Thoughts on Supplication (Va’eschanan #2)

This week’s Torah portion starts with the word va’eschanan, which, in English, translates to “And I supplicated.” (Also translated as to seek concession and to entreat)

Supplication. It’s a powerful word. Awkward, a bit, in modern English; Perhaps because in 21^stcentury Western society, with no true authoritarian figure to respectfully fear, we rarely find ourselves in need of supplication. In Hebrew, however, it is a particularly beautiful word. As Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch notes: “Chanan is granting, conceding. Chen is to be worthy of concession. Hitchanen is to seek concession for one’s self, to make one’s self worthy of concession…It is a reflexive action on one’s own inner self in connection with God to make it worthy of His being kindly disposed to grant.”  

In Hebrew the verb to pray is l’hitpallel…another reflexive verb. It is taught that proper tefillah is composed of three elements 1. praise, 2. request, and 3. gratitude. As I thought about the name of this week’s parsha, I was struck by the thought that, of these three elements of prayer, proper request is often the most challenging. That may sound strange since it is often noted how people most frequently turn to God only in their times of need. But how many of us actually know how to really voice our requests, how to make one’s concession worthy of “His being kindly disposed to grant [it].”

Praise and gratitude are challenging in that one must determine the difference between the two. One may appreciate (praise) the beauty of the sky and also express gratitude for how the sun gives warmth. The desire to praise Hashem is fueled by the awareness that the power of creation is just so awesome and life is full of reasons to be thankful to Hashem.

Requests, however, are sometimes difficult. Hebrew has a lot of words for asking: l’shoal, l’vakesh, l’hazmin, but l’hitchonen is asking something from a much deeper place in one’s soul. This is what one should be striving for.

Nevertheless, it is easy to struggle to get beyond a shallow level of request. How does one actually supplicate? Perhaps it is east to get stuck at basic asking - although the hard truth is that more often we end up alluding to the problem and assuming that Hashem knows what we mean. Afterall, if Hashem is omniscient, then heHe already knows what we each need, so why are we bothering Him? More than that, if Hashem put a person into whatever situation is bothering them, isn’t it so that they should grow from dealing with it or because it is a situation that He knows they can handle? This attitude prevents one from reaching the proper level of reflection necessary to reach the point of l’hitchonen, to entreat Hashem from the bottom of one’s heart, opening one’s self up to be judged as to what He really wants from us and will do for us.

For all of the significance of the word va’eschanan, one might argue that Moshe’s tefillah to which he is referring (the desire to go into the Promised Land) was refused. In a commentary based on Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchik, I found the following interesting explanation: “When he was told that he would not enter Eretz Yisrael, Moshe pleaded for forgiveness. Had the people joined him in prayer, the Holy One would have been forced to respond. But they did not join. Thus we read that with tears in his eyes Moshe tells them ‘Va’eschanan,’ I prayed alone. ….It was not the fault of Am Yisrael that Moshe made a mistake. But had the people possessed the sensitivity and love for Moshe similar to that love that Moshe felt for them, they would have torn the decree into shreds…”

The difference between va’eschanen and va’nischanen (we plural) is significant. We are a people that is a brotherhood. When one Jew suffers, we must all feel that pain.

I thought about these ideas as I was settling in after a long drive returning from the Bike4 Chai, in which my husband was one of over 500 amazing riders who biked 180 miles to raise money for Chai Lifeline’s Camp Simcha. They raised over $10 million by asking people to open their hearts and their wallets.  How much power the Jewish community has to make a difference in the world! Imagine how much more we could do if we out that same focus into supplicating, and not just asking, Hashem for everything we need.