TORAH PORTION I
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Blessed Is He Who
Can Pray In The Dark
RABBI IRWIN GRONER
Special to The Jewish News
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A
ccording to the an-
cient Jewish tradi-
tion, our forefather,
Jacob, instituted the evening
prayer. Jacob, a lonely exile,
wanders in a strange land,
fleeing from the fury of his
murderously enraged brother.
The text states: "And Jacob
came upon the place," which
the sages say means that a
prayer rose to his lips, the
prayer of eventide, the prayer
that culminated in the revela-
tion of God's presence.
Jacob, the patriarch, the
founder of the people of Israel,
is our exemplar and inspira-
tion. Centuries later, when
the Jewish people witnessed
the destruction of their sanc-
tuary, the desolation of their
land and the death of their
dear ones, they too became ex-
iles and endured that fate for
a millenium. But the last
word was not futility. In the
darkness, they built
synagogues; they studied
Torah; they clung to belief.
How strange it must have
seemed to those who reckon-
ed only with events and cir-
cumstances that a people who
can pray at evenntide would
never be defeated.
Jewish history is one, long
prayer in the darkness. It is
the most eloquent proof of the
power of the human spirit to
transcend an outer world of
force and persecution. A com-
mon misconception from
which even Jews are not free
is that we are a weak and
defenseless people. This is not
true, for the centuries of our
endurance and creativity
testify to our strength.
Reserve your pity for great
empires that were strong in
success but crumbled in
adversity.
The history of the Jewish
people has vindicated those
who hoped in the dark, who
kept the light aflame in the
sanctuary of the spirit. In our
day, the existence of the state
of Israel and the redemption
of Soviet Jewry express .an in-
domitable Jewish will to live
which was nurtured even in
times of darkness and
despair.
This truth has significance
for our lives. Who has not
known sorrow or frustration?
Upon whom has eventide not
cast its shadows? Do we not
all encounter the darkness of
Irwin Groner is senior rabbi
of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek.
shattered dreams, blasted
hopes, illness, the loss of dear
ones?
How important it is to know
how to pray under such
circumstances.
Some people cannot pray at
all. Missing from them is the
sense of awe, reverence,
dependence and need without
which there can be no prayer.
They suffer from a serious
spiritual deficiency once
described by the Baal Shem
Tov, the leader of Chasidism,
thus, "When God wants to
punish a man, He deprives
him of his faith."
Some people can only pray
in the noon brightness of the
sunlit day. Although they can
express gratitude then, theirs
is not the assurance that re-
mains when all else is gone.
An Austrian playwright
wrote: "We know of some very
Vayetze:
Genesis
28:10-32:3,
Hosea 12:13-14:10.
religious people who came to
doubt God when a great
misfortune befell them, but
we have never yet seen
anyone who lost his faith
because an undeserved for-
tune fell to his lot."
To pray at eventide is to
declare that we are saddened,
but not broken; burdened, but
not crushed; discouraged but
not embittered.
What should one pray for at
eventide? First, for strength.
We can draw out of the depths
of our spirit powers untapped,
sometimes even unknown, for
we are stronger than we
think. We discover how to
mobilize our deepest reserves
rather than surrender to the
weakness of self pity.
On the walls of a cellar in
the city of Cologne where
Jews had hidden from the
Nazis during the Holocust,
the following inscription was
discovered: "I believe in the
sun even when it is not shin-
ing; I believe in love even
when not feeling it; I believe
in God even when He is
silent."
Second, we pray for the
capacity to transform our sor-
row into a source of greater
sensitivity and helpfulness.
Some make of sorrow a prison
and enclose themselves
within it. But our sorrow can
become a bridge to the pain of
others.
We should -pray for the
largeness of view that will
redeem our grief or anger.