Good morning, Rabotai (gentlemen). So we get to Parashat Vayera. Parashat Vayera is packed. Our challenge is what to skip, because everything is important. However, I came to talk about a subject in the parasha that I think is a timely lesson: the story of Avraham Avinu praying for the people of Sedom (Sodom).
Let's go back. There was a city, Sedom, and its environs. Those are the cities that were next to it, and they weren't known to be the best of people. But Avraham felt that after God told him that He wanted to destroy the whole area, maybe if he prayed, God would have mercy and spare the cities. That might give Avraham a chance to try to bring them back to the path of decency and kindness in the right way.
So Avraham begins his prayer. I think you know the prayer. Avraham said, “God, here's the deal. If we could find 50 tzaddikim (devout) in the whole territory, will that be enough to spare the cities?” God says, “If you find 50, you have a deal.” Then they can't find 50. So Avraham Avinu starts to pray again. These were very heartfelt prayers, not just requests made perfunctorily or casually. They were deep prayers that I'm sure required a great deal of energy from Avraham. He says, “God, how about 45?” God says, “You have a deal. If you could come up with 45 tzaddikim, I will not destroy the city.” They do a count. They take a turn. They can't even find 45.
So Avraham goes back to the book and starts praying to God again—the strongest and deepest prayer from the essence of Avraham's soul. “How about 40?” And what does God say? “Fine.” And he continues: “How about 30? How about 20?” I can ask you a simple question. God knows that there are not... there are not even 10 tzaddikim. And God knows that Avraham is not going to get answered. So, if I could ask it in the simplest of languages: Why are you wasting this man's time? Why make Avraham go through this exhaustive exercise, praying and praying and praying and making deals, when God knows from the beginning that he isn't going to get answered? By the way, that tzaddik is busy. Tell Avraham, “Don't waste your time. Go back to your chesed (kindness) enterprise. Go back to your business. This is failing. There are no tzaddikim in the place. I don't want to lead you on to think that you might have a chance to be answered. You don't.”
Why wasn't God up front with Avraham from the beginning? Why didn't God just tell him, when Avraham came to pray for Sedom, “The answer is no. Next subject”? No. Instead, you lead him on. It's like a child that you lead on, making him think that he could win a prize. But in the end, you have no intention of ever giving it to him. So we call that in English, “You're just teasing him.” So was that what God was doing to Avraham? Was He teasing him? Was He playing a game with him? “Yeah, ask again, but the answer is no.” So why didn't God let him know that from the onset?
I have a very, very important answer that I'd like to share with our members this morning. It changed the whole way we look at tefillah (prayer). You see, until now, we have always looked at the results of tefillah. If we get answered, the tefillah worked. And if the tefillah wasn't answered, it was a waste of time, because we're looking at it as a game. The strategy of the game is to get the result that you're seeking. So if, God forbid, somebody is sick, we take prayer out. If we prayed and he got better, the prayer worked. If the patient didn't get better, then the prayer failed.
That's not the way we look at it. Besides looking at what prayer does for the one you're praying for, how about looking at it from this standpoint: What does prayer do to the person who's praying? When a person starts to pray, what does it make him? It makes him more sensitive. It makes him a kinder person. A person who prays for others becomes compassionate. He has more feeling. A person becomes more sensitive to the plight of others. Therefore, even if he doesn't get answered, the person who prayed is already a better person. The prayer might not have changed the result of what he wanted, but it changed the person who was praying. He becomes kinder. He becomes a better person.
It's quite possible that God said, “Sedom doesn't have a shot.” But this is not about Sedom. This is about making Avraham a better Avraham. Let him pray. Let him extend himself for others. Let him show concern for other people. That'll make Avraham's muscle of chesed much greater. And that's an important Mussar (ethical teaching) about time, because as a yeshiva, we do this all the time. We come together, we read Tehillim, we give Tzedakah (charity), and we accept upon ourselves all sorts of mitzvot (commandments) for others. I'm sorry to tell you that we don't always get the results that were desired. And then we get frustrated. Then we say, after all that we did, the girls blessed them. They read the Tehillim cover to cover in a loop, keeping on reading over and over. And the boys did their mitzvot, learned, and prayed. Then we get the bad news: It didn't work.
It didn't work for the objective of what you were praying for. But it had stunning and positive results. On who? On us. Charity makes us better, and praying for others makes us better. Doing mitzvot for other people, although it might not benefit them directly or immediately, changes us. We become less selfish, less egocentric, and less absorbed with our own needs. And it makes us kinder, to see the plight of others, now and in the future. Therefore, an unanswered prayer is only half a story. You shouldn't walk out and feel that this was an exercise in futility. It wasn't. The prayer might not have changed the sick person. The prayer might not have changed the one that you were praying for. But for sure, it had an impact and a great change on you. You're kinder. You're better. You're more sensitive to the plight of others.
So that would be the first answer. Avraham knew—or God knew—that Avraham wasn't going to get answered. But why deprive him of becoming a bigger Baal Chesed (master of kindness)? Avraham walks away from that prayer about Sedom a better Avraham. And that's worth it.
Second answer. This is important as well. I once heard from my rabbis that there are certain prayers that are called nuclear prayers. Nuclear prayers are, let's say, prayers prayed by the tzaddikim. The tzaddikim are devout. They have kavanah. They're with great intention. These prayers have very, very great power. Hashem sometimes allows the tzaddik to pray, and Hashem takes those prayers and puts them in a bank to use at a later date.
So Avraham is praying for Sedom. God says, “I'm not going to use those prayers for Sedom. That's a waste of time.” But those prayers one day could be used for something more beneficial. Maybe one day Avraham's children, which is us, are going to be in trouble. Then they're going to need a salvation, and they're going to need to be saved. They're going to be in trouble, and they're going to need a nuclear prayer. So God opens the bank account of Avraham, takes out one of those unanswered prayers for Sedom, and cashes it in for a prayer for future generations.
And therefore I say, when we're reading the prayers of Avraham in this week's parasha, they were unanswered for Sedom. But I say to God, “Please open the bank account of Avraham, because we need it now.” We're all praying for the matzav (situation) in Eretz Yisrael. But it is heart-wrenching to open the news every day. Besides seeing all the hostages who are still in captivity, we see all the young soldiers. These are boys who are not much older than you boys: 18, 19, 20-year-old boys. They are sacrificing their lives for us, and they are killed by the terrorists. It's heart-wrenching, and that's unfortunately what happens in war. But it's very sad.
Therefore, we ask God, “Well, You have a lot of credit. Take some of those prayers of Avraham. Take some of those nuclear tefillot of Avraham that did not have a result for Sedom, but let them have a result for Am Yisrael (the people of Israel) in their efforts to root out Hamas. Let it be a prayer that will protect the petzuim, those that are wounded. Let it be a prayer to return the shevuyim, the captives. And let it be a prayer in order to alleviate all the pain and suffering of those who have been displaced, whether it's in the north of Israel or in the south.”
Imagine somebody came to you and said, “You have to leave your community.” You ask, “Leave where?” They say, “We're moving you. The place that you're living is too dangerous. You have to pick up your whole life. You don't know if you'll ever get back to that region or that house.” It's very, very unsettling, and very, very, very complicated and confusing.
So we ask God, “You didn't answer Avraham then for a good reason, because You were saving those tefillot for a better situation.” And I say, “This might be the situation.” Therefore, Avraham wasn't answered then, but it doesn't mean he wasn't answered forever. That's why God didn't stop him. Let Avraham pray. He's filling the bank account of tefillah, and that bank account of tefillah will serve Klal Yisrael (the Jewish people).
Those are my two answers. Did God know that Avraham wasn't going to get answered? Yes. Why didn't He stop him? Because it makes Avraham a bigger Baal Chesed. It makes Avraham more sensitive. It makes him more caring. And that's worth it. And secondly, those tefillot are going to be answered, not just where Avraham directed them. He directed them to Sedom, but the Ulam is going to redirect them. The Ulam redirects the nuclear prayers of the tzaddikim to different situations in order to benefit Avraham's descendants, namely us.
Thank you very much. Shabbat Shalom.