Have you ever wondered where in Shemoneh Esrei we pray to be blessed with children?
I was recently speaking to a talmid of the great Gaon, Rav Zvi Kushelevsky — who remarkably was blessed with his only child at the age of eighty-eight — and asked him if he ever inquired of his Rebbe where in davening he requested for this blessing.
He told me that indeed he did and his Rebbe said in the blessing of Refaeinu.
At first, it seemed odd to me that this was the appropriate place to daven for children.
But as it was the week of the portion we read with the miraculous birth of Yitzchok — the link to the eternity of the Jewish nation through all his progeny, something suddenly struck me.
When Avimelech abducts the beautiful Sarah after Avraham introduced her simply as his sister rather than his wife — fearing they would kill him were they to know she was his wife — Avimelech, his household and people were stricken with the closing off of all bodily orifices, unable to relieve themselves or give birth.
G-d admonished Avimelech telling him he would only be cured when Avraham prayed for them.
Avraham did indeed pray and they were relieved.
The very next verse records the birth of Yitzchok, with the Talmud deriving from this juxtaposition, "If someone prays for mercy on behalf of another when he himself needs that very same thing, he will be answered first."
The Torah clearly states, ויתפלל אברהם — Avraham prayed to G-d, וירפא — and G-d healed Avimelech, his wife, and his maids, וילדו — and they [gave birth] were relieved.
Although he was ostensibly praying they be cured from the sudden illness that G-d cast upon them, he was also answered with the birth of a child, which the Talmud asserts were the 'very same need'.
What is the correlation between these two — the curing an illness and meriting the birth of a child?
The Midrash points out, in the name of Rebbe Chama bar Rebbe Chanina, that this is the very first time this specific expression of ויתפלל — and he prayed, appears in the Torah. (ב"ר נב יג)
This is worthy of attention as in the teachings of the Gra and Rav Tzadok it is stated that if one seeks the essence of any word, one should examine where it first appears in Torah to mine its depth.
The Midrash adds: "Now that Avraham davened, הותר הקשר — the knot was loosened.
What knot is it referring to?
In the famous commentary on Midrash of Rav Zev Wolf of Horodna, the Pirush Maharz"u, he explains:
The language of תפלה is rooted in the verse where Rachel describes her efforts to procure an additional child her through her maidservant Bilhah, נפתולי לאלקים נפתלתי — which Rashi interprets as an expression of "perverse and crooked [entangled] (וּפְתַלְתֹּל)." "I have stubbornly pleaded many tortuous pleas to the Omnipresent to be equal to my sister."
וגם יכולתי — an intimation of תפלה, "and my requests beloved to Him were accepted on my behalf, and I was answered like my sister."
These are both true. G-d created a world and man that was ישר — straight, however due to the sin of man, that which was straight became crooked and complicated.
Prayer straightens that which became complex. Although initially Rachel encountered through providence a seemingly entangled situation, through prayer she loosened the strands, bringing the former 'knot' to untie and return to its original state of ישר — uprightness.
The word תפלה — prayer, sharing the same letters as the word פתלתול — twisted, indicates its purpose to right the world from its tortuous state to natural upright, uncomplicated nature.
G-d created man to operate and function with precision and perfection. Were we to stick to the original plan journeying on the 'straight path' there would be no illness, no barrenness, no pain of childbirth, and we would thrive in our closeness to G-d and his word.
But we deviated from the plan, making things complicated by submitting to our personal interests that were counter to the will of G-d. The relationship between Adam and Chava became entangled by the influence of the serpent/the evil inclination that had us at odds with one another as we each pursued our selfish interests.
That perfect enmeshment of body and soul that formerly offered us a seamless and frictionless existence was now marred by contention, a deterioration of our lifeforce that necessitated the challenges of overcoming death, illness, and painful endurance as we travel through life and its challenges seeking to bring ourselves back to our former state of perfection.
When we devote ourselves to prayer, we take a step away from the entangled world of challenges, placing ourselves in our 'upright' natural state, striving to regain that straightness, submitting our instincts and interests to serving G-d purely and selflessly.
It is at that moment that we hope to be granted what we need to restore ourselves closer to the original goal, thus meriting His blessing.
The Zohar states that when Avraham asked Sarah to assert אחותי את — You are my sister, it wasn't merely a practical coverup to save him from death, but a reiteration of their perfectly synced relationship. A sister is called אחות which literally translates as unifier, for as opposed to a wife which intimates a chosen bond, a sister implies an inherent connection. A wife can be divorced; a sister remains part of me eternally.
It was Avraham's intention to reassert their elevated state of being in the image of that former perfect relationship of Adam and Chava before the sin.
It also alludes to our intrinsic relationship with G-d Who calls us, אחותי רעיתי — My sister my beloved. (שה"ש ה ב)
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov teaches that when woman was created the Torah describes how she was formed from אחת מצלעתיו — one of his sides, so that the single human being became two, demonstrating the irrefutable equality of man and human. (RSRH)
אַחַת /אַחֹת , two sides of the same coin.
When one returns to that realm the world becomes straightened.
The root of the word רפואה — healing, is ר-פ-א related to רפה — to loosen.
In the world of medicine, it is the attempt through the science of healing to remove the tension and imbalance in our bodies, restoring its free-flowing natural state.
In the world of spiritual healing, it's the untangling of our twisted attitudes and straightening our posture to be in sync with the will of G-d, living closer to a world where illness, barrenness, and death are foreign to our natural selves.
May we each affect a total cure for all our illnesses, by loosening up and standing straight before G-d. It’s the natural way to go.
באהבה,
צבי יהודה טייכמאן
