The beginning of the second perek [chapter] of the Chumash says: “These are the products of the heavens and the earth, when they were created on the day of Hashem G-d’s making of earth and heavens. [Bereishis 2:4] This summary of creation is followed by a difficult pasuk [verse] to interpret and even to translate: The presumed translation is “Now any tree of the field was not yet on the earth and any herb of the field had not yet sprouted, for Hashem G-d had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the soil.”
Rashi interprets that even after the 6 days of creation, there was still no grass. Despite the fact that the Torah stated on the third day of creation “and the earth brought forth vegetation, herbage yielding seed” [Bereishis 1:12], Rashi explains that they did not emerge from the earth on that day but they stood on the surface of the ground until the sixth day.
The Torah explains in perek 2 pasuk 5 why the grass did not come out – “because there was no man to work the soil.” Rashi interprets this to mean that there was no one who could recognize the goodness of rains. In other words, there was no human being around to appreciate the rain and to ask for it. When Adam was created and he understood that the world had a need for rain, he prayed that rain should fall. In answer to man’s prayer, rain fell and the grass, trees, and all the vegetation of the earth then began to grow.
We learn several interesting things from this Rashi. First, we see that the first prayer in the history of the world was Adam, the first man, asking for rain, shortly after his creation. We also learn that G-d was not merely waiting, as it were, for man to recognize the need for rain before bringing the rain, but G-d was waiting for man to pray for rain. Rav Aharon Kotler in Mishnas Aharon says that from here we learn that if a person does not pray for that which he needs, it can be there waiting and ready for him, but if he does not pray to G-d for it, it will not come.
This year could be the most financially successful year in one’s career. The deal may just be waiting and ready. But if the person does not pray for it, it will not come. This is the way the Almighty set up the world. He set up the world in such a way that we must pray for things from Him. In this way, we will come to an appreciation that everything comes from Him.
The commentaries ask a very basic question: Why do we recite the same Shmoneh Esrei day in and day out, 3 times a day, every weekday of the year? The point is to drive home through our thick skulls the lesson that we need the Almighty. We recite this prayer 1000 times a year, and we still do not get it! This Rashi is teaching us a very basic lesson regarding man’s existence in the world. Blessings may be waiting right around the corner, waiting to come to us, but they won’t come until we pray for them and thereby acknowledge that these blessings come from the Almighty.
