Beha'alotecha: Filling the Pages of a Book About Prayer

How can we harness the Power of God? Is it even imaginable that such a thing could be possible, that we, as human beings, could control God's 

actions? To some extent, the whole purpose of prayer (or at least some prayers) is to compel God in one direction or another. We pray for God to bring good fortune, to avert disaster, to punish our enemies, and to heal the sick; all the while feeling as though these things are out of our control. And yet, we pray. Is there, therefore, a chance that our words and songs can move the Hand of God? Believe it or not, there is an entire book of the Torah that speaks to this very question.

Ok, so I should probably put the term 'book' in quotes. You see, in the middle of this week's Torah portion, Beha'alotecha, two verses (35 and 36) in chapter ten are considered by some ancient rabbinic sources to constitute an entirely separate book unto themselves! Before and after these two verses, our Torah text displays a mysterious backwards letter, the Hebrew letter 'nun.' The great rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi wrote in the Mishnah that verses 35 and 36 were therefore a book unto themselves. And you may, in fact, already be familiar with the words of this 'book,' because we sing them at the start of the Torah service every Saturday morning: "Va-yehi Binsoa Ha-Aron, Va-yomer Moshe..." But you may NOT have realized that these words spoke of compelling God to act on our behalf: "When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: 'Advance, O Lord! May Your enemies be scattered, and may Your foes flee before You!' And when it halted, he would say: 'Return, O Lord, You who are Israel's myriads of thousands!'"

What might the world look like if we could do this, if we could urge God's Presence to advance every time our enemies threatened to attack? Or if we could rein in the destructive forces of nature before they devastated towns, like Moore, Oklahoma? 

What is this book trying to teach us about the relationship between human beings and God, and about the efficacy of prayer? The Etz Hayim Torah Commentary offers a provocative insight, noting the difference between prayers in times of tranquility and peace, and prayers when we are vulnerable or persecuted. Sometimes in life, our prayer is for God to 'Advance!' and attack our enemies. Other times we pray for return; whether it be the return of health, of strength, of family members who are distant from us in one way or another, or even just our own teshuvah, returning through repentance and asking forgiveness.

When we have the great fortune to live in a time and place where we can offer prayers of tranquility, we also shouldn't distance ourselves from our ancestors who suffered great persecution at the hands of their enemies. We may feel appalled to read medieval prayers calling on God to violently and utterly destroy our oppressors, but who can deny someone else the right to offer such a prayer, without knowing the pain they are suffering? And at various times in our lives, we too feel a desperate need for prayer to 'work,' for SOMEONE to answer our cries. In that moment, can we really say for sure that prayer DOESN'T shift the Divine decree? Perhaps the world would have looked very, very different if a certain prayer had not been uttered right when it was. This 'book,' "Va-yehi Binsoa," is indeed a book on the Power of God, and the power of prayer. It may seem like a short book, but it may just be leaving room for all of us to fill it with our prayers; to answer the author's question in a different way for each and every one of us. All of a sudden, that book doesn't seem so short after all.

Photos in this blog post:

1. CC image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada on Flickr

2. CC image courtesy of bsabarnowl on Flickr