illustration credit: Rivka Tsinman
Prayer in the Parashah תְּפִלָּה
When Miriam gets sick with tzara’at, Moshe says one of the shortest prayers on record:
אֵ-ל נָא רְפָא נָא לָהּ׃
God, please heal her, please!
Sometimes we have to pray quickly. Here’s a story about someone who was very brief in their prayers:
מַעֲשֶׂה בְּתַלְמִיד אֶחָד שֶׁעָבַר לִפְנֵי ר' אֱלִיעֶזֶר וְקִצֵּר בְּבִרְכוֹתָיו. אָמְרוּ לוֹ תַּלְמִידָיו: רַבִּי, רָאִיתָ פְּלוֹנִי שֶׁקִּצֵּר בְּבִרְכוֹתָיו? וְהָיוּ מַלְעִיגִין עָלָיו וְאוֹמְרִים עָלָיו תַּלְמִיד חָכָם קָצְרָן הוּא זֶה.
אָמַר לָהֶם לֹא קִצֵּר זֶה יוֹתֵר מִמֹּשֶׁה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "אֵ-ל נָא רְפָא נָא לָהּ" (במדבר יב:יג)?!
There was a story about a student who led the prayers before R. Eliezer, and was brief in his blessings.
The other students said: Rabbi, did you see how this person was so brief in his blessings? They mocked him and said: This sage is a shortcut-taker!
R. Eliezer said to the students: Was he being briefer than Moshe who said, “God, please heal her, please”?!
- Have you ever felt the need to pray quickly? Why?
- When you pray, is it better to say more words quickly even if that means you won’t be able to really think about them, or fewer words slowly so that you’ll be able to think about them and say them carefully? Why?
- The student in this story was being mocked for something he did in his prayer. Have you ever felt someone was judging you for the way you pray? How did that make you feel?
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