אלו דברים שעומדים ברומו של עולם ובני אדם מזלזלין בהן. One of those things is tefillah.

What does it mean that tefillah stands at the highest point of the world? Rav Simcha Zissel, the Alter of Kelm, explains that when you daven you are standing at the pinnacle of the world, before the Kisei Hakavod, before the King. That’s the opportunity of tefillah.

Rav Chaim Volozhiner explains that when Chazal say “ובני אדם מזלזלין בהן” they don’t mean that people belittle davening and don’t daven, but rather that they don’t realize that davening is an opportunity to elevate yourself spiritually so that you can stand in Hashem’s throne room. If you don’t comprehend and appreciate the gift of tefillah that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us, that’s called מזלזלין. And if you don’t appreciate it and realize its value, says Rav Chaim Shmulevitz then you’ll be denied that value and the tefillah won’t work.

Attribution to The Source

The Gemara (Niddah 70) teaches that if a person wants to succeed in his learning,יבקשו רחמים ממי שהחכמה שלו, he should daven to the one who gives chochmah to the world; if he wants wealth, יבקש רחמים ממי שהעושר שלו; if he wants children, יבקש רחמים ממי שהבנים שלו.

Why, the meforshim wonder, does the Gemara need to speak out each one individually? Wouldn’t it be enough to simply say that a person should daven for whatever he wants?

The answer is that the Gemara is explaining to us the essence of tefillah. When you daven for chochmah, it means you understand that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is מי שהחכמה שלו and there’s no other way of getting chochmah. If that’s the way you daven, then that’s when you get your chochmah.

Says the Gemara, you want ashirus? It’s not good enough to open the siddur and daven — you have to recognize and internalize that wealth comes from Hashem and only from Hashem: יבקש רחמים ממי שהעושר שלו. Stand ברומו של עולם, and that’s when you get the ashirus. The same for children — יבקש רחמים ממי שהבנים שלו. That’s what tefillah is all about.

It is said that people once told the Alter of Kelm that a certain person was deserving of honor because he was a special and holy man. “How do you know?” asked the Alter.

“During each Shemoneh Esrei,” they said, “when he comes to the words ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון ברחמים, we see that he breaks down in tears, davening for the geulah.”

“Why is that worthy of such praise and chashivus?” the Alter wondered.

“When he saysברך עלינו ה’ אלהינו את השנה הזאת ,” they replied, “he doesn’t cry or break down, so evidently that’s not so important to him, but ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון is. He’s such a spiritual person, he cries every time he davens for the geulah.”

“You misunderstood this person,” said the Alter. “He might want money more than he wants the geulah, but he doesn’t cry in ברך עלינו because he thinks, ‘I work, I earn, I deserve, I’m matzliach — why do I need to daven to Hakadosh Baruch Hu?’ But when it comes to ותחזינה עינינו, he realizes there’s no way to bring the geulah unless Hashem gives it to us, so that’s when he breaks down crying. For him, that’s real tefillah.”

When we say אתה חונן לאדם דעת, we should cry and appreciate that we’re standing ברומו של עולם and we’re davening למי שהחכמה שלו. When we daven ברך עלינו we’re davening למי שהעשירות שלו. And that’s when Hakadosh Baruch Hu grants us our requests.

Standing Still at the Pinnacle

Why is Hakadosh Baruch Hu מתאוה לתפילתן של צדיקים? Why does He put us into situations where we don’t get what He wants to give us? It’s because he wants for our good that we should be able to uplift ourselves and stand ברומו של עולם.

The Gemara says that a shul should have two doors, so that before a person stands and davens Shemoneh Esrei he should pass through two doors. And the Shulchan Aruch cites this as practical halachah: Ideally, that’s the way tefillah should be done.

The Chiddushei Harim explains that when a person comes to daven, he should feel that he’s going through one gate and another gate, coming closer and closer to the Shechinah itself. That’s the essence of tefillah: that I’m standing before the One who owns ashirus.

The Gemara tells us that we’re not allowed to walk around during Shemoneh Esrei, and Tosafos notes that Rabbi Akiva would start Shemoneh Esrei at one end of the room and finish at the other end of the room. The Vilna Gaon explains that when Rabbi Akiva davened, he felt that he was standing ברומו של עולם, and was completely cut off from this world: התפשטות הגשמיות, standing before מי שהחכמה שלו. Therefore, if he moved from one end of the room to the other that wasn’t considered changing his place during Shemoneh Esrei, because he was standing in one place: ברומו של עולם.

That’s the type of tefillah to which we aspire: a tefillah in which a person is digging to get to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When you daven that way, then וַיֵּעָתֶר לוֹ ה’ — Hashem will answer your tefillah.

Regarding the words וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַה’ לְנֹכַח אִשְׁתּוֹ, Chazal comment that Yitzchak and Rivka were standing and davening in two opposite corners of the room: זה עומד בזוית זו ומתפלל, וזו עומדת בזוית זו ומתפללת. The meforshim explain that a proper tefillah is like a korban, and when a korban olah is brought the blood is sprinkled on the four corners of the mizbei’ach, so that the entire mizbei’ach is surrounded with the blood of the korban. That’s how close you come to Hakadosh Baruch Hu: וַיֶּעְתַּר יִצְחָק לַה’ לְנֹכַח אִשְׁתּוֹ — when you realize that you’re digging, you’re getting closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you feel like you’re bringing a korban, you’re standing in the Beis Hamikdash, you’re in the holiest of places. And if that’s the way you daven, the הַשְׁמִיעִינִי אֶת קוֹלֵךְ is actually what happens, so then the tzarah is worthwhile, and the result is וַיֵּעָתֶר לוֹ ה’ — Hakadosh Baruch Hu brings a Krias Yam Suf of sorts, l’maalah miderech hateva, sending us ashirus and chochmah and banim because we have arrived at the destination where He wants us to be.

On the passuk יִקְרָאֵנִי וְאֶעֱנֵהוּ עִמּוֹ אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה אֲחַלְּצֵהוּ וַאֲכַבְּדֵהוּ, the Malbim explains that Hashem wants us to daven and He wants to answer us, and He therefore puts us into a situation of tzarah — עִמּוֹ אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה — in order to get us to daven: יִקְרָאֵנִי וְאֶעֱנֵהוּ.

May Hakadosh Baruch Hu bentch each and every one of us to see and feel in our own lives that whatever we daven for, it’s because Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to give it to us, and this great gift is just waiting for us. We should be zocheh to health, happiness, prosperity, hatzlachah in ruchniyus and gashmiyus and everything good.

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