P R A Y I N G F O R T H E I M P O S S I B L E What did you want to be when you were little? Has that changed? How would you define Impossible? Is there anything in this world that isn t possible? Have you ever achieved something you once thought impossible? AN IMPOSSIBLE PRAYER Rabbi Akiva Eiger quotes the Sefer Chasidim as saying: אל יתפלל אדם לבקש דבר שאינו כפי הטבע. ואף שהיכולת ביד הקב"ה... ואסור להתפלל שיעשה לו הקב"ה נס בשינוי עולם כגון שיוציא אילן זה פירות קודם זמנו. )או"ח רל(. One should not pray, asking for that which is not natural, even though G-d can do this And one may not pray for G-d to perform a miracle to change the world, such as causing this tree to produce fruit before its time. (Orach Chayim 230) USELESS PRAYERS? The Vilna Gaon comments at the start of the ninth chapter of Berachot: אף על הדבר שיכול להיות אלא שלא על פי טבע, רק על דרך נס, הרי זה תפלת שוא. If one prays for something, even if it s possible, but it would require a miracle or go against nature, this would be a useless prayer. THESE TWO SOURCES DESCRIBE WASTED PRAYERS BECAUSE THEIR GOALS ARE IMPOSSIBLE - HAVE YOU EVER NOT PRAYED FOR SOMETHING BECAUSE IT WAS TOO UNLIKELY? IF YOU COULD PRAY FOR ANYTHING, POSSIBLE OR IMPOSSIBLE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? It always seems impossible until it s done -Nelson Mandela 1
IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS I have a dream -Dr. Martin Luther King 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. at a civil rights rally to gain equality for people of all races If you will it, it is no dream -Theodor Herzl 1902, in his book The Old New Land (Altneuland in German) about his dream of a Jewish state in Israel WERE THESE DREAMS POSSIBLE? WOULD YOU HAVE SAID THE SAME THING 100 YEARS AGO? HOW ABOUT 200? NEVER GIVE UP אפילו חרב חדה מונחת על צווארו של אדם אל ימנע עצמו מן הרחמים. )ברכות י:( Even if a sharp sword is placed upon one s neck, one should never stop praying. (Talmud, Berachot 10a) REMEMBER THAT WE CAN T PRAY FOR SOMETHING THAT CANNOT HAPPEN SO HOW DOES THIS LINE MAKE SENSE? HAVE YOU EVER GIVEN UP BECAUSE SOMETHING WAS IMPOSSIBLE? AT THE BEGINNING OF OUR SESSION, WE ASKED HOW TO DEFINE IMPOSSIBLE ; HAS YOUR DEFINITION CHANGED? HOW? 2
REBUILDING JERUSALEM Grace After Meals 4 th Blessing And may You build Jerusalem, our holy city, speedily in our days ברכת המזון ברכה ד' ובני ירושלים עיר הקודש במהרה בימינו... Shemoneh Esrei/Amidah 14 th Blessing And may You return to Your city, Jerusalem, and settle in it, as you promised. And build her (Jerusalem) soon, in our days, to last forever שמונה עשרי ברכה יד' ולירושלים עירך ברחמים תשוב ותשכון בתוכה כאשר דברת ובני אותה בקרוב בימינו בנין עולם... JUST A DREAM Imagine what it was like for Jews to say these words for thousands of years. What thoughts went through their minds? Did it ever occur to someone that maybe this is a Tefilat Shav - an empty prayer? For someone praying for Jerusalem in the 10 th century, maybe this too, felt like an impossible dream AT LONG LAST I am speaking to you from the plaza of the Western Wall, the remnant of our Holy Temple. Comfort my people, comfort them, says the Lord your God. This is the day we have hoped for, let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation. The vision of all generations is being realized before our eyes: The city of God, the site of the Temple, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, the symbol of the nation s redemption, have been redeemed today by you, heroes of the Israel Defense Forces. By doing so you have fulfilled the oath of generations, If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may I forget my right hand. Indeed, we have not forgotten you, Jerusalem, our holy city, our glory. In the name of the entire Jewish people in Israel and outside Israel, I hereby recite with supreme joy: Blessed are You, HaShem, our God, King of the universe, who has kept us in life, who has preserved us, and enabled us to reach this day. This year in Jerusalem rebuilt! General Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Chaplain of the Israeli Defense Forces, at the Western Wall (1967) WOULD YOU CONSIDER THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM A MIRACLE? 3
WAIT A MINUTE!? Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim, 230:1 One [should not] pray for that which has already happened i.e. if one is already pregnant and prays to have a specific gender - this is considered a wasted prayer. שולחן ערוך, אורח חיים רל:א המתפלל על מה שעבר.. שהיתה אשתו מעוברת אחר ארבעים יום לעיבורה ואמר יהי רצון שתלד אשתי זכר - הרי זו תפילת שוא. Wait a minute!?!? Look at what we re saying bring us back to Jerusalem. But we already HAVE Jerusalem! We recaptured it in 1967! So why do we pray? These blessings may not have been useless prayers in the past but they certainly are not necessary NOW! Isn t this a wasted prayer!? HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY WE STILL PRAY FOR JERUSALEM? FOR THAT MATTER, WHY DO WE MOURN ON THE 9 TH OF AV?! DO YOU FEEL THERE IS ANY MORE WE NEED TO PRAY FOR? For thousands of years the Jewish people has mourned the destruction of Jerusalem. Every.ירושלים single day, we declare our connection to Our prayers are asking for two different things: (1) The return to Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash. (2) The return of the Shechina the Divine Presence. MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE The desire is expressed not just for the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash itself but for the residence of the Shechina as well. Hence the fact that we have Jerusalem in our hands today is not sufficient fulfillment of our prayers. (Rabbi Dr. Jay Goldmintz, Koren Ani Tefillah Siddur) WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE JERUSALEM WE KNOW TODAY, AND JERUSALEM WITH THE BEIT HAMIKDASH AND HASHEM S PRESENCE? 4
NOT JUST A PRAYER Rabbi Jack Abromowitz [All our prayers for Jerusalem] refer to G-d as the One Who builds Jerusalem not that HaShem will build Jerusalem, but that it is something HaShem is actively doing now. The return to Jerusalem is an ongoing process and all our ups and downs, positive and negative actions, are part of the chain of events that will lead to its ultimate restoration. (Siddur HaGra) A DAILY EFFORT Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz explains in our days may also be translated as with our days. In other words, may the Beit HaMikdash be rebuilt with the way we spend our days and every mitzvah we perform. How we spend each and every day has the potential to contribute to the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash. WRAP UP One is not supposed to pray for something that is impossible, or something that already happened; that is called a Tefilat Shav a useless prayer. Our ancestors prayed for thousands of years to return to Jerusalem, and it was not considered a Tefilat Shav. Even though we have control of Jerusalem today, we are not complete until the Final Redemption, when G-d settles in Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. Today, the prayer to rebuild Jerusalem is not a Tefilat Shav because we, through living the Torah and performing mitzvot, are actively putting in effort to rebuild it! So too, we have full right to pray for ALL our hopes and dreams, on one condition: we must do whatever we can to make them happen! ONE FINAL QUESTION WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE? 5