The gemora says in Brochos 31a: "Rav Hamnuna
said: `How many important halochos can be learned from
these pesukim describing the actions of Channah!'"
We derive important halochos and significant lessons
from Channah's prayer. The Shulchan Oruch brings
lehalocho that a person praying has to have the
requisite intention, may not raise his voice when praying
— as well as other matters — all derived from
Channah. There is no doubt that in our prayers we must act as
Channah did, and just as Channah was answered, so too will
the prayer of anyone davening like Channah surely be
answered, for the gemora stresses that important
halachos are to be learned from the episode of
Channah's prayer.
Let us see what else the gemora learns from Channah's
prayer. The gemora says, "`And she made a vow and
said, O Hashem Zevokos'...Channah said before
HaKodosh Boruch Hu, `Master of the Universe, of all
the hosts and hosts that You have created in Your world, is
it so hard to give me one son?'" At first glance, we would be
justified in taking her request to be for any son,
even for a lame or blind one, G-d forbid, because she asked
to be given one of the billions of creations in Hashem's
enormous world. This interpretation seems to be confirmed by
the continuation of the gemora: "This may be compared
to a king who made a feast for his servants, and a poor man
came and stood by the door and said to them, `Give me a
bite.' No one took any notice of him, so he forced his way
into the presence of the king and said to him, `Your Majesty,
out of all the feast which you have made, is it so hard in
your eyes to give me one bite?'" We may rest assured that a
king's feast will include meat, fish and lots of delicacies,
and yet all the poor man asks for is a slice of bread.
Similarly, all Channah asks for is a son, no matter what
kind.
However, the gemora continues: "`But will give unto
Your handmaid a male offspring.' What is meant by `male
offspring'? Rav says: A man among men." Tosafos explains this
to mean that he will be important enough to be counted
amongst men. According to this, Channah was requesting more
than the minimum.
Shmuel says, "Offspring that will anoint two men, namely
Shaul and Dovid." This is taking Channah's request a stage
further. She is requesting not just any child, not just a man
as important as all other men, but a son who will become a
novi and anoint Shaul, Hashem's Chosen One who, upon
becoming king had, according to Chazal, no sins like a one-
year old. Afterwards he would anoint Dovid, meshiach
Hashem. Rabbi Yochonon says, "Offspring who will be equal
to two men, namely Moshe and Aharon, as it says, `Moshe and
Aharon among His kohanim and Shmuel among them that
call upon His name.'" Channah no longer makes do with some
modest request, but increases the intensity and ambitiousness
of her entreaties.
Her belabored prayers are answered and her son Shmuel ends up
anointing both Shaul and Dovid, and also Shmuel becomes equal
in importance to Moshe and Aharon. The whole Jewish people
testify to this fact every Friday night: "Moshe and Aharon
among His kohanim and Shmuel among them that call upon
His name."
These are important guidelines on how to pray. We can and
ought to pray not just for ordinary things but for exalted
goals, for the highest achievements which mortal beings can
attain through genuine heartfelt prayer.
It might be argued that not everybody is on the level of
Channah, whom Chazal put on one footing with Soroh Imeinu and
Rochel Imeinu, saying that they all conceived on Rosh
Hashonoh (Rosh Hashonoh 10b), and that we are on much
too low a level to make such requests and have our prayers
answered.
Let us consider a gemora in Bovo Metzia (105b
ff.) which talks about someone who leases a field, the rent
being a certain percentage of the produce. The landowner told
the tenant to sow the land with wheat, but he sowed it with
barley instead. Most of the fields in the area were affected
by disease, including the rented field, and the gemora
discusses whether the tenant can say to the landlord, "Had I
sown wheat, it would also have been diseased," in which case
there is no obligation to compensate the landlord, or whether
the landlord can retort: "Had you sown it with wheat the
following posuk would have been fulfilled for me: `You
shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established for
you.'" Rashi explains: "The Creator answers our specific
requests and at the beginning of this year I did not ask
Heaven for success in my barley crop, but my wheat crop." The
landlord's claim is accepted lehalocho and the tenant
has to pay him the full sum agreed upon. (See Rambam
Hilchos Sechirus 8:5 and Shulchan Oruch, Ch.M.
322:2).
There can be no doubt that the gemora is not talking
about a case where the landlord is an outstandingly righteous
person, of whom it is said that a tzaddik decrees and
Hashem listens to him. If this were the case, the
gemora and the poskim would have mentioned such
a condition. The landlord in question is an ordinary farmer,
busy throughout the year with his affairs, with no time to
learn Torah and not interested in making time. He prays three
times a day, but in a very perfunctory way, and mitzvos are
performed without any hiddurim. Nevertheless, he can
still say that he asked HaKodosh Boruch Hu for success
with his wheat crop and not his barley crop, and the Creator
would have fulfilled whatever he would have asked for, and
such a claim is accepted lehalocho.
This is an illustration of what we have said about a
heartfelt prayer being answered and even changing the natural
course of events. A farmer is most aware of how much faith
and heartfelt prayer is needed if all his labors are not to
be in vain. That is why we assume that his prayer is accepted
and the tenant is fully liable.
It may nevertheless be argued that this farmer, with all his
failings, is still a religious Jew, neither a tzaddik
nor a rosho, and that is why his prayers are answered.
But someone less observant who sometimes sins, will not have
his prayers answered. There is no doubt that this is
incorrect. The Kohen Godol on Yom Kippur, after
confessing his own sins and those of his fellow
kohanim, makes a short prayer as soon as he comes out
of the Kodesh Hakodoshim that the coming year should
be full of rain, that the Jewish people should have
parnossoh and so on. He then adds another special
request that the prayers of travellers asking for rain at a
time when the rest of the world needs it, not be accepted.
Why does he make this additional request? Has he not just
asked Hashem for the coming year to be one that will not lack
for rain?
Moreover, let us picture a Kohen Godol, a
tzaddik like Aharon HaKohen, Shimon Hatzaddik or Rabbi
Yishmoel Kohen Godol, and contrast these with the traveller
mentioned in the Kohen Godol's prayer. Not every
traveller is of the stature of Rabbi Chanina ben Doso in
whose merit the whole world is sustained. The traveller the
Kohen Godol has in mind is an ordinary Jew, or even a
peddler peddling his wares during the week who does not
daven with a minyan, is faced with many trials
and sometimes on Fridays towards the evening, finding himself
far from the nearest town, will convince himself that it is
permitted to travel on after Shabbos has come in, even if
there is no danger to life involved. A Kohen Godol,
who may be a great tzaddik, after having prayed for
rain during the coming year needs to add a special prayer to
nullify the effect of the prayer of this peddler!
This is the power of heartfelt prayer! It has immense
potential.
When a person knows and feels that besides HaKodosh Boruch
Hu there is no one who can help him, his prayer is
accepted. The roaming peddler, travelling with his wares,
when the sky becomes overcast, having nowhere to stay with
himself and his goods about to become drenched, offers a
prayer from the depths of his heart which may overpower the
ordinary prayer of a Kohen Godol. That is why the
Kohen Godol has to add a special prayer to counteract
the prayer of travelers regarding rain, even after having
already requested rain and parnossoh.
Furthermore, the mishna in Makkos (11a) says that if
the Kohen Godol dies, the person who killed
inadvertently leaves the city of refuge and returns home.
Therefore, mothers of kohanim gedolim would provide
food and clothes for them (the murderers), in order that they
should not pray for their sons' death. The gemora
(ibid.) says that others read in the mishna "in
order that they might pray for their sons not to die." We see
from this gemora that the lives of the Kohanim
Gedolim are truly in danger, and they are dependent on
the prayers of inadvertent murderers.
The implications of this mishna are astounding, since
it is not only referring to those kohanim gedolim who,
during the period of the second Beis Hamikdosh, bought
their way into office, but also to totally righteous ones. Is
it possible that tzaddikim need the prayers of
inadvertent murderers in order not to die or to continue to
live?
The difficulty is compounded when we consider the following
gemora in Makkos (10b): " `And if a man lie not
in wait, but Hashem cause it to come to hand; then I will
appoint for you a place to where he may flee'(Shemos
21:13) and, `as the proverb of the ancients says, out of the
wicked comes forth wickedness; but my hand shall not be upon
you' (Shmuel I 24:13).
"Of whom does the posuk [in Shemos] speak? Of
two people who had slain, one in error and one with intent,
there being no witnesses in either case. HaKodosh Boruch
Hu appoints them both to meet at the same inn; he who had
slain with intent sits under the stepladder and he who had
slain in error comes down the stepladder, falls and kills
him. Thus, he who had slain with intent is slain, while he
who had slain in error goes into exile."
The Kohen Godol's life is dependent on the prayers of
such a person: someone who has killed twice, albeit
inadvertently, but the Torah still calls him a
rotzei'ach, a wicked person willing to do evil! The
heartfelt prayer of this twofold murderer has a tremendous
effect. This person was forced to leave his home environment,
and even though beis din is obliged to provide him
with whatever he needs to live, it is only to be expected
that life in the ir miklat will not be as comfortable
as his existence at home. Because of this we fear that he may
pray for the Kohen Godol to die, or that he may
neglect to pray that he should live, and that is why mothers
of kohanim gedolim have to make sure that the
rotzei'ach is well provided for, to ensure that their
sons not be endangered.
We can see clearly from this example that prayer can be
effective regardless of whether the person praying is a great
personality asking for sublime things to take place, an
ordinary person making an everyday request, or even a
criminal, who has to some extent lost his divine image and
requests a change in the natural course of events in order to
harm illustrious people. If any of these prayers stem from
the innermost recesses of the heart, they may be accepted.
[An additional note by Rav Bruk's son, Rav Avraham Moshe: The
gemora says in Gittin 57a: "Through a cock and
a hen Tur Malka was destroyed... they went and reported to
the Emperor that the Jews were rebelling, and he marched
against them. There came against them Bar Daroma who was able
to jump a mile, and slaughtered them. The Emperor took his
crown and placed it on the ground, saying, Master of all the
world, may it please you not to deliver me and my kingdom
into the hands of one man." The Emperor's prayer was
accepted, and Bar Daroma was tripped up by his own utterance
and was killed by a snake. We see from this gemora
that the power of tefilloh is so great, that even the
prayer of a non-Jew who wants to destroy us chas
vesholom is accepted if it is a heartfelt prayer.]
During the period we are currently in HaKodosh Boruch
Hu is close to us, for it is about this period that the
novi proclaims, "Seek Hashem while He may be found,
call upon Him while He is near." We must utilize the coming
days during which Hashem becomes close to whoever calls Him
earnestly to pray to the Creator that the King who desires
life may seal our names in the books of the totally
righteous, that we may merit a year of success and progress
in Torah and yiras Shomayim, blessings, peace and
everything good seloh.
This essay is from a talk by HaRav Chaim Eliezer Ben-Zion
Bruk zt"l who was menahel of Yeshivas Novardok
Beis Yosef, Yerushalayim. His yahrtzeit falls on 14
Tishrei. It was edited by his son, Rav Avraham Moshe Bruk
shlita.
