פרשת מטות מסעי וענייני תפילה
This week’s Parsha tells us how Hashem commanded the Jewish people to go out and do battle against the Middianites in recompense for the underhanded way in which they tried to wipe out the Jewish people by seducing them with their daughters. The verse says that each tribe was commanded to supply 1,000 soldiers in order to form the army of 12,000 young men that would take on the people of Middian. However there is an interesting Midrash which says that although the verse indeed gives the number of 1,000, in fact, the commandment was to supply 3,000 men per tribe to give the army a total of 36,000 soldiers. Nonetheless the verse is correct in that not all of these men were sent to actually fight in the army. The Midrash explains this discrepancy by saying that out of each tribal set of 3,000, 1,000 were meant to fight, 1,000 were meant to be the arms bearers, and 1,000 were sent for no other reason than to pray for the soldiers who were in battle.
However this Midrash requires a bit of explanation. Was it really necessary for the ratio of Daveners to be 1:1? Was it not possible to have one Davener per every 10 or even one hundred soldiers? Furthermore, the Midrash implies that the Daveners also went into the battlefield with all the soldiers. Was this really essential? Could they not have prayed just as well by staying in the camp with the rest of the Jews? After all, God is everywhere!
In order to explain this cryptic Midrash, perhaps we could invoke the famous words of R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz. R’ Chaim explains that true prayer can only be generated if one can feel deep empathy for his fellow that he is praying for. Without this key ingredient, the prayer will never be genuinely heartfelt. This is why although Hashem is everywhere the praying Jews needed to be located on the battlefield, witnessing in live color everything that their brothers were experiencing. Only then could they effectively pray for the brothers at arms. This also answers our difficulty as to why the ratio of 1:1 was necessary. That way, each Jew who was Davening felt personally responsible for his brother at arms and would be sure to pray for his life with great fervor. Parenthetically, R’ Chaim gave this talk during a time in which there was a war going on in Israel, and he added uncharacteristically sharp words of rebuke to the boys who fled Israel for other havens of peace around the world with the promise that they would Daven for their brothers in Israel. R’ Chaim explained that we have instruction from the Torah not to flee at such a time and to make it a point to be keenly aware of what our brothers are going through at any given time. Perhaps we could add that during the time we find ourselves in right before Tisha Ba’av, our prayers for the return of our Temple will certainly be more effective if we can say them while contemplating and making real to ourselves the tremendous loss that we have suffered and to vividly imagine what Klal Yisrael would look like if we had that relationship with Hashem. One way to do this is to recite these prayers at or near the place where the Temple used to stand.
The famous Mashgiach, R’ Chazkal Levenstein offers a slightly different possibility. R’ Chazkal says that there is a very strong nature in a person to believe in the forces of nature that surround him constantly. For example, when we take medication, we believe that this makes the headache disappear and we have scientific evidence to back this theory up. However, the Torah wishes to teach us that this is not the case and that although Hashem chooses to run the world with a certain order, in the final analysis, things only work by the direct intervention of God. This is why the Jews needed to send 1,000 Daveners, one for each soldier, and they needed to be located specifically on the battlefield. This was to be the battling soldier’s constant “in your face” reminder that his success was directly dependant on his “personal” Davener, lest he ever make the dreadful mistake that he would be responsible for his own victory or success. R’ Chazkal concluded by saying that this belief in nature is so strongly entrenched in a person’s psyche, that Chazal had to take extreme measures in order to attempt to uproot it. This is why Chazal instituted that every Jew must recite 100 blessings a day, in order to remind him at every turn that his success or failure is directly dependant on Hashem. Similarly, Chazal composed constant prayers for us during the course of our day. The Gemorah says that if one wishes to take a pill, he should first recite, “May it be Your will that this pill heals me”. This is also why a person prays three times a day. All of these institutions are tactics to train a person and continuously drill into him the idea that Hashem runs the world in every way.
I would just like to conclude with the words of the Sefer, “Bilvavi Mishkan”, a book written fairly recently by a man who is a great Tzadik and excels in his fear of Heaven. He writes that if a person internalizes this idea, he will be literally “living with Hashem” on a daily basis. A person should therefore choose to discuss every decision that he makes with Hashem first, and pray to Hashem for his success in that transaction, and he will inevitably develop a deep and profound relationship with his Creator. When he drives anywhere in his car, he should pray to God that he should return home safely. When he needs to do business, he should pray that his ventures should be successful. When he needs to purchase something, he should pray that Hashem should help him to make a good purchase. This kind of attitude will bring God into one’s life at every level and will allow him to develop a very unique relationship indeed.
May Hashem help us to pray for every Jew in Klal Yisroel with great empathy, and to realize His greatness by way of these prayers as well!