Piercing the Heavens

More than 20 years ago, the hanhalah of the Ponevezher Yeshivah in Bnei Brak realized that there simply wasn’t enough place in the large beis medrash to seat all the talmidim and all those who wished to daven in the yeshivah during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It was suggested to place a dividing partition in the middle of the women’s section and use one half to seat the youngest talmidim. While this would mean that some of the women who davened in the yeshivah in the past would be unable to do so this year, the gabba’im felt that the talmidim of the yeshivah had precedence.

When the Rosh Yeshivah, Hagaon Harav Elazar Schach, zt”l, was consulted about the proposal, he replied that he wished to think it over. Later, he sent for the gabbai and informed him in no uncertain terms that he was opposed to the idea.

Rav Schach pointed out that young married women with children generally don’t find it possible to daven in the yeshivah during the Yamim Nora’im, and it was mostly older women, single girls and married women waiting to be blessed with children who would fill the ezras nashim each year.  Among them, he said, were women and girls with shattered hearts who shed copious tears and uttered tefillos that pierced the very Heavens.

“The entire yeshivah needs their tefillos,” Rav Schach explained. “How can we prevent them from davening in the yeshivah?”

In shuls and homes throughout the globe, Jews will be uttering stirring tefillos this Rosh Hashanah, desperately pleading for ­parnassah, for shidduchim, for children, for a refuah sheleimah, and for a long list of other pressing matters. Some will allow the tears in their eyes to fall; others will seemingly keep their emotions in check, knowing that the Ribbono shel Olam is well aware of the searing pain in their hearts. What is vital for all of us to realize is how these heartfelt pleas help elevate the tefillos of all of Klal Yisrael.

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There is a moving passuk in Tehillim (42:1) that reads “K’ayal taarog al afikei mayim … — As the deer longs for brooks of water, so my soul longs for You, Elokim.”

The meforshim note that the word “ayal” refers to a male deer, while the word “taarog” is feminine. A fascinating explanation is offered by Harav Yitzchak of Sambir, zy”a.

When there is shortage of water, the other animals turn to the deer, known as the ayalah, and ask her to daven to Hashem on their behalf. Chazal also tell us that during birthing, the ayalah endures great hardship and much pain.

What happens when these two scenarios come together, and the other creatures approach the ayalah to ask her to daven for water just as she is suffering agonizing pain?

She puts aside her own circumstances and becomes like an ayal — a male deer, that doesn’t suffer these pains – and davens for the desperately needed water.

So, too, the passuk says, my soul longs for You, Elokim. It puts aside all its own struggles and concerns and longs only for You, Hashem, and is mispallel for the Shechinah that is in exile and the Kvod Shamayim that is being desecrated.

This Rosh Hashanah, multitudes of Jews will emulate this lofty level of selflessness and put aside their own worries and anguish to daven for friends, neighbors and even total strangers whose names they saw on a Tehillim list.  As they focus on the words of the tefillos, they will rise above their own challenging circumstances and plead for the day when the entire world will recognize the dominion of Hashem, and beseech Hakadosh Baruch Hu for the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash.

We will not be alone. The Chasam Sofer teaches us that the souls of our departed ancestors join us in shul on Rosh Hashanah to daven with us.

Together, b’ezras Hashem, Klal Yisrael will storm the very Heavens in tefillah this Rosh Hashanah. Once again, we will coronate Hashem as our eternal King and, quite literally, plead for our lives. Through our actions and our tefillos we will declare to Hashem that despite all the challenges we face from within and without, “we have not forgotten Your Name — we beg You not to forget us.”

May the Ribbono shel Olam accept our tefillos and grant each of us a kesivah vachasimah tovah, a year of health and prosperity in both the physical and the spiritual sense. May it be His Will that this year be the one in which we shall finally hear the great shofar of Moshiach and be zocheh to the Geulah Sheleimah.

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