Shabbat Parshat Mishpatim 29 Shvat 5770, February 13, 2010

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Mishpatim 

Exodus 21:1 - 24:18

By Shlomo Riskin

PRAYER AS EMPOWERMENT

Efrat, Israel: "And you shall serve the Lord your G-d, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst" (Exodus 23:25)

Maimonides, the great Sefardi jurist-philosopher (11th -12th Centuries), begins his Laws of Prayer, "It is a positive commandment to pray every day, as it is written 'and you shall serve the Lord your G-d.' They taught from Tradition that this 'service' refers to prayer, as it is written 'to serve Him with all your heart' (Deuteronomy 11:13), regarding which our Sages have taught, What is the service of the heart? Prayer!" Hence, the Biblical source for prayer is derived from our Biblical portion of Mishpatim (literally, Laws).

It is interesting to note that prayer, which seems to be such a cardinal religious experience is not derived from a more explicit source which clearly teaches, "thou shalt pray;" but no such verse exists in our Bible. Moreover, many people find prayer to be a difficult experience, especially to pray each day with meaning and intent (kavannah).

It is recorded that when Rav Shneuer Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), the founder of Habad Hassidut  decided to enroll at the Hassidic center of Mezritch rather than the Yeshiva of Volozhin, he explained to his disgruntled father-in-law, "In Volozhin I would learn how to  study difficult texts properly; whereas in Mezritch I would learn how to pray. It is far more difficult to learn how to pray than it is to learn how to study."

 I would imagine that in choosing our particular verse as the Biblical source for prayer, Maimonides is teaching us an important lesson about the act of prayer. What is that message?  And how ought we define prayer?  Is it an act of human surrender to God, or is it rather a human search for empowerment from the Divine.

In order to extract that lesson, I would like to remind you of Rashi's difficult interpretation of a verse which we read two Sabbaths ago: the Egyptians are pursuing the Israelites in order to bring them back to Egypt as slaves, whilst in front of our people lies the Reed Sea. Seized by terror, they pray to G-d. Moses attempts to allay their fears, and he too cries out to G-d, but the response that he receives from G-d is surprising; "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Why are you crying out to Me? Speak to the children of Israel, and let them get moving [into the waters of the Sea]'" (14:15). Rashi (ad loc) expands the dialogue: "The Holy One, Blessed be He, said [to Moses], 'this is not the time for lengthy prayer, when the Israelites are in such distress.'" But then when ought we to engage in lengthy prayer; when the Israelites are not in distress? What does Rashi mean to teach us?

I believe that Rashi wrote this commentary with a striking Aggadic passage in mind. It takes place after the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbi Yossi enters the ruins of a destroyed Synagogue to pray for redemption and he is chided by Elijah the prophet who tells him; "You should have prayed for redemption, while planting, building, or even waging war for redemption "on the road" rather than in a hopeless ruin". If one is afraid of an enemy, then one may pray a shortened prayer, but it should be a prayer combined with human efforts, with human action! (BT Berachot 3a) This is precisely what G-d is saying to Moses: this is not the time for lengthy prayer; let the Jews begin to act and enter the waters of the sea. Once Israel initiates the movement towards redemption, G-d will assuredly respond.

From this perspective, we can much better understand Maimonides' Biblical source for prayer, which comes at the end of a segment which begins five verses earlier, "Behold, I shall send a messenger [Moses] before you to guard you on the road (to the conquest of the Land of Israel), to bring you to the place which I have prepared for you… My messenger will go before you [in battle], and bring you into the Amorite, Hittite, Perizite, Canaanite, Hivite and Jebusite [lands], and I will cut them off… and you shall serve the Lord your G-d…" (Exodus 23: 20-25). From the context of this passage, it becomes clear that prayer is not meant to be an expression of total dependency upon G-d by a powerless nation or individual; it is rather a request for strength and courage, a desire for empowerment from our “Senior Partner” who has covenantally joined Himself to us in the grand march of humanity towards redemption.

It is also fascinating that Nachmanides, a younger contemporary of Maimonides, disagrees with Maimonides as to the source, and frequency of prayer. He maintains that it is only Biblically mandatory for the individual to pray in times of stress. (I once heard from my revered teacher Rav J.B. Soloveitchik that practically speaking there is no dispute between them: Nachmanides understood that existentially the individual is in distress every day, three times a day). His Biblical proof-text is: "When you go to wage war in your land against an enemy who oppresses you, you shall sound the broken staccato sounds of the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before the Lord, and you shall be saved from your enemies" (Numbers 10:9). Here, too, it is prayer within the context of action!

In most Sefardi Prayer Books, the opening Biblical invocation before one begins daily prayer is neither of the two proof-texts we have just cited, but rather, "You shall love your friend like yourself, I am the Lord" (Lev. 19; 18). This introduction to prayer, initiated by Rav Haim Vital, would be completely inexplicable were it not for the thesis of "prayer as a request for Divine empowerment" which we have just offered. If indeed prayer is an attempt to come close to the Divine (Korban, sacrifice, stems from the Hebrew karov - to come close), then the purpose of prayer is to enable us to be like G-d: to create a more prefect world, to show love, patience and kindness towards every being created in the Divine Image. From this perspective, the most meaningful prayer ought to be, "Dear Parent in Heaven, I don't ask You to make my life easy; I only pray that you help me to be strong."

The Talmud (BT Sotah 49b) gives frightening signs of what will occur at the end of the days: "Insolence will reign supreme, inflation will increase… leadership will be involved in harlotry… Wisdom will be vitiated… truth will be absent… a person's enemies will be his family members… the face of the generation will be the face of a dog… and the only one we will have to rely upon is our Parent in Heaven." It seems to me that the last thing mentioned "The only One we will have to rely upon is our Parent in Heaven" is not a solution, but rather the worst of the problems; when we feel ourselves powerless to act, our troubles have really intensified!

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