Shabbat Toledot

Means or End? A central motif of Bereishit is the barrenness, with the exception of Leah, of the Matriarchs, and the years that they lived with despair and prayer. Sarah conceived at a very advanced age, Rachel waited for a very long time, and Rivka, as recorded at the beginning of this week’s parsha of Toldot, was barren as well. Our Sages asked the Matriarchs were barren, but their answer raises more questions than it resolves: “Why were the Matriarchs barren? R. Yochanan said, ‘Because God lusts after their prayer and lustsafter their conversation.’” The Gemara in Yevamot similarly states: “Rabbi Yitzchak said, ‘Why were our Patriarchs childless? Because God lusts after the prayers of the righteous.’” These words are very problematic. Just because God lusts after the prayers of the righteous, the Matriarchs suffered so much? Moreover, what is meant that God ‘lusted after’ the prayers of the righteous? ‘Lust’ is a desire for something that one does not possess, and God certainly lacks nothing. The meaning of these midrashim relates directly to the purpose and power of prayer. The Gemara in Brachot says: “If one sees that he prayed but was not answered, he should pray again, as it says ‘Hope to God, strengthen and encourage your heart, and hope to God.’” This would seem to indicate that prayer is a tool that assists a person in obtaining his needs and fulfilling his desires. Prayer is a means to get what one wants, which is the end. Rav Kook, however, presents a completely different, revolutionary explanation wherein the sense of lack and loss is a means to prayer, which is the ultimate goal. Rav Kook explains that the difficulties that a person faces are ultimately an aid to inspire his to prayer, whose purpose is to actualize a person’s hidden potential, to instill him with hope, and to bring him to personal renewal. Thus, when a person’s prayers have not been answered, he must pray again and not remain despondent. Had the purpose of prayer been to obtain one’s needs, one would be liable to despair if his requests were not accepted. However, since the purpose of prayer is to bring inner wholesomeness and tranquility, every prayer should bring a person closer to that goal. Through this understanding, one realizes that there is no such thing as an ‘empty’ prayer. If his wishes have not yet been fulfilled, it does not mean that the prayer fell on deaf ears, God forbid, but that the worshipper has not yet achieved wholesomeness. Prayer instills man with the hope that he can ultimately achieve his longed-for perfection. The great Mussar (ethical) teachers explain the punishment of the snake in Eden along similar lines. In contrast to man, who was punished for his sin with the curse that ‘by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread’, the snake’s punishment is the curse ‘you will eat dirt your entire life’. Many wise men have asked: “Is thata curse? The snake will never lack food!” The Mussar teachers explain that the snake’s punishment is distance from God. Since he will always have all of his worldly needs, he will never feel any lack, consequently never feel the need to pray, and ultimately never achieve wholesomeness. Man, on the other hand, though imperfect, but uses his imperfection to his advantage when it brings him to seek out God’s closeness through prayer. These ideas about hope and prayer pertain to all areas of life. Often, we measure success by output and production. A good worker is evaluated by his ability to produce maximum output in a minimum amount of time. Efficient technologies are assessed by their ability to accelerate processes. Prayer, and our parsha, teach us that the drive to make shortcuts is also somewhat tragic. On the path to the desired goal, we do not sufficiently emphasize the process and the values it implies. Undoubtedly, there is a great value in realizing and achieving goals. Nevertheless, this value is only truly significant if it comes at the culmination of a process. The cure for our tired and confused generation might be to slow the race down a bit, not because of exhaustion, but because of the deep understanding that the path to the destination is itself a destination, which is sometimes more important than the summit itself. -From Tzohar