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The third is that there is a 

tradition that, as Jacob was traveling, 
“the sun set suddenly” — not at its 
normal time. Jacob had intended 
to say the afternoon prayer, but 
found, to his surprise, that night 
had fallen. Arvit did not become 
an obligation, since Jacob had not 
meant to say an evening prayer at all.
There is, however, a more 
profound explanation. A different 
linguistic construction is used for 
each of the three occasions that the 
Sages saw as the basis of prayer. 
Abraham “rose early in the morning 
to the place where he had stood 
before God” (Gen. 19:27). Isaac 
“went out to meditate [lasuach] in 
the field towards evening” (Gen. 
24:63). Jacob “met, encountered, 
came across” God [vayifga 
bamakom]. These are different kinds 
of religious experiences.
Abraham initiated the quest for 
God. He was a creative religious 
personality — the father of all those 
who set out on a journey of the spirit 
to an unknown destination, armed 
only with the trust that those who 
seek, find. Abraham sought God 
before God sought him.
Isaac’s prayer is described as 
a sichah, literally, a conversation or 
dialogue. There are two parties to 
a dialogue — one who speaks and 
one who listens, and having listened, 
responds. Isaac represents the 
religious experience as conversation 
between the word of God and the 
word of mankind.
Jacob’s prayer is very different. He 
does not initiate it. His thoughts are 
elsewhere — on Esau from whom he 
is escaping, and on Laban to whom 
he is traveling. Into this troubled 
mind comes a vision of God and the 
angels and a stairway connecting 
earth and heaven. 
He has done nothing to prepare 
for it. It is unexpected. Jacob 
literally “encounters” God as we can 
sometimes encounter a familiar face 
among a crowd of strangers. This 
is a meeting brought about by God, 
not man. That is why Jacob’s prayer 
could not be made the basis of a 
regular obligation. None of us knows 

when the presence of God will 
suddenly intrude into our lives.
There is an element of the religious 
life that is beyond conscious control. 
It comes out of nowhere, when we 
are least expecting it. If Abraham 
represents our journey toward God, 
and Isaac our dialogue with God, 
Jacob signifies God’s encounter 
with us — unplanned, unscheduled, 
unexpected; the vision, the voice, the 
call we can never know in advance, 
but which leaves us transformed. 
As for Jacob so for us, it feels as 
if we are waking from a sleep and 
realizing as if for the first time that 
“God was in this place, and I did not 
know it.
” The place has not changed, 
but we have. Such an experience 
can never be made the subject of an 
obligation. It is not something we 
do. It is something that happens to 
us. Vayfiga bamakom means that, 
thinking of other things, we find that 
we have walked into the Presence of 
God.
Such experiences take place, 
literally or metaphorically, at night. 
They happen when we are alone, 
afraid, vulnerable, close to despair. 
It is then that, when we least expect 
it, we can find our lives flooded by 
the radiance of the Divine. Suddenly, 
with a certainty that is unmistakable, 
we know that we are not alone, that 
God is there and has been all along 
but that we were too preoccupied 
by our own concerns to notice Him. 
That is how Jacob found God — not 
by his own efforts, like Abraham; 
not through continuous dialogue, 
like Isaac; but in the midst of fear 
and isolation. Jacob, in flight, trips 
and falls — and finds he has fallen 
into the waiting arms of God. No 
one who has had this experience 
ever forgets it. “Now I know that You 
were with me all the time, but I was 
looking elsewhere.”
That was Jacob’s prayer. There 
are times when we speak and times 
when we are spoken to. Prayer is not 
always predictable, a matter of fixed 
times and daily obligation. It is also 
an openness, a vulnerability. God can 
take us by surprise, waking us from 
our sleep, catching us as we fall. 

The Daily Prayers
The Daily Prayers

T

he Talmud ascribes three daily 
statutory prayers respectively to 
each of our patriarchs. 
Abraham enacted the morning 
prayer: “
And Abraham arose early in 
the morning toward the place where he 
had stood.” 
Isaac enacted the afternoon prayer: 
“Isaac went out to converse with 
the Divine in the field before 
sunset.” 
Jacob enacted the evening 
prayer: “
And he confronted the 
place and lodged there because 
the sun had set …”
Our sages are purposefully 
identifying each of these three 
prayers with the unique person-
ality of one of the patriarchs. 
Abraham is identified with the 
early morning; our first com-
munication with God at with 
the rising of the sun. Abraham 
emerged at the dawn of Jewish his-
tory, discovered ethical monotheism 
and began to teach it to the world 
and raised multitudes of adherents to 
his newfound faith and his teaching 
of compassionate righteousness and 
moral justice. His prayer comes when 
each of us is most optimistic regarding 
the possibilities that lie ahead.
Isaac is the most passive. He is taken 
by his father to the akeida (bind-
ing); his wife is chosen for him and 
the blessings are wrested from him 
through subterfuge. He is great in con-
tinuing what he inherited. It is under-
standable that Isaac’s prayer comes at 
a time of day when much has already 
occurred, and it is up to the individual 
to react more than to initiate action.
Jacob’s life is more tragic. He spends 
many years in exile because his broth-

er has threatened to kill him. After 
working for 14 years to win the hand 
of his beloved Rachel, he mourns her 
premature death in childbirth. He then 
spends more than two decades mourn-
ing the loss of Joseph, whose brothers 
sold him into slavery. His life is iden-
tified with the darkness and the fear 
symbolic of night.
Our sages expressed the vary-
ing moods of our prayers by cit-
ing the verse: “One must declare 
God’s lovingkindness in the 
morning and His faithfulness in 
the evening” (Psalms 92:2). It is 
comparatively easy to praise God 
in the midst of one’s success and 
optimism although many tend 
to think that they themselves are 
responsible for their own good 
fortune. During times of dark-
ness, uncertainty and anxiety, it 
is necessary to grasp onto God, 
but sometimes most difficult.
What does the psalmist mean when 
he speaks of faithfulness? The Hebrew 
word emunah is usually translated as 
faith; but what it really means is steadi-
ness (Exodus 17:12). Faith does not 
mean that we must believe everything 
will work out well in the end if we pray 
strongly enough and live good enough 
lives.
Faith means faithfulness: We must 
be faithful in carrying out what God 
asks of us — with as much sincerity 
and good cheer as we can muster — no 
matter what difficulties and trials He 
may send our way. It was this ability 
that made Jacob the most chosen of 
our Patriarchs. 

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of Ohr Torah 

Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi 
Shlomo 
Riskin

Parshat 

Vayetze: 

Genesis 

28:10-32:3; 

Hosea 

12:13-14:10.

