NJ NCSY Spring Regional 2017 Impossible Prayers

PRAYING FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE

❖ 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:

...‫ ואף שהיכולת ביד הקב"ה‬.‫אל יתפלל אדם לבקש דבר שאינו כפי הטבע‬
‫ואסור להתפלל שיעשה לו הקב"ה נס בשינוי עולם כגון שיוציא אילן זה‬
.)‫ (או"ח רל‬.‫פירות קודם זמנו‬

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:
.‫ הרי זה תפלת שוא‬,‫ רק על דרך נס‬,‫אף על הדבר שיכול להיות אלא שלא על פי טבע‬
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

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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
):‫ (ברכות י‬.‫אפילו חרב חדה מונחת על צווארו של אדם אל ימנע עצמו מן הרחמים‬

“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?

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REBUILDING JERUSALEM

Grace After Meals – 4th Blessing '‫ברכת המזון – ברכה ד‬

And may You build Jerusalem, our holy city, ...‫ובני ירושלים עיר הקודש במהרה בימינו‬
speedily in our days…

Shemoneh Esrei/Amidah – 14th Blessing '‫שמונה עשרי – ברכה יד‬

And may You return to Your city, Jerusalem, ‫ולירושלים עירך ברחמים תשוב ותשכון בתוכה‬
and settle in it, as you promised. And build her ...‫כאשר דברת ובני אותה בקרוב בימינו בנין עולם‬
(Jerusalem) soon, in our days, to last forever…

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 10th 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?

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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.
‫א‬:‫ אורח חיים רל‬,‫שולחן ערוך‬
‫ שהיתה אשתו מעוברת‬..…‫המתפלל על מה שעבר‬
‫אחר ארבעים יום לעיבורה ואמר יהי רצון שתלד אשתי‬
.‫ הרי זו תפילת שוא‬- ‫זכר‬

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 9TH OF AV?!

❖ DO YOU FEEL THERE IS ANY MORE WE NEED TO PRAY FOR?

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

For thousands of years the Jewish people has

mourned the destruction of Jerusalem. Every
single day, we declare our connection to ‫ירושלים‬.
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.

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?

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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?