Effacement & Elevation
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
The Torah is setting the scene for the second phase of the foundation for Am Yisroel. Eliezer is returning with the designated bride for Yitzchak. As they near home, they notice Yitzchak. He has come from Be’er Lachai Roee l’es erev lasuach basadeh. The simple translation – Yitzchak was taking an early evening stroll in the field from Be’er Lachai Roee. Rivkah sees a man with outstretched arms, seemingly taking in the crisp evening air. She asks who it is and, upon learning that it is her intended Yitzchak, she slips off her camel and covers herself with her veil.
The details here beg to be understood. Perhaps the most significant interpretation of the details of this entire episode is that Yitzchak here established the afternoon prayer, Minchah, and how the other details support and enhance this interpretation.
First, while lasuach can be translated as taking a stroll, it is also used several times to mean conversation, speech. It is this definition that gives rise to the interpretation that Yitzchak established the afternoon prayer. But this raises an additional question: Shacharit, the Morning Prayer, is named for shachar/morning/dawn; Maariv, the Evening Prayer, is named for erev, evening. Why is this prayer not named for the time of day? And if we say that it is named for the future Minchah offering in the Beit Hamikdosh, that offering was part of both the morning and the evening ritual.
Rabbi Wolbe zt”l explains that siach is a less formal form of prayer, more of a conversation, or, as the Sifsei Daas explains, of nullifying oneself, losing oneself in prayer in a desire to make a connection with Hashem rather than to make personal requests. Our focus is on Hashem rather than on ourselves.
Connecting to Hashem would be beyond our capability had not our Patriarchs paved the way. Each of the three daily prayers is associated with one of our Patriarchs based on the particular way he served Hashem, writes Rabbi Reiss in Meirosh Tzurim. So Avraham Avinu who rose early to serve Hashem established the Morning Prayer, when the world begins to be filled with light and hope. Yitzchak expanded on the work of Avraham Avinu. Yitzchak was so successful in the material realm, for example, that the Plishtim were jealous of him. But within that plenty, one must recognize that it all comes from Hashem. One must maintain that connection even on the brightest day. In contrast, Yaakov Avinu’s life is filled with darkness, with endless challenges. Yet Yaakov finds a way to connect to Hashem in the darkest night, while sleeping on a rock. Avraham is connected through chesed, Yaakov is connected through emes/truth.
Approaching the akeidah, Avraham Avinu saw Hashem bamakom, at a specific place and time. Yaakov, too, recognized that Hashem was bamakom, in this specific place. Yitzchak connected with Hashem in the general abundance of the brightest day, circumscribing possible hubris, din, and attributing it all to Hashem. In the midst of the plenty, of the brightest day, don’t forget Hashem. As Rabbi Parness points out, it is Hashem Who enables us so that our efforts are successful.
The first time we come across the word siach is during creation, when all the siach hasadeh/ grasses of the field had not yet sprouted, for Man had not yet been created. What is the connection between these grasses and prayer? Rabbi Lopiansky explains that these are bushes that grow with no effort. While dibur and amira are also translated as speech, sichah is different. Dibur and amira are purposeful speech, while siach is more comfortable chatting. While Shacharit and Arvit are both time limited, Minchah can be observed all afternoon.
But that does not mean Minchah is less important than the other two daily prayers. On the contrary, Minchah time is the most propitious time for prayer, when prayers are most likely to be answered. It was Minchah time that Eliyahu’s prayers on Har Carmel were answered; Yitzchak lifted his eyes, and there was his bride.
Avraham’s prayers are answered through Hashem’s chesed, whether or not we are deserving. After all, the world’s foundation is chesed. But din/judgment asks how can I approach Hashem when I am not deserving? That is what is meant by pachad Yitzchak, the dread of Yitzchak, writes Rabbi Lopiansky. When Yitzchak approached Hashem, he felt as if dead, for indeed he had been burned and died on the altar, whether physically, as some commentators maintain, symbolically. There was no “I,” no ego in Yitzchak’s prayers. In complete self effacement, his prayer said, “I deserve nothing, I am just unburdening myself to You, having a conversation.” This is prayer through the lens of judgment, Yitzchak’s main characteristic. It is sharing my soul with You, without expectation.
Rabbi Lopiansky understands this humble stance of prayer from Tehillim 101, “A prayer for the afflicted one, when he wraps himself [covers himself in humility] and pours forth his sichah, his supplication before Hashem.” This is the prayer of Minchah, when self and ego are erased. When I appear before Hashem incognito, without expectation of recognition.
Yitzchak went out, left the mindset of self to be lost in the open spaces of self effacement. His arms were outstretched in a posture of surrender. When Rivkah witnesses this, she alights from the camel, covers herself with her veil, matching the self effacement she was witnessing. And where is Yitzchak coming from? From Be’er Lachai Roee where even Hagar who had defied her mistress Sarah saw angels and had her prayers answered, a place of constant prayer, even for the undeserving. As the Ramban zt”l points out, it was a powerful place to prepare for prayer.
It is important to enter prayer in the proper mindset, with preparation. Remove distractions from your mind by waiting a short time, writes Rabbi Pincus. This time brings you closer and ready to encounter the King, teaches Rabbi Pincus. Without preparation, one is standing at a distance from Hashem. [You need to shout to be heard. CKS] When you prepare, you are standing close to Him. [He can hear you even in whispered prayer.] Yitzchak was on such a high spiritual level that he saw angels everywhere. Why did he go to Be’er Lachai Roee? Rav Dessler zt”l notes that going to this place reminded him that, although he felt undeserving, this was the place anyone could pray to Hashem and be heard, as did Hagar even as she was an idol worshiper.
In this context, we can understand why this prayer is called Minchah. Rabbi Bick zt”l tells us that in the time of the Beit Hamikdosh the people brought many offerings, generally of an animal. However, a poor man could not afford an animal, so he would bring a minchah offering of flour and oil. We are approaching Hashem with the humility of a poor man, and all we can offer is this humble prayer..
It is important to recognize Hashem’s continuing chesed to all of creation. Rabbi Mordechai Schwab zt”l would look out the window and observe a large tree before beginning Shemoneh Esrei. When Rabbi Weiss finally asked him why, Rabbi Schwab explained that by observing the tree’s structure, how the upper leaves and branches were more spread out to allow the sun to reach the lower branches, he recognized Hashem’s chesed to all of creation. With this inspiration, he felt he could approach Hashem.
Rabbi Mintzberg zt”l approaches our discussion from a completely different perspective. According to the Abarbanel zt”l Yitzchak is taking a stroll in the field. He is checking on his siach, his plantings. How abundant they were. Yitzchak is expanding and adding dimension to Avraham’s work. Avraham and Yaakov were mostly shepherds. Yitzchak was also a farmer. When he sees his abundant crop, he prays and thanks Hashem for His chesed.
Ohel Yehoshua takes us on a sweet interpretation. Erev is also sometimes translated as sweet. [Veha’arev na… Make the words of the Torah be sweet…] As it says in Tehillim 34:13, “Which man desires life? ...Who sees good.” Yitzchak went out to the field to see the good, away from the mundane to embrace the truly sweet, to commune with the absolute Good. And while this pursuit is commendable, one should not so immerse himself in this that he divorces himself from the physical world. The world may be vanity of vanities, [or as Rabbi Sacks interprets it, as ephemeral as a breath, CKS], but the material and the physical are meant to be used and to elevate it to enhance the spiritual. Yitzchak goes out to the field, he is able to use the physical field and elevate it to a place of service to Hashem.
Rivkah noticed Yitzchak’s posture, his outstretched hands indicating a man of action even when he was involved in prayer, writes Rabbi Rogow zt”l. Yitzchak could integrate both physical action and spiritual prayer toward Hashem.
Yitzchak designated Be’er Lachai Roee as a place of prayer because he recognized this place as the proof that even when we do not perceive Hashem in the physical world, Hashem sees everyone’s pain, even that of a lowly maidservant, writes Rabbi Wolbe. And it is this recognition that we carry with us in this long and painful golus.
In truth, all the world is filled with Hashem’s presence. The physical world was meant to help us come closer to Hashem. Rav Dessler clarifies this idea. Adam recognized that the only reality is spiritual, and the physical is only a covering that conceals the spirituality within. But Adam, with his sin, debased the field so that it became filled with thorns. The yetzer horo entered mankind so that we live in a world of concealment where we tend to think that we are in control, that it is “my strength” that created this wealth. Yitzchak walked the field in the spirit of sanctity it was meant to convey. Rivkah’s response in seeing Yitzchak was to cover herself, to conceal her physicality, indicating that she understood the message.
What was the timing of Adam’s sin? Lev Tahor based on the Abudraham explains that the Torah says Adam was created on the sixth day, and it was leruach hayom/towards evening that he sinned. Onkeles translates that into Aramaic as leminach yoma. Yitzchak’s going into the physical field and praying there would be the rectification of Adam’s sin. The prayer therefore is called Minchah. And the Zohar adds that le’ais erev of the sixth day, towards evening, refers to the sixth millennia, our current time period. [We are now in the year 5787.] This is the millennium of ikvisa deMeshichah, when we anticipate the footsteps of Moshiach. Yitzchak’s prayer is for our time, to silence the accusatory forces.
Rabbi Bick tells us that before Yitzchak was to marry Rivkah, Hashem showed Yitzchak all that would happen in those later times. In that era, the entire world will be full of insolence and disrespect. Yitzchak’s prayer is trying to counter that insolence with his humility so that, as Isaiah 14:3 says, On that day there will be menuchah, rest.
Like our Avos, each of whom prayed in his own way and his own time, so does each of us create our own connection to Hakodosh Boruch Hu in our own way. As Hashem answered Yitzchak, who, according to medrash, was praying for his proper wife, may Hashem answer all our prayers letovah, quickly, for the good and for the sweet.