Aggadot from Hamivtar

by
Rabbi Yitzchak Blau

Praying in Ruins and Praying on the Way

R. Yossi said: I was once traveling on a road and I stopped in one of the ruins of Jerusalem to pray. Eliyahu zakhur li'tov came and guarded the door until I completed my payers. When I had finished...he said to me: "my child. Why did you go into a ruin?" I said: "To pray." He said: "You should have prayed on the road." I said: "I was afraid that those passing by would interrupt my prayers." He said: "You should have davened a shorter prayer." ... He said: "What sound did you hear in the ruin?" I answered "I heard a heavenly voice that coos longingly like a dove and says 'Woe to the children whose sins caused me to destroy my temple.. and exile them among the nations'." He said: "By your life, not only now does it say this but three times daily and not only then but every time that the Jews enter a shul or beit medrash and answer 'May God's great name be blessed" [we say this in kaddish], God shakes his head and says: 'Fortunate is the king who is praised like this in His house. Woe to the father who exiled his children and woe to the children who were exiled from their father's table." (Berakhot 3a)

Rav Kook, in his Ein Ayah, understands this gemara as emphasizing the dwindling stature and influence of the Jewish people when they are driven into exile. According to his reading, the gemara expresses this in ascending order. First, the great individuals such as R. Yose have seen their influence become limited. Thus, his presence in the ruin inspires a heavenly voice of sadness. Secondly, service of God as manifest in prayer and sacrifice has been diminished by the absence of the temple. Therefore, the voice of longing can be heard three times daily, corresponding to the three daily tefilot. Finally, all of religious life has been negatively affected. Indeed, every performance of mizvot brings forth a voice that mourns the exile.

I saw a beautiful alternative understanding in a work called HaSippur HaMIniatouri by Yair Barkai. He explains that R. Yossi and Eliyahu represent two contrasting religious approaches. Following the second temple's destruction, R. Yossi sees religious life as being predominantly about mourning the past. This is why he prays in the ruins of Jerusalem and hears a voice that is only woe. Eliyahu comes to remind him that mourning the past is crucial but building for the future is even more important. This is symbolized in his preferring a prayer on a way, a road going somewhere. Eliyahu later refers to a prayer in the future tense that God's name be made great because he directs R. Yossi towards the future. The last heavenly voice mentioned includes both focusing on the positive accomplishments of the here and now as well as on the negative losses of the past.

Barkai's reading has special resonance for me and perhaps for every Jew in the century following the Shoah. When Rabbi Berel Wein eulogized my grandfather, Rabbi Pinhas Teitz, Rabbi Wein recalled his own thoughts as a yeshiva student in the 1950's. He said that all the European rabbonim spoke of the world that was but only Rabbi Teitz spoke of the world that could be. Without denying the significance of memory and mourning, the bulk of our energy must always be directed towards anticipation and building.