Parshat Chaye Sara

"HERE I STAND BY THE SPRING AS THE DAUGHTERS OF THE TOWNSMEN COME OUT TO DRAW WATER; LET THE MAIDEN TO WHOM I SAY, 'PLEASE, LOWER YOUR JAR THAT I MAY DRINK,' AND WHO REPLIES, 'DRINK, AND I WILL ALSO WATER YOUR CAMELS'- LET HER BE THE ONE WHOM YOU HAVE DECREED FOR YOUR SERVANT ISAAC. THEREBY SHALL I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE DEALT GRACIOUSLY WITH MY MASTER."... THE SERVANT RAN TOWARD HER AND SAID, "PLEASE, LET ME SIP A LITTLE WATER FROM YOUR JAR." "DRINK, MY LORD," SHE SAID, AND SHE QUICKLY LOWERED HER JAR UPON HER HAND AND LET HIM DRINK. WHEN SHE HAD LET HIM DRINK HIS FILL, SHE SAID, "I WILL ALSO DRAW FOR YOUR CAMELS, UNTIL THEY FINISH DRINKING."

 (Bereishit 24: 13-14, 17-19)

 

 

Beliefs and Superstitions

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: Three [people] made improper requests; two were answered properly, and one was answered improperly. These are: Abraham's servant, Eliezer, Saul son of Kish, and Yiftah Ha-Giladi.

Abraham's servant, Eliezer, for it is written: Let the maiden to whom I say, 'Please, lower your jar that I may drink,' etc. Even if she is lame or blind? He was answered properly, and Rivkah was sent to him.

(Ta'anit 4a)

 

One should not divine the future like an idolater, for it says, You shall not practice divination (VaYikra 19:26). What is divination? For example, those who say, "Since my bread fell from my mouth, or my staff fell from my hand, I will not go to such-and-such a place today, for if I go, my wishes will not be fulfilled"... and those who hear the bird chirp and say: "This will happen, and that will not," "it is good to do this thing and bad to do that thing"... and one who sets signs for himself [thinking], "If such and such happens to me, I will do this thing, and if it does not happen, I will not do it," as did Eliezer, Abraham's servant... all of these are prohibited, and anyone who performs a deed because of [the outcome] of one of these [forms of divination] is caned.

(RaMBaM Hilkhot Avodat Kokhavim 11:4)

RAVaD's Gloss: Abraham [ben David] said: This is a great error, for this ["one who sets signs for himself"] is certainly allowed, and perhaps he [RaMBaM] was misled by the formulation he saw [in Hullin 95b], "divination which is not like that of Eliezer and Jonathan is not divination." He thought that it was meant to define a prohibition, but that is not true. Rather, this is what it is saying: "It is not worth depending [on a method of divination], unless it is like that of Eliezer and Jonathan." How could he have attributed this transgression to such righteous men?!

 

On Public Prayer And Private Prayer

Jonathan Chipman

Towards the end of Parshat Hayyei Sarah, we encounter the figure of Yitzhak, who "went out toward evening to meditate [la-suah] in the field" (Gen 24:63). Rashi interprets the phrase la-suah as implying prayer, as in the phrase, "he shall pour out his entreaty" (Psalm 102:1) - from whence the notion that Isaac introduced the Minhah Prayer. Isaac is thus a kind of paradigm for the individual who engages in meditative, inward prayer. There is something mysterious about this lone figure, ambling through the desert while the sun is setting, perhaps enwrapped in profound thoughts about the secrets of creation, or crying out to his Maker from the depths of his heart. Such figures reappear, in varied and different forms, throughout the spiritual history of the Jewish people.

The difficulty emerges when the Yitzhak mode is counterpoised with the great emphasis placed by the halakhah upon public worship. The ideal, perfect prayer is always thought of as being recited in public, with a minyan of ten Jews - whether on festive days, such as Simhat Torah or Purim; on days of high solemnity, such as the Days of Awe, when there is hardly a serious Jew who doesn't find his way to the synagogue; in times of crisis and trouble, as on the public fast days of ancient times, when the entire community gathered in the city square; or simply on ordinary weekdays, when it is a mitzvah to pray with the public. The subject is succinctly presented in Rambam's Hilkhot Tefillah 8.1, as follows:

The prayer of the public is always heard; and even if there were sinners among them, the Holy One blessed be He never rejects the prayer of the multitude. Hence a person must join himself with the public, and should not pray by himself so long as he is able to pray with the public. And a person should always go to the synagogue morning and evening, for his prayer is only heard at all times in the synagogue. And whoever has a synagogue in his city and does not pray there with the public is called a bad neighbor.

Indeed, Maimonides devotes more than half of Hilkhot Tefillah, his "Laws of Prayer" - Chapters 8-15 - to public manifestations related to prayer: the order of tefillah betzibbur, the synagogue (whose sanctity derives from the regular presence therein of public worship), the public reading of the Torah, and the priestly blessing. In many places, the Sages likewise emphasize the importance of public prayer (see Berakhot 8a). Moreover, according to Hazal's world-view, in public worship the merits of the public somehow compensate for the shortcomings and lacks of each individual therein. Indeed, they even find a certain note of arrogance or haughtiness in the behavior of a person who does not feel the need to pray with others, as if he is confident that his prayer will be accepted by the Master of the Universe on the basis of his own righteousness alone.

Moreover, the centrality of public worship is rooted in basic Jewish concepts. The covenant is seen as in essence being made between God and the Jewish people; even when the Almighty speaks with individuals, as He does constantly in the Book of Genesis, which we read during these autumn months, the covenant is made "between Me and yourself, and with your seed after you throughout the generations" (Gen 17:7)  - that is, with a collective which will come into being through the patriarchs, and not with them as individuals per se.

On this count, there is a striking difference between Judaism and Christianity. As Soren Kierkegaard phrased it: "'The individual' - that is the decisive Christian category, and it will be decisive for the future of Christianity." He even eschewed marriage with the love of his life, Regina Olsen, because he saw his religious calling as somehow fulfilled through his remaining "the Single One." Admittedly, his approach was an extreme one even within Christianity, but the attitude per se is in some way integral to that faith. Hence the institution of monasticism, and the requirement of celibacy even among lay priests in the Catholic Church, in contrast to Judaism's emphasis on marriage, family, and the mitzvah of procreating and educating children.

In principle, one might say that Christians are converted to the faith, while Jews are born into the covenant community. Conversion, as a cognitive act, is by definition individual (hence the requirement for adult baptism and consciously "accepting Christ" in many Protestant groups); while birth is a matter of belonging to a certain family, to a group - so much so that even giyyur is understood as being "born" as a Jew, the mikveh and the womb being symbolically equated.

Nevertheless, there are various values in halakhah that at times came into conflict with that of public prayer. For example, some of the Sages saw Torah study as so central to their being that they preferred to worship in solitude where they studied, rather than with the public in the synagogue. Thus, it is told of Rav Assi and Rav Ami that "Even though there were thirteen synagogues in Tiberias, they only prayed between the pillars where they studied" (Berakhot 8a; cf. the debate on the application of this approach in practice in Tur, Orah Hayyim §90). I have heard that there were great sages closer to our own time, such as the Vilna Gaon, who followed this approach.

Another aspect of prayer that may lead to conflict with public prayer - one that takes us to the very essence of the meditative, "Yitzhak" model - is that of kavvanah, of the need for spiritual focus or concentration during prayer. Prayer is defined as avodah shebelav, "service of the heart"; hence, by its very nature it must be an expression of the person's heart and soul. If prayer is lacking in kavvanah, in the inner feeling of standing before the Almighty, it is no more than a heap of words. Here, too, Rambam's words, based upon the Talmudic discussion, are both clear and insistent: "intention of the heart" is defined as one of the "five things whose absence disqualify prayer" (Tefillah 4.15), alongside the laws pertaining to basic physical obstacles to prayer, in contradistinction to those things that, while desirable, are not essential, such as the direction faced during prayer, bodily posture and gestures, being dressed in a respectful manner, etc. Thus, by rights, a person who prays without kavvanah ought to recite Shemonah Esreh a second time. The only reason we don't require this is that the poskim considered it likely that the person will pray by rote the second time around as well! (Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim §101). In a similar vein, the Talmud says that a person must devote time to preparation prior to prayer itself: "The pious men of old would wait one hour and thereafter prayed, so as to focus their hearts upon their Heavenly Father" (Mishnah Berakhot 5.1).

Indeed, there were more than a few great Torah sages, particularly within the Hasidic movement, who found themselves on the horns of this dilemma. Many Hasidic rebbes were in the habit of praying in solitude: some prayed in a separate, side room, with the door slightly opened so that they might hear Kaddish and Barkhu and Kedushah and so on, while there were others who prayed in complete seclusion.

In quite a few synagogues, prayer is conducted in a rapid, perfunctory manner - in some cases even on Shabbat, all the more so on weekdays - that in many cases may disturb those seeking to pray in a more serious manner to properly fulfill the mitzvah of "service of the heart." Prayer is a very subtle business. Some people are easily disturbed and lose their ability to concentrate if they need to keep up with someone else's pace, and hence prefer private devotions. Although at times it may seem that there has been a decline in the status and dignity of public prayer in recent generations, this is not a new problem. Already two hundred years ago this issue was discussed in the writings of Habad Hasidism.

The Habad approach, as is well known, greatly emphasized prayer as a central part of a person's avodah - wherever possible, protracted, meditative prayer. The worshipper is called upon to reflect upon the sublime greatness and majesty of the Holy One blessed be He; to prepare himself by studying a chapter or two of a Hasidic devotional text, and thereafter to pray slowly, word by word, with a melodious chant and with focused attention. The psalms of Pesukei de-Zimra and the first two blessings of Shema in the Morning Prayer are seen as playing a special role, their purpose being "to awaken the love hidden in the heart of every Jew" so that it might thereafter "be openly manifested in his heart at the moment of reciting Shema, which is the mitzvah of love implied by the verse 'and you shall love [the Lord your God].'"

In two passages in Tanya, the basic text of Habad Hasidism, the "Alter Rebbe," R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady, relates to this conflict: i.e., between the need for proper kavvanah during prayer, and the requirement of public prayer. In the first chapter of Iggeret ha-Kodesh (the forth section of Tanya), and again on the final pages of Kuntres Aharon (the fifth and final section), he refers to reports he has heard of places where "businessmen," who hurry to complete their prayers so as to go about their affairs, serve as prayer leaders, determining the pace of the daily prayer, thereby preventing others from praying slowly and attentively. He protests against this phenomenon, and counsels that

Only those who have the time... who are able to pray the morning prayer for about an hour and a half all the days of the week (!) shall be the prayer leaders... But on Shabbat and festival days, when also those who have businesses are at leisure, it is a suitable time for them to pray at leisure, at length, with concentration of their heart and directing their soul toward God (would that this were true today!-jc), [they too may lead the prayers]. All the more so that the obligation is imposed upon them with greater force... as is written in the Torah of Moses, "Six days shall you work ... and the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God" - specifically, that it is entirely for God. (Iggeret ha-Kodesh, Ch 1; in Tanya, p. 103a)

How many people can we imagine agreeing to spending an hour and a half davening every weekday morning?! We live in an age when certain minyanim pride themselves in finishing in 25 minutes! Nevertheless, our synagogues could stand a certain slowing of pace, in most cases; perhaps the popularity of "Carlebach minyanim" and other new ways of conducting the service with a slower, more musical or meditative style of prayer, are the first "swallows" heralding a spring of renewed Jewish spirituality.

The second solution to this problem, current in Habad among the ba'alei avodah who daven at length, is to come to the synagogue with everybody else, to sit and study something while the public worships, and while doing so to fulfill the various mitzvot connected with public worship: Kaddish, Barkhu, Kedushah, and listening to the Torah reading on days when it is read. To these I would add: to listen to the entire repetition of the Amidah (hazarat ha-shatz), and to answer Amen to each blessing, preferably while standing, which is considered by Rambam to be the essence of tefillat hatzibbur. Only thereafter do they pray at length by themselves, with love and fear of God, each one according to their inner resources.

It seems to me, that this approach on the part of Habad represents an interesting effort to maintain both values at once: on the one hand, participation with the public, expressing the sense of common destiny, the notion that "all Israel are responsible bound to one another," that finds concrete expression in public worship; on the other hand, the spiritual goal of kavvanah, of emotion, of prayer as service of the heart - things that, by their very nature, occur within the soul of each individual, and which are rooted in his/her own inner life.

On another level, there is a tension here between "fixity" and "beseeching mercy." We read in Pirkei Avot 2.16, "Do not make your prayer a fixed thing, but compassion and entreaty before the Omnipresent, blessed be He." The late Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz used to say that Judaism, in effect, rejected this mishnah, preferring fixity and constancy in the mitzvot, including that of prayer, to innerness and emotion, which are by definition subjective and transient. Unlike Leibowitz, it seems to me that it is possible to at least attempt to have both: there is broad support in Judaism for both constancy and for emotion, for participation in the religious life of the congregation and for the outpouring of the soul of each individual.

Rabbi Jonathan Chipman is a professional translator, who specializes in Jewish studies. He writes an English-language parashat ha-shavua sheet called "Jonathan's Arrows." Those interested in subscribing or receiving a sample copy may write to yonarand@internet-zahav.net

 

 

I am a resident alien among you (Bereishit 23:4) - The point of his [Abraham's] claiming to be a resident alien is based upon what the RaMBaM [in Hilkhot Zekhiyah U'Matanah 3:11] wrote: "One may give free gifts to a resident alien... because you are commanded to sustain him, for it is written, a resident alien, let him live by your side (Vayikra 25:35)."

You should know that our entire holy Torah is rational, particularly in connection with earthly behavior. Rationality requires the land's inhabitants to establish amongst themselves the practice of sustaining people who are resident aliens in their midst, giving them free gifts, just as we treat the resident aliens who dwell among us. That is Abraham's claim - I am a resident alien among you - give me. He was careful to say resident and not merely alien in order to emphasize that while he was an alien and not one of them, he was, nonetheless, a resident. Another reason why he said alien is because he was concerned about calling himself a resident of this world, which is opposite to the way of he righteous, so he first called himself an alien.

(Or Ha-Hayyim Bereishit 23:4)

 

All of Abraham's Sons are Nourrished by the Same Roots and are Expected to Continue his Purpose

He is like a tree planted... (Tehillim 1:3): God took him and planted him in the Garden of Eden.

Another interpretation: God planted him in the Land of Israel.

...which yields its fruit in season... : That is Ishmael.

...whose foliage never fades... : That is Isaac.

...and whatever he does prospers... : Those are the sons of Keturah.

(Midrash Tehillim 1)

 

Human Beings are Measured by their Deeds

Also the sons of Adam, also the sons of a man (Tehillim 49:3): What is [the meaning of] also the sons of Adam? Those are the sons of Abraham, of whom it is written:

The great person [adam] among the giants (Joshua 14:15), also includes the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Keturah.

The sons of a man - these are the sons of Noah, of whom it is written: a righteous man (Bereishit 6:9).

(Midrash Tehillim 49)

 

Keturah - Hagar?

Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi - for he had gone to bring Hagar to his father Abraham for him to marry her (based on Bereishit Rabbah).

(Rashi on Bereishit 24:62)

 

Keturah - That was Hagar, and she was called Keturah because her deeds were as pleasing as incense [ketoret], and she tied up her opening - she did not engage in sexual intercourse with anyone after separating from Abraham.

(Rashi on Bereishit 25:1)

 

Abraham married three women: Sarah - a daughter of Shem, Keturah - a daughter of Yafet, and Hagar - a daughter of Ham.

(Yalkut Shimoni Iyyov 8, section 904)

 

According to this aggadah, we find that Abraham's three wives belonged to the three races of humanity known to Scripture, in accordance with Abraham's purpose: As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a multitude of nations (Bereishit 17:4).

Through the medium of those three women - daughters of Shem, Ham and Yafet - the midrash wants to teach us that Abraham's significance for human history is universal, and that the recognition of God which he founded in the world, and that the true faith which Abraham our father was the first to actively raise up, are open to all of the races of humankind and are relevant to them.

(From Prof. Y. Leibowitz, z"l, Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat ha-Shavua)