Parashat Chayah Sarah: Prayers- Self-confidence, acceptance and despair
Our nation’s three daily prayers are among the important legacies we received from the fathers of the nation.
By RABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ‘IN EVERY situation, in any state we’re in, we can open our hearts and talk to our Creator.’ ((photo credit: PXHERE)
In this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, we read about the passing in old age of Sarah and of Abraham, and their burial in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. We thus part from the first father of the Jewish nation, Avraham Avinu, and from the first mother, Sarah Imenu. Despite the fact that they lived more than 3,500 years ago, their legacy has remained. It continued to flourish with their offspring Isaac, and then Jacob, and then his 12 sons and their descendants, reaching all the way to us.Our nation’s three daily prayers are among the important legacies we received from the fathers of the nation.Abraham composed the morning prayer, Shacharit; Isaac composed the afternoon prayer, Mincha; and Jacob composed the evening prayer, Maariv/Arvit (Babylonian Talmud, Brachot, 26).These three prayers express three different stances of man’s before God, and together they create the legacy of the three fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Each of them composed a prayer that represented his own unique state – and the three combined have shaped the Jewish worldview since then.Shacharit is said early in the morning. A person is facing a day of activity, rushed or relaxed, predictable or unexpected. First, he prays a prayer that precedes all activity. According to Halacha (Jewish law), no activity should be done before prayer. Actually, as soon it is possible, a person should communicate with his Creator and pray before Him in anticipation of the coming day. The prayer does not make human activity unnecessary. It leaves a full day in which a person has to make decisions and carry them out.It isn’t surprising that the Shacharit prayer was composed by Abraham. He was a man who lived his whole life searching. He did not rest or rely on anyone. He embarked on journeys, battled, purchased lands and spread his faith. Abraham was an active person, the “founding father” of the nation. Abraham’s prayer is the one that leaves us with great potential for action. In contrast, the person who composed the Mincha prayer as evening approaches was Isaac.Isaac added another layer to prayer. Shacharit invites the person to begin a full day of activities. But when the day is coming to a close, this is when we must examine if the day turned out as we had planned. Did we make the right choices? Did we implement decisions we had made? Did we succeed in what we tried to do? The answers are not always simple, and often make us feel uncomfortable.Mincha is recited before sundown, as the day is about to end. This is when a person turns toward God in a prayer different from that of the morning. If the morning prayer is recited with a sense of confidence as we face the new day, Mincha is said with a sense of acceptance, as we internalize that we are limited in our scope of success. This prayer was composed by Isaac, the Jewish nation’s second father. A considerable part of his life was limited and reliant on the grace of his family. Isaac’s legacy is a prayer of acceptance of our limitations and the expression of the fact that God leads man and supports him in every situation.Jacob’s prayer is Maariv/Arvit, said at night. This is the prayer composed out of despair, in darkness. It expresses a person’s cry when he loses self-confidence. A person discovers how deep darkness can be and how difficult reality can be. When Jacob was in the midst of a frightened escape from his brother, facing the unknown, and thick darkness enveloped him, he remembered he had an address he could turn to for help. He turned to God and created the third prayer of the day.These three prayers represent the three existential states in which a person turns to God. Every day, when we pray these three prayers, we express our faith that in every situation, in any state we’re in, we can open our hearts and talk to our Creator.The writer is rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites.
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