Some of you may remember my 2012 blog post, "G-d, please bring me back my son". This is directly related.
The Ari’s Prayer
Rabbi Moshe Alshich was
one of the leading sages of the city of Tzefat in the middle of the 16th
century. Ordained by Rabbi Yosef Karo, he was expert in Tanach, Talmud, Halachah
and Kabbalah. But as Rabbi Chaim Vital reported, Rabbi Alshich’s son converted
to Islam. Distraught, Rabbi Alshich went to Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Ari z”l
for help. The Ari gave him a text to recite in the daily amidah:
May it be Your will, HaShem, our Gd and Gd of our
ancestors, that You tunnel beneath Your throne of honour[1]
and receive the repentance of so-and-so, for Your right hand is extended to
receive those who return. Blessed are You, Gd, who desires repentance.
In ensuing generations,
the Ari’s appeal to Gd for intervention appeared in multiple, increasingly
stronger texts. In the 18th century, Rav Zvi Hirsch Kaidanover
added, “יהופך לבבם לעשות רצונך בלבב שלם”, May You cause their hearts to be
reversed, to perform Your will wholeheartedly. Gd, make them repent!
The question
While the Ari z”l perhaps pioneered this prayer, he was far
from the first to suggest praying for Gd to help people follow a proper path:
·
Dovid haMelech davened:
“May HaShem, Gd of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yisrael, remember eternally my
dedication of materials for the Beit haMikdash, and therefore turn the nation’s
hearts to Him. May He give my son Shlomo a complete heart to guard His mitzvot
and laws.[2]”
·
And the Talmud speaks of
praying for Gd’s assistance with teshuvah; think of the classic story of the
local gang who tormented Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Meir davened for them to die; his
wife, Beruriah, davened that they repent.[3]
And the conclusion seems to follow Beruriah’s view.
In truth, praying for someone to return is a dangerous game;
it can easily feed into facile self-righteousness. Who am I to decide that
someone needs teshuvah - and needs help doing teshuvah? And maybe they don’t
want my help at all; maybe they view me as a busybody! But the idea is there,
with a solid pedigree in Dovid, Beruriah and the Ari z”l. It requires cautious
humility, but we are indeed empowered to ask Gd to help others repent.[4]
We could ask many questions about the Ari’s prayer, and the
examples of Dovid haMelech and Beruriah, but here’s one fundamental problem:
How can we ask Gd to help with teshuvah? We are taught that Gd will not seek to
control יראת שמים, that
emotional awe which is so often the driving force impelling our return![5]
How can we expect Gd to break that rule?
I am far from the first
to ask this question. The Maharsha[6]
offered one suggestion, and the Ben Ish Chai[7]
offered another.[8] But I
would like to suggest a third approach, which is important not only if we daven
for others to repent, but also in davening for help with our own teshuvah
process.
An answer from Eliyahu
In the middle of the era
of the first Beit haMikdash, at the height of the reign of King Achav and Queen
Izevel, at the apex of influence of the prophets of the Baal and Asherah over
the Jewish people, Eliyahu haNavi issued an invitation for a showdown, a duel
of dieties. In one corner, hundreds of prophets of idolatry; in the other,
lonely Elijah. Both would attempt to summon fire from the heavens to consume
their offering. At stake: The faith of a nation.
The priests of Baal
batted first; they struggled mightily, they cried out and capered and cut
themselves, while Eliyahu mocked them – and no fire came. At last afternoon
arrived, and Eliyahu addressed Gd. He declared, “HaShem, Gd of Avraham,
Yitzchak and Yisrael![9]
Let it be known today that You are Gd in Israel, and I am Your servant, and all
I have done has been at Your word. Answer me, Gd, answer me, and this nation
will know that You are Gd -” And then he spoke fateful words, “For You have
turned their hearts backward, ואתה הסבות את לבם
אחורנית.” And at that, fire descended
from the sky and consumed the totality of the offering – the animal, the wood,
the stones of the altar, the dirt, even the water Eliyahu had poured over the
altar.[10]
“For You have turned
their hearts backward!” As explained by Rabbi Elazar and most classic
commentators,[11]
Eliyahu here launched an accusation at Gd: it’s Your fault that they sinned!
You invested them with a yetzer hara driving them to sin, and You have
failed to provide a counter-inspiration.
Long before this, Moshe
accused Gd of setting up the Jews for their sin with the Golden Calf,[12]
but Eliyahu went further than Moshe. Moshe only asked Gd to forgive the Jews;
Eliyahu demanded that Gd act constructively, and provide the impetus which
would lead to our national return.
This may be what
permitted the Ari’s prayer for Divine help. Gd invested each of us with a set
of desires – ego, insecurity, lust, greed, laziness, rebelliousness, and so on.
Assuredly, there was good reason for doing this; those traits even work to our
advantage, at times. But the decision to design each human baby anew with these
traits brings with it Eliyahu’s charge – ואתה
הסבות את לבם אחורנית, You
have led them astray! We know You want us to repent and to do right, so please
help us out. Don’t rob us of free will, but give us a sign, as You did at Har
haKarmel, to help us see the truth. Or decrease the temptations with which we
struggle. Help us.[13]
We lack the righteous
track record of Eliyahu HaNavi, such that we could independently utter his intrepid
demands with our mouths; blaming G-d is a popular sport, but Eliyahu’s
righteous outrage seems a bit contrived on the lips of such willing
participants in sin. Nonetheless, the Ari harnessed Eliyahu’s message and
taught us that in this case we may use those words as well. It is legitimate
and meaningful for us to daven to HaShem to balance things out, and to help
those who have sinned to return.[14]
For ourselves
In the standard Yom
Kippur davening, we already make use of Eliyahu’s approach for ourselves. At
every amidah of Yom Kippur, after we perform viduy acknowledging our
sins, we turn to HaShem with this request:
יהי רצון מלפניך, ד' אלקי ואלקי אבותי, שלא אחטא עוד
May
it be Your will – HaShem, my Gd, and Gd of my ancestors, that I not sin again.
It’s Eliyahu’s principle
at work: We are entitled to claim assistance from Gd.
·
We are obligated to perform cheshbon hanefesh, to account for our past
deeds.
·
We are obligated to regret, to make amends, and to apologize.
·
We are obligated to devise methods by which we will replicate our good
deeds and avoid replicating our transgressions in the future.
·
But at each step, we are within our rights to say to HaShem, אתה הסבות את לבם אחורנית. I am
doing my best – but I need Your help to clean up the mess I’ve made.
And it’s an obligation
to do so for others
We have seen two points:
We are justified in turning to HaShem for help with our own teshuvah, and we
are empowered to turn to HaShem for help with the teshuvah of others. But there
is one more step we must take.
Rabbi Elazar Azikri was
part of the Ari’s 16th century circle. He compiled a book of mitzvot
called Sefer Charedim, and in it he also addressed the idea of praying for
others to repent – and he wrote,
כשם שחייב אדם להתפלל על עצמו כך חייב להתפלל על
פושעי ישראל... שישובו בתשובה
Just
as one must pray for himself, so one must pray for the sinners of Israel… to repent.[15]
What is the nature of
this obligation? What obligates us to pray on behalf of the teshuvah of others?
·
One might suggest that it is a function of the mitzvah of Ahavas HaShem; we
are commanded to increase love of Gd in the world.[16]
·
One might suggest that it’s an act of chesed; we hold doors for others, we
give tzedakah, and we try to help others to repent.
·
One might suggest it’s part of the mitzvah of tochachah; we are to educate
others so that they don’t sin, and we help them avoid sinning in other ways –
like by davening for their return.
·
But we might look at it as a function of being a member of a community;
it’s about ערבות, our
mutual responsibility. My mitzvot are not complete until everyone’s mitzvot are
complete – and so I must humbly ask Gd to help others to repent, too.
In a moment, we will
stand as a community and commemorate our extended family – victims of the
Shoah, victims of terror, and the fallen of the Machteret and the IDF.
Individuals will recall immediate family members.
The main purpose is to
daven and pledge tzedakah on behalf of those who have passed away, but we may
also draw on their example. Kedoshim, many of whom acted heroically for others
in the worst of situations. Soldiers who gave their lives to defend their
brethren. Family members who raised, nurtured and protected their loved ones.
May we be inspired by
their example:
·
to daven not only for our own teshuvah, but for the teshuvah of others.
·
To use the words of the Ari z”l, or to use our own words.
·
And to ask Hashem to be a partner in our own teshuvah, and in the teshuvah
of our nation.
Eliyahu was correct –
HaShem has had a part in our errors. But HaShem is צופה לרשע וחפץ בהצדקו, as we
say in the piyut of וכל מאמינים, “He sees the wicked person, and desires
his reform.” Or as some versions actually say, “וחפץ
להצדיקו, Gd sees the wicked person and
wishes to make him righteous.[17]”
May this be the year when Gd acts on this wish, for us and for all around us. ד' חפץ למען צדקו, יגדיל תורה ויאדיר.
[1] See
Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 10:2, re the teshuvah of Menasheh
[2] Divrei
haYamim I 29:18-19, paraphrased
[3] Berachos
10a; and see Abba Chilkiyah’s wife in Taanis 23b, and Moshe Rabbeinu in Sotah
14a from Yeshayah 53:12
[4] For an
opposing view for which there is no room in this derashah, see http://www.yeshiva.co/midrash/outershiur.asp?id=18551.
[5] Berachos
33b, among other sources
[6] Maharsha
to Berachos 10a. Similarly, see Chazon Ish cited by R’ Yehudah Lavi ben David
in Beit Hillel. http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pagefeed/hebrewbooks_org_50549_53.pdf
[7] Ben Ish
Chayil Shabbat Shuvah 1
[8] I cite
both in a shiur available on-line at http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/864496/
[9] It is
interesting to note that Dovid, too, in his abovecited prayer for Gd to turn
the hearts of the Jews toward Gd, invoked the Gd of “Avraham, Yitzchak and
Yisrael”.
[10]
Melachim I 18:36-38
[11]
Berachot 31b; note Rav Saadia Gaon’s alternative approach, reading this in the
manner of Dovid’s request, “Please turn their hearts backward [to You].” And
see Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah 6:3, Shemonah Perakim 8, and Daat Mikra to
Melachim I 18:37.
[12]
Berachos 32a
[13] As
indeed Gd promised He would, in Yechezkel 36:26-27
[14] One may
note a similar idea used to explain Gd’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart against
the makkos
[15] Sefer
Chareidim, Mitzvot haTeluyot b’Eretz Yisrael 5. This is also seen in the
version of the Ari’s tefillah presented in Tefillah l'Dovid, by R' Chaim Dovid
Amar, talmid of the Or haChaim, 18th century Morocco (http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=50549&st=&pgnum=53)
[16] Raavad
contends that this is the basis for the mitzvah of aiding conversion to Judaism
[17] See
Yechezkel 18:21-23, as noted in the Goldschmidt machzor
