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Friday, March 29, 2024

Parshat Va’ethanan – Answered Prayers

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Rabbi David Bibi is the Rabbi of the Sephardic Congregation of Long Beach and has taught in many community Synagogues. He has written and edited a weekly newsletter “Shabbat Shalom from Cyberspace” for 19 years, and can be reached at DavidBibi@gmail.com.
Rabbi David Bibi is the Rabbi of the Sephardic Congregation of Long Beach and has taught in many community Synagogues. He has written and edited a weekly newsletter “Shabbat Shalom from Cyberspace” for 19 years, and can be reached at [email protected].
And I pleaded with Hashem. One might wonder why Moses even recounts this story of how he pleaded with G d to allow him entry into Israel and how G d refused this request. Rabbi Abittan z’sl, explained that the story is there to tell us that prayer works.

In the midst of this crazy week where we kept running to check the news and to see what information our friends in Israel were sending us, we got to experience a baby miracle and a miracle that came about through prayer.

Last Shabbat my dear friend Dr. Hal was not in the Synagogue in the morning. When I saw his wife Penny preparing for our Seuda Shelishi as she does each week, I asked how he was feeling. It seems he was in the hospital where they found two kidney stones. One might come out, but the other would need to be blasted or more likely he would need surgery. And if one preceded the other, chas veShalom, he would need emergency surgery. Penny was wondering if she would be cancelling her trip to Israel scheduled a few days later where she would take her son to meet her daughter. I asked where Dr. Hal was and she told me he was in the Synagogue where the class was just beginning.

Following Rav Aharon’s class we started mincha. We all knew that Rabbi Yosef’s wife was already experiencing pre-labor and the baby would be coming every day. We were looking for him to open the ark but he was nowhere to be found. You see the Chida – Rabbi Chaim Joseph David Azulai mentions in his book, Avodat Hakodesh that it has been the local custom [in Livorno] that husbands of expectant mother are particular to perform the mitzvah of peticha – of opening the ark – during the ninth month. “This is a beautiful custom and has support in Kabalistic works.” Rabbi Yaakov Hillel in his commentary Amudei Hora’ah explains the custom further.

And at that moment a thought struck me. I considered what the rabbis write as the basis for this custom and supposed that if this could help for childbirth, why not for a kidney stone? So we asked Dr. Hal to open the ark and we all said a special prayer for his refuah and that just as he was opening the ark for the Torah, Hashem should open the path to release the stones. And that was that!

But a few minutes after Dr. Hal returned home, he called me. Miracle of miracles, both stones passed. And they told him it was impossible. You can’t imagine the smile that crossed my lips. I offered a prayer of thanksgiving and chalked it up to all of us praying together.

The rabbi would remind us that setting aside the miracles hidden in coincidence, prayer requires persistence. How persistent must one be? We should take our example from Moses. The Yalkut Shimoni brings the Midrash that Moshe Rabbenu prayed 515 prayers, the numerical value of the opening word of the parashah, “Va’ethanan.”

And it’s so interesting that we always read this Perasha following Tisha BeAb and usually before the 15th day of the month of Ab – this coming Monday ( which will be my secular birthday – Happy Birthday to me!).

The 15th day of Ab is a joyous day. My brother Ruby and Ruthie got engaged that day. We recall that the Sin of the spies and the people crying the night the spies made their report fell on the 9th of Ab. It was decreed that the entire generation of the Midbar would die in the desert. And year by year, the people prepared their graves and some were taken and some were spared. During the final year in the Midbar, on the 9th of Ab, preparations were again made. But nobody died. They figured they might have calculated the day wrong and prepared again the next night, but nobody died, and again the next night. Until they came to the full moon of the 15th day of the month when the people realized they could not have miscalculated. Those remaining were granted a reprieve and the day became a great holiday.

So where does the 15th day of Ab come into view in this week’s Perasha? The Penei Yehoshua (Berachot 32a) offers a beautiful explanation of the significance of this number 515. The Midrash says that after Hashem informed Moshe of Benei Yisrael’s imminent victory over Sihon and Og, Moshe thought that once he had remained alive for this battle he has been granted permission to continue into Eress Yisrael. Now Moshe received this prophecy of the battle against Sihon and Og on the fifteenth of Av, the same day on which the people celebrated the reprieve. The death of the previous generation came to an end. With that reprieve for the people, there might come another reprieve for Moses.

With the joy surrounding the end of that decree, the high level of prophecy returned to Moshe Rabbenu (see Baba Batra 121a). We are taught that from the time of the spies until all that generation passed on the prophecy of Moses was at a somewhat lower level. Some suggest that this period of punishment caused intense sadness to Moses and we know that sadness impedes prophecy.

So on the morning of the fifteenth of Av, Moshe began praying three times a day, from that day until the day of Moshe’s passing, the seventh of Adar. This is a total of two hundred days. However, this 200-day period contained twenty-eight Shabbatot, and, as we know, one may not offer private prayers for personal needs on Shabbat. Therefore, we must deduct these days from the total. He thus prayed on 171 and 2/3 days, which amounts to 515 prayers. Remember he started on the morning of the 15th of Av, so Moshe prayed only twice on that day and that’s where we get the 2/3.

On the one hand, it’s a bit depressing. I would ask, “if Moshe who is called the servant of Hashem, the most faithful of Hashem’s household, if that Moshe prayed for 6 months straight, three times a day, with perfect Kavanah and a static free direct connection, and still the answer was ‘no’, what chance have I got?

The Torah comes to teach, that the Al-mighty answered Moshe: “Enough – do not speak to Me anymore about this matter.” Hazal explain that were Moshe to have prayed one more time, the decree would have been annulled. This serves as an example of what the Gemara (Berachot 32b) says, “If a person sees that he prayed but was not answered, he should pray again, as it says, ‘Wait for Hashem, strengthen and embolden your heart, and wait for Hashem.” Realize that one tefilah after another, day after day, month after month adds something and has an effect.

We have all heard many stories of people who prayed with their hearts day after day and miracles occurred.

I have heard stories of many people who went to Jerusalem and prayed every day at the Kotel for 40 days straight – not missing a single day – and their prayers were answered.

And if this is true, that asking again and again of Hashem, has a miraculous effect regarding tefilot of an individual, how much more so does it apply to those of the community at large.

As we mentioned last week, I think Moshe should have been a bit upset with the nation. They should have been praying on his behalf. And imagine if they did. What effect would they have had on World History?

We have all been offering special prayers for the last months. Many synagogues added Avinu Malkeynu and each day we read tehilim and offered prayers for our soldiers. We pray that our prayers will be answered. But let’s not forget to keep at it, to be persistent. Because if we are then we can rest assured that all of our prayers will be answered.

Ten years ago following a discussion with rabbi Abittan on this week’s portion I wrote: Do we really want something from Hashem? Well if it’s in our best interest Hashem wants to give it to us. But he wants us to ask for it. Praying makes us better people. We strive to be like Moses, now Moses in this weeks Perasha gives us another example to follow. We can’t just want something, we can’t just hope. We’ve got to be persistent! We have got to pray.

May we be zocheh to have our prayers answered and to see miracles together.

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