16 Sep A THOUGHT FROM THE HAFTORAH OF THE FIRST DAY OF ROSH HASHANA

The Haftorah for the
first day of Rosh
Hashana is the story of
Chana (Shmuel I
Chapter 1). Chana was
barren for so many
years. Finally, she goes
up to the Mishkan, receives a bracha from Eli
Hakohen and becomes pregnant. Chazal say
that she was barren for 19 years and that
(according to one Medrash) she was 130 years
old when she finally gave birth to Shmuel!
It is most noteworthy that once Eli gave her
the bracha, she felt that she did not need to
worry anymore. She was so confident in the
bracha of Eli Hakohen that she did not go back
up to Yerushalayim for aliyah l’regel again.
The question is that if she was so confident in
Eli’s blessing, why did she not go up to Eli in
the first year and ask him for a bracha then?
What took her so long?
Rav Elya Baruch Finkel cites an interesting
comment from Rav Chaim Kanievsky: The
bracha of a tzadik or a talmid chochom is
much more effective if the one who bestows
the bracha “owes a bracha” to the person who
he is blessing! This sense of debt increases his
connection to the person seeking the bracha
and the bracha thereby becomes much more
effective.

That is why the pesukim elaborate on the
whole dialog between Chana and Eli. She was
mumbling and he mistook her for a drunk
woman. She then chastises Eli for his failure to
recognize her bitterness of spirit and the fact
that she did not consume any wine or strong
drink. Chazal likewise find fault with Eli’s
initial reaction. They say he was “choshed
b’ksheirim” (wrongly suspected the innocent).
The halacha is that someone who wrongly
suspects an innocent person must bless the
person who he wrongly suspected.
Yes, a bracha from any tzadik certainly has
significance, but it is extra powerful when
that tzadik owes you the bracha. That is why
Chana made this case. She could have merely
denied the accusation that she was inebriated,
but she did more than that. She built the
argument that she was wrongly and unjustly
accused. Why does she do that? She does that
to create indebtedness on the part of Eli. “Eli,
you did something terrible. You were choshed
b’ksherim. And now I want something from
you. I want a bracha.” That type of bracha is
the most effective bracha that a person can
receive.
Now, what does this do for you and me?
People go to Eretz Yisrael. They seek
out tzadikim and receive all kind of brachos,
left and right. Rav Elya Baruch Finkel makes

the point that if a person can somehow make
the m’varech (the one bestowing the blessing)
indebted to him, the bracha will be much more
effective. How a person goes about making
a tzadik indebted to him may indeed be
difficult, especially when dealing with people
who don’t need anything and don’t want
anything. But if a person can somehow create
that “shibud” (debt) so that the tzadik feels “I
owe him,” then the bracha becomes a whole
different level ofbracha.
Rav Elya Baruch Finkel brings a fascinating
incident from many years ago in Europe: A
certain person’s great-grandfather
(a Rav Halberstam) passed by a non-Jew who
was sitting on a bench. The non-Jew said
to Rav Halberstam, “It is my birthday today. I
am 116 years old. I have four more
years!” Rav Halberstam looked at him and
said, “How do you know you have four more
years?” The man responded, “Not only that,
but…” At that point he opened up his mouth
and said, “Every one of my teeth are my own.
I am 116 years old and I have all my teeth!
And I am going to live another four years!”
Rav Halberstam again said, “Very nice. But
how do you know that?” The man explained:
When I was a little boy, I was a barber’s
assistant. I lived in Prague. The Rabbi in
Prague at the time was Rav Yechezkel Landau

(the Nodeh Beyehudah). When Rabbi Landau
came to take his haircut, his custom was to not
remove his yarmulka. The haircut was thus to
cut around the yarmulka. One time, the Nodeh
Beyehudah dozed off during his haircut while
sitting in the barber chair and his yarmulka fell
off. When he woke up, he noticed that his head
was uncovered and he anxiously asked “Where
is my yarmulka?” He was upset. The old man
told Rabbi Halberstam: “I was a little kid and I
found the yarmulka and I gave it back to the
Rabbi.” The Nodeh Beyehudah, in gratitude,
blessed me and told me: You should live to be
120 and you should never need a doctor.
The blessing came true. The man said “I am
116, I have all my teeth and I have never been
to a doctor in my life because I received a
blessing from the great rabbi of Prague!” We
see what kind of a bracha that was. The Nodeh
Beyehudah was very bothered that his head
was uncovered so he felt indebted to this little
boy for finding his yarmulka.
While we are on the subject of brachos, it is
not only the bracha of a tzadik that is
considered significant but rather chazal say
not to underestimate the bracha of (even) an
ordinary person.