16 Jan REVITALIZING OUR DAVENING – PART TWENTY-TWO

We next ask Hashem,
“R’tzei Hashem Elokeinu
b’amcha Yisroel
uvis’filasam – Favor
Hashem our G-d, Your
nation Yisroel and their
tefilos.” We first ask
Hashem to favor us. For
if, G-d forbid, He doesn’t favor us, then He
despises our tefilos. As the posuk states,
“Zevach resha’im to’eivah – The offering of
the wicked is an abomination.” It also says,
“Botzei’a beirach ni’eitz Hashem – If the thief
makes a blessing, Hashem gets angry.” It is for
this reason that the Hagaddah Vayaged Moshe
says that the custom was to do teshuvah before
starting the Seder shel Pesach, for otherwise,
“Ul’rasha amar Elokim, mah loch lo sapeir
chudkai – And to the wicked G-d says, Why
do I need you to relate my statutes?”
Similarly, there is a custom to do teshuvah
before making Kiddush on Friday night for
since Kiddush is eidus, testimony about the
Creation of the world, and we don’t want to
be wicked because then we are disqualified
from giving testimony. As it says, “Al tasheis
rasha eid – Do not have a wicked person as a
witness.” Here too, since we inserted vidui,
a confession, in previous bracha of Shomei’a
tefila, we ask Hashem to view us favorably
and thus accept our tefilos.

We also preface amcha Yisroel because the
Gemora in Masechtas Berachos [8a] teaches,
“V’ani s’filasi L’cha, Hashem, eis ratzon –
But as for me, my davener to You, Hashem,
should be at a time of favor.” The Gemora
proceeds to ask, “When is a time of favor?”
“Bsha-ah shehatzibor mispallelin,” when the
community is davening together. The Gemora
further assures us, “She’ein HaKadosh Baruch
Hu mo’eis bis’filoson shel rabim – Hashem
never detests the tefilos of the many.” Thus,
we say that Hashem should accept our tefilos
in the midst of the community.
As we are asking Hashem to favor our tefilos,
we must know that after we do a mitzvah it
is a special time of favor to ask Hashem for
something. This is why it is an ancient custom
for women to ask for things after they do their
special mitzvah of lighting candles on Friday
nights. It is also why we make a mishebeirach,
giving blessings, to our relatives and friends
after we do the great mitzvah of making a
public bracha on the Torah.
Rav Zilberstein, shlit”a, writes that if one is
walking in the street and averts his gaze from
immodesty, he has just done the challenging
mitzvah of, “V’lo sasuru acharei l’vavechem
v’acharei eineichem,” not to follow one’s
hearts and one’s eyes, and it creates a great
time of favor to ask Hashem for something. It
is for this reason that there is a custom to give

tzedakah charity, before davening.
As it says, “V’ani b’tzedek echezeh
Ponecha – And I with charity will
behold Your face (when we daven).”
The Manchester Rosh Yeshiva, Rav
Segal, zt”l, zy”a, would try to do an
actual act of personal kindness and he
would bring a coffee to his wife before
tefilos. Upon her passing, he would
bring negel vasser to the bedside of
his daughter before leaving to shul.
I would like to suggest that this
is the seventeenth blessing of the
Shemone Esrei. Seventeen is
the numerical value of tov, good.
Perhaps this is because, “Ein tov ela torah –
The only real good is Torah,” and the Gemora
states in Berachos (ibid) that since nowadays
Hashem’s Shechinah resides primarily by the
four ells of halachah, Abaya would only daven
in the place that he studied. Thus, we invoke
the merit of Torah to generate acceptance
of our tefilos and it is in this vein that the
great Chassidic masters used to say that the
best preparation for davener is to learn a daf
Gemora beforehand.
We then say, “V’hasheiv es ha’avodah lidvir
beisecha v’ishei Yisroel – Return the service
to the Holy of Holies in Your House and
the fire offerings of Yisroel.” We are taught
that today our tefilos are a substitute for the
offerings, as the Gemora states, “Tefilos
k’neged karbonos tiknam – Our tefilos are
instead of offerings.” We ask Hashem that
we want the real thing, not just the substitute
– so restore to us the most Holy of services
that the Kohein Gadol does on Yom Kippur in
the Holy of Holies, for the word d’vir refers
to the Kodesh HaKadoshim, as it is from
there Hashem spoke to Moshe Rabbeinu. As
the verse testifies, “Vedibarti it’cha mei’al
hakaporos, mibein shnei k’ruvim – And I
spoke with you (Moshe) from above the
Ark cover from in between the two keruvim
(which was in the Holy of Holies). Thus, the
word d’vir, which has the root dibeir, talk,
is so-called because Hashem spoke, dibeir ,
from there to Moshe. We then say, “V’ishei
Yisroel,” and he should also return to us the
fire offerings, the sacrifices that were offered
on the outside altar.
The tefilah continues, “V’ishei Yisroel
us’filosom b’ahava sikabeil b’ratzon.”
There is a question where to put the comma
in this segment of the davener. Do the words
ishei Yisroel go back to the previous request
of returning the service in the Holy of Holies
and the actual fire offerings, and then the
next sentence starts with us’filosom(as
we explained above)? The Tur brings this
explanation and the Gra says that this is
the way we should daven, and so too it is
explained like this by the Seder HaYom. Yet
the Tur brings another explanation and so is
the view of the Elya Rabbah, that there should
be a comma after lidvir beisecha, and now we
ask v’ishei Yisreol, our contemporary tefilos

which are the substitute for the fire offerings,
us’filosom, and our personal supplications,
should be accepted with love and with favor.
We conclude in this vein. “U’sehi l’ratzon
tomid avodas Yisroel amecha” and it should
be favorable to You perpetually the service of
your nation Yisroel. We plead that
the tefilos should be favourable even without
the Beis HaMikdash and the Divine service.
Perhaps we add the word Yisroel because
we remind Hashem that He created us for
the purpose of davener. As it says, “Am zu
yatzarti li, t’hilasi yisapeiru – This nation I
created for Me, to relate my tefilos.”
We cap off the blessing of R’tzei with the
request, “V’sechezenah eineinu b’shuvecha
l’Zion b’rachamim – May our eyes behold
Your return to Tzion with mercy.” The
Yaros Devash explains that even though
we already asked for this in the blessings of
Vli’Yerushalim Iecha and Es tzemach, in those
brachos we asked that it should be so in the
merit of our Avos, our Patriarchs. Here, in this
bracha we beseech that Hashem should do it in
our own merit, for it is only then that our eyes
will merit to see it personally. It is for this
reason the Lot and his family were not able to
see the downfall of S’dom, because they were
only saved in the merit of Avraham. We ask
Hashem that we merit earning it with our own
zechusim, and thus live to see, speedily in our
days, the final redemption.