Prayer is central to the spiritual life of the individual Jew and the religious life of the Jewish community. It’s not surprising, then, that, according to the Midrash, the Torah uses ten different expressions to denote praying. In our parasha, Moses pleads with God to rescind His earlier decree and allow him to enter the Promised Land. His prayer, the Rabbis tell us, was of a particular type; it fell exclusively within the category of tachanunim (supplications).
Both the word “tachanun” and the name of our parasha, Va’etchanan (“I pleaded”) derive from the Hebrew word “chen,” referring to God’s graciousness and mercy. Unsure of the merits of his case, Moses appeals to the Divine attribute of compassion and grace. That is why he addresses God as Adonai Elohim (“O Lord God”). In Rabbinic tradition, the name Adonai refers to the attribute of compassion, while Elohim denotes the quality of judgment. Moses, by invoking both names, admits that on the basis of strict justice, his plea might well be rejected by God. He is prepared to rely on Divine grace and compassion in order to receive a positive answer.
Because Parshat Va’etchanan begins with Moses’ account of his plea to God, and because Moses refers in Deuteronomy 4:7 to God’s nearness “whenever we call upon Him,” most of the homilies on this portion in the Midrash Rabbah relate to the theme of prayer. The Rabbis admonish us that prayer is more than merely petitioning God to fulfill our personal needs. Our obligation to pray is fulfilled only when our worship includes praise of the Almighty.
Rabbi Barry Marks comments: “The ultimate sin in the Torah’s eyes is idolatry, resulting from the desire to make the Divine more accessible. In ancient times, idolatry usually involved fashioning a tangible image. The god or goddess often represented qualities to which the worshiper aspired or blessings for which he hoped – victory in battle, health, wealth or fertility.
In modern times, idolatry means not the worship of a graven image but the elevation of an idea – state, nation, class– or of a desired but limited “good” status, power, wealth – into an absolute that usurps the primary allegiance we owe to God. Idols, the Midrash warns, may appear to be close, but their nearness is deceptive, because praying to them is ultimately futile. God seems by contrast to be so far away from us, yet it is God and only God Who is truly close “whenever we call upon Him.” Even if our prayer is “hirhur ha-lev”, an unspoken meditation of the heart, God is there to listen to us.
The climactic passage in Va’etchanan is the Sh’ma (Deut. 6:4), with its command to love God “with all your soul.” According to the Midrash, the soul within the body resembles the relationship of God to the universe: God is singular and unique within the universe, sustains it and fills it with the Divine presence, remains ever alert and awake, and sees but is not seen. The human soul likewise does not sleep, sustains and pervades the body, sees but remains itself invisible. Contemplating the qualities of the soul, we understand how God can be invisible and yet close at hand. We recognize within ourselves a spark of the Divine, and we come to view the essence of prayer not as petition but as praise of and communion with God.”
Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim
