Parashat
Va-Yehi 5767/ January 6, 2007
Lectures on the weekly Torah reading by the faculty of
Rachel
and the power of prayer
Dr. Boaz Spiegel
Department of Talmud
During Jacob’s second meeting with Joseph, as described in this week’s reading, Jacob said to Joseph (Gen. 48:7): “‘When I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, while I was journeying in the land of Canaan, when still some distance short of Ephrath; and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath’ – now Bethlehem.”
In Pesikta Rabbati and other midrashic works the Sages delved into these words of Jacob’s, and Rashi in characteristic fashion cited the main points of these homilies as follows (Gen., loc. sit.):
And I buried her there and did not
carry her even the [short distance] to
This legend, which
evokes love of the patriarchs and expresses firm faith in the Everlasting G-d
of
Abraham Shalom Yahuda (Semitics scholar, of Iraqi
origin, 1877-1951) expressed this idea in his memoirs entitled “When I studied
Rashi,”
[1] and
recalled how once, while touring Madrid with Max Nordau, he remarked to him on
the powerful impression Nordau had made by his speech at the First Zionist
Congress (Basel 1897). At that
congress Nordau addressed thousands of people, telling them of this legend
about the matriarch Rachel crying for her children.
When Yahuda asked him how he knew of the
legend, Nordau responded that when he had been receiving patients in his home
in
Indeed, this legend cited by Rashi not only conveys a message of love of the Jews, the land of Israel, and prophetic faith in Israel’s Eternal One, but also is imbued with several important lessons pertaining to prayer, two of which we shall investigate here:
A. Helping one’s fellow through prayer. The legend presented here shows that an important and effective tool for anyone who seeks to promote the well-being of his fellow is to pray for that person, for thus it was said of Rachel: “that she might help her children,” and all her help to her children and her children’s children was accomplished through prayer for them.
Quite a number of Talmudic and midrashic sources inform us of the principle that oftentimes a person's well-being and success, and even his deliverance, depend on others praying for him. For example, in Midrash Tehillim (55:4) it says of Rachel herself that she had been intended for Esau as his wife, “and what caused Rachel to be saved from him? – ‘It is as though many are on my side’ (Ps. 55:19), for even Jacob and Leah prayed for her.” Rachel was also delivered from barrenness in like manner, as we read in Genesis Rabbah (73:3): “Rachel was remembered through much prayer”; the legend explains that in addition to her own prayers, also Leah, Jacob and his concubines prayed for her.
Furthermore, praying for someone can save his
life. For example, when David’s
life was endangered in his confrontation with Ishbi-benob, according to
Tractate Sanhedrin (95a), he asked Abishai son of Zeruiah, “Help
us.” The nature of the help he
received is recounted there: “That
is as it is written: ‘Abishai son
of Zeruiah came to his aid’ (II Samuel
This makes it clear why the Sages said: “Any person who is in the position of begging for mercy for another human being and does not do so is a sinner” (Berakhot 12b), for he deprives the other person of great and vital assistance, sometimes even saving the person from death. [3]
Praying for someone can give that person not only life in this world, but also life in the World to Come. For example, there is a legend that Moses, through his prayers, succeeded in improving Judah’s lot in the Hereafter, gaining him entry to the Metivta de-Rakia (Yeshivah of Heaven) where “he could engage in learning according to the law” (Bava Kama 92a). Or, to give another example, it is said that David prayed for his son Absalom, after his death, and through his prayers “lifted him up from seven levels of Hell," even "bringing him to the World to Come" (Sotah 10b). In fact, the entire notion of saying Yizkor and reciting Av ha-Rahamim for the dead is based on this special power of prayer.
Thus we learn that a weighty responsibility is placed upon all of us with respect to our family, relations, friends and acquaintances, presenting us with a great challenge and testing whether we have the wisdom to pray for them, both in their lifetime and after their death. Moreover, henceforth it should be clear that praying for another person, for their good and their physical and spiritual well-being, is one of the measures of true love for the person.
Therefore, it should not be surprising that in rabbinic literature dealing with personal prayers especial prominence is given to parents' prayers for their children, stressing their constant nature. For example, Rabbi Isaiah ha-Levy Horowitz wrote in his book, Shnei Luhot ha-Brit: [4]
A mother and father should constantly have a prayer on their lips for their offspring, praying that they be devoted to studying Torah and that they be righteous and of good character. They should direct their prayers strongly towards this idea when reciting the benediction about studying Torah … and also in the blessing, ahavah rabbah [in the recitation of Shema and the surrounding benedictions], as well as when they say, "that we not labor in vain, nor bring forth for confusion" [in the Morning Service, Hertz, p. 205].
Thus it was, in recent times, that R. Shlomo Wolbe attested of himself: [5] "It is clear to me, quite personally, that if I have achieved anything in Torah, it is by virtue of my mother's prayers. I noticed that she would pray for me as many as ten times a day." He wrote further, [6] "We can never say that we have prayed enough for our children, and no limit can be set to the amount of praying we must do." [7]
The apogee of this practice of endless prayer for one's children was reached by our patriarchs, who prayed not only for their own children, but for all their progeny, the entire Jewish people. We learn this from the Sages in many places in their writings. They added that our patriarchs not only prayed extensively in their life for all future generations, but even after they passed from this world they continued to petition the Lord for all of Israel, as indicated in the homily presented above, in which Rachel cried for her "children" hundreds of years after her death.
B. On prayers being answered. The Ba'al Shem Tov and his disciples taught us an important principle – that in truth there is no prayer that goes unanswered. Rather, every prayer has an effect and is helpful to one extent or another, if not directly for that which is requested, then for something else; and if not for the person praying, then for others; and if not on earth, then in heaven.
This approach has also been followed by rabbis in recent times. For example, we have it from R. Israel Jacob Kanievsky (author of Kehilot Ya'akov): [8] "Sometimes one sees that the simplest of homes can produce a righteous and learned person, all due to the fact that his grandmother may have poured her heart out in prayer and tears, that she have the pleasure of having children who are learned in the Torah. And if her entreaty did not avail for her sons, it availed for her grandsons. Thus we see that ultimately no prayer goes unanswered."
The germ of this idea, that sometimes prayers
for one's children do not help the children but only the children's children,
can be found in the legend at hand.
Rachel prayed for the exiles from
This principle sheds new light on all events that are accompanied by prayers which appear not to have been helpful. It is also extremely important to all discussions and studies that might be done on the effect of prayers. For, we must remember that prayers have an effect, both individually and generally, also beyond their time and place. Therefore, the Lord's answer to our prayers cannot be examined merely in the immediate short range and in relationship only to those concerned; rather, it must be evaluated over the course of many years, maybe even generations, and with respect to the entire Jewish people. Such an investigation at the moment is beyond our capabilities. Indeed, it is not for nothing that Rabbi I. J. Kanievsky taught us: [9] "In times to come all will be revealed to us – all the beneficence and deliverance that resulted from each and every prayer of each and every one of us."
[1] A. S. Yahuda,
Ever
[2] Ibid.
Recently cited also in B. Tirosh, Ha-Pantheon
ha-Yehudi, (
[3] Indeed,
it has been written that one who refrains from begging for mercy for another is
like a person who violates the commandment of “Do not profit by the blood of
your fellow” (Lev. 19:16). See
Rabbi M. Y. Ha-Levy Epstein (the Admor of Ozherov), Be'er Moshe,
Leviticus I,
[4]
Cf. R. I. Ha-Levy
Horowitz, Shnei Luhot ha-Brit,
[5]
R. S.Wolbe, Zeri'a
u-Vinyan be-Hinukh,
[6] Ibid., p. 35.
[7] This does not only apply necessarily to young children, but to any age. For example, R. Y. M. Stern, in Ha-Mashgiah de-Kaminitz, Jerusalem 1998, p. 241, wrote: "Once someone came to the author of Kehilot Ya'akov (Rabbi Yisrael Yaakov Kanievsky, called the Steipler Rav, 1899-1985, author of the Talmud commentary Kehilot Yaakov) to request a blessing of success in educating his sons from the Rabbi, and the Rabbi answered him: 'You are the one who needs to pray. What do you think? To this very day I pray daily for my children, that they may have long life.' And this was when his son, R. Hayyim, a great scholar in his own right, was already fifty-two years old."
[8] Cf. R. A. Kanievsky, Toledot Ya'akov (bio of Rabbi Yisrael Yaakov Kanievsky), Bnei Brak 1995, p. 118.
[9] Toledot Ya'akov, p. 119.