Shabbat Parashat Toldot - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Toldot - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller Yitzchak entreated Hashem opposite his wife because she was barren. God allowed Himself to be entreated by him. [Bereishit 25:21] What does entreated mean? It is used twice in this verse, one for Yitzchak and once for God, once for a direct action and once reflexive. Most commentators translate our verse that Yitzchak prayed and God accepted his prayer. The word is yetar, which is one of many words that can be translated as pray, although it is more often implicated with more desperation, such as beg or plead. There are other words that mean pray, with varying nuances. Rashi explains the word means "he importuned much through prayer". The dictionary defines 'importune' as to press or urge with persistence. Most of us think of prayer as our requesting something, begging from a subordinate position. Importune reflects a feeling of a position of strength. Rashi continues that the second usage in our verse means that God allowed Himself to be prevailed upon and persuaded. But most others stress the prayer from a more subordinate place. Abarbanel, for example, says "the language 'and entreated' is language of prayer and desire." He also splits the prayer into two, Yitzchak asking for himself to beget and for his wife to conceive. Rav Hirsch views it as Yitzchak only praying on behalf of Rivkah since God had already promised Avraham that his descendants would be through Yitzchak, he knew that he would have children, so his prayer was that it be with Rivkah rather than some other woman. Rav Soloveitchik reads the first part of our verse the same way. Onkelos also understands va'yetar to mean pray, as a subordinate to his superior. But Onkelos reads the latter half of the verse differently, that God accepted his prayer. The different connotation is because it would seem unseemly and an impossible level of control for Yitzchak to be 'entreating' God. From this, Rambam tells us that prayer helps people and does not affect God. Rav Hirsch explains, "Twenty long years had Yitzchak struggled in prayer before God for the fulfillment of the wish to have children from Rivkah." He says this is why our verse comes at this point. Perhaps we can learn from this is that prayer works, even if God does not respond immediately or in the way we might have expected.