Parshas Vayikra (Zachor) 5779
In this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Vayikra, we read about the different types of sacrificial offerings that one could bring up to G-d in the Tabernacle: A wealthy person could afford to bring a sacrifice from sheep or cattle (see Leviticus 1:2-13), whereas a poor person could only afford to bring a meal-offering made of fine flour (see ibid 2:1-16).
The Vilna Gaon teaches us an extremely powerful lesson from the different offerings about the significance of each and every prayer that we offer up to G-d – regardless of whether or not we have intent. He bases this lesson on a novel way of understanding the words of the great kabbalist Rama MiFano who famously wrote that “a tefillah (prayer) without kavanah (intent) is like a guf (body) without a neshamah (soul)â€:
The first thing we need to know – explains the Vilna Gaon – is that the Talmud says that now that we no longer have a Temple in which to offer sacrifices to G-d, our prayers take the place of the sacrificial offerings.
Now in the good ol’ days when we had a Temple in Jerusalem, there were basically two types of offerings that one could bring (as mentioned before), a meal-offering and an animal offering. The difference between them was that the meal-offering that was typically brought by the poor person was made of flour and oil which are inanimate objects without any life to them, whereas the offering that the wealthy man brought was an animal that was full of life.
So, too, in our times when we no longer have a Temple in Jerusalem (until the coming of the Moshiach, of course) in which to bring actual sacrifices, and our prayers take the place of the sacrificial offerings, the words that we utter in prayer correspond to the physical offering, while the kavanah and intent that we have when saying those words is what animates and “gives life†to our prayer.
This is what Rama MiFano meant – explains the Vilna Gaon – when he wrote that “a prayer without intent is like a body without a soulâ€. One who prays without kavanah and without giving life to his prayers “is like a body without a soulâ€, i.e. is considered like a poor person who brings to the Temple a meal-offering which is inanimate and has no life, whereas one who merits to pray with proper intent and kavanah is considered like a wealthy person who brings an animal-offering which is full of life – but both are rewarded for the prayers that they offer up to G-d, regardless of intent.
And herein lies the powerful lesson that the Vilna Gaon is teaching us. Even if we were are not always able to concentrate properly on the words of the prayers that we are saying (or sometimes we simply don’t know the meanings of the prayers), we should not despair – because even prayers uttered without intent are not wasted, G-d forbid, but are accepted in Heaven like the meal-offering of a poor person in the Temple!
Now of course it is our obligation to do whatever we can to make sure that our prayers are animated and full of life – after all, when we pray we are standing in front of the King of all Kings – but we need to know that every prayer is wanted and accepted by G-d, “dead†or “aliveâ€.
With this explanation of the Vilna Gaon we can now understand the very last verse that we recite each day, three times a day, at the end of the Shemoneh Esrei prayer (after we take three steps back): “Then the meal-offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to G-d, as in days of old and in former years†(Malachi 3:4) We are beseeching G-d to please accept our prayers just like the “meal-offering†that was offered by a poor person in the Temple, i.e. even though our prayers may have been as “lifeless†as the oil and flour in a meal-offering and without proper kavanah.
This powerful idea that no prayer is wasted regardless of intent is highlighted in the following beautiful story.
[But first a little background … In the Hebrew numeric system there is no digit parallel to zero. The letters of the Alphabet serve as numbers. In the secular writings zero is utilized very much. In this method a multiple series of zeros add up to nothing. A digit placed in front of them will equal millions.]
A chassid of Chortkov (a great Chassidic dynasty in pre-war Poland) once came to his Rebbe with a strange complaint. He claimed that his father-in-law never prays to G-d at all. The Rebbe suggested that perhaps the chassid was waking up much later in the morning and therefore never saw his father-in-law praying. The chassid assured the Rebbe that this was not the case, so the Rebbe asked him to see his father-in-law to figure out what was wrong. When the father-in-law came in to the Rebbe, he asked him if it’s true that he never prays to G-d. The father-in-law admitted that this was indeed so. When asked by the Rebbe for an explanation, the man said that although he may not be a great Torah scholar, he considered himself an honest man, and since he was never able to have proper kavanah and intent when uttering the words of the prayers, he stopped praying altogether, so as not to be dishonest with himself. The Rebbe then said to the father-in-law: ‘King David wrote in Psalms 87:6 the following: “Ado-nai yispor b’chsov amim, zeh yulad sham selahâ€. This difficult verse can be understood homiletically that G-d “counts†(yispor) with the “alphabet of the nations†(b’chsov amim), and this causes that “they are born there†(zeh yulad sham).This can mean as follows: A man comes to shul to pray every morning but has no ‘kavanah’ and doesn’t know what he is saying. Can this be called a prayer? Certainly not! So G-d gives him a zero. And this goes on day after day, month after month, year after year – until this man has accumulated a string of many hundreds of zeros. One day comes when he finally manages to say the prayers with total kavanah, concentrating on the meaning of each and every word. So instead of the usual zero, he now gets a “1â€. However, if G-d were to count with the Hebrew alphabet which has no corresponding digit for zero, then all the man would get is the reward of “1’ prayer said with intent. But what does G-d do? He counts with the alphabet of the nations, so that now the man has a whole string of zeros, and then G-d puts the “1†in front of all the zeros, turning the 1 into 1,000000 and causing all these formerly rejected prayers “to be born thereâ€!! Therefore, said the Rebbe to the father-in-law, ‘you try your hardest to say the prayers with kavanah and intent. And even if you are not successful sometimes, do not despair, because even those prayers recited without intent are not wasted, but instead are a bunch of zeros waiting for that 1 kavanah-filled prayer to attach to and to be brought up to the Heavenly Throne along with all the other prayers!
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