The Case of the Person Who Had to Cut His Journey Short
There was a story with someone who was traveling from Bnei Brak to Yerushalayim to meet with Reuven for a business meeting, and after he recited Tefillas HaDerech before travelling a parsah out of the city, he saw Reuven in his car on the other side of the road traveling towards Bnei Brak. The person travelling to Yerushalayim for the meeting was now in doubt if he may turn around and return to Bnei Brak to meet Reuven even though he hasn’t yet traveled a parsah, or if perhaps doing so will cause his Tefillas HaDerech to be a berachah levatolah, and therefore it would be best to travel at least a parsah, and only then return to Bnei Brak.
The Gemara in Berachos (29b) teaches:אמר ליה אליהו לרב יהודה אחוה דרב סלא חסידא ...וכשאתה יוצא לדרך ,המלך בקונך וצא .מאי המלך בקונך וצא ?אמר רבי יעקב אמר רב חסדא :זו תפלת הדרך – “Eliyahu said to Rav Yehudah the brother of Rav Saloh Chasida ... and when you go on the roads to travel, first ask permission from your Master and then go. What does it mean to ask permission from your Master and then go? Rebbi Yaakov said in the name of Rav Chisda: It means to recite Tefillas HaDerech.”
The Tzlach explains that the lashon of המלך, implies that before setting out to travel one should first ask permission from Hashem if it’s ok for him to travel or not, as if it simply meant to daven then it would say, התפלל לפני קונך וצא – daven in front of your Master and then go. However, the big question is, how does one know if he has been granted permission? The Tzlach explains: We find later on in Berachos (34b):אם שגורה תפלתי בפי – “If the tefillah is fluent and flowing, then it’s a good sign”, the same thing is by Tefillas HaDerech, if the tefillah flows nicely, it’s a sign Hashem wants the person to travel, if, however, it doesn’t flow nicely, then it’s a sign Hashem wants the person to stay home.
R' Elyashiv (Shiurei Moran HaGrish, Berachos 29b) asks: Why aren’t we worried about berachah levatolah? Perhaps the tefillah won’t flow nicely, and it will be a sign that one shouldn’t travel, and surely if one doesn’t travel it will turn out that the Tefillas HaDerech was in vain?
R’ Elyashiv answers using a famous Ritva in Chullin (106a, cited in Sha’arei Teshuvah beginning of 158) which says that if one washed his hands and recited “al netilas yodayim” and then changed his mind and decided not to eat bread, the berachah is not levatolah [in vain]. Therefore, here as well, since originally one intended to travel, it’s not a berachah levatolah.
However, they ask on the Ritva, from Rashi in Shabbos (24a) which explains that we don’t say עננו on the night of a Ta’anis or in the morning as we are worried that perhaps an oinus [unforeseen circumstance] will happen and one won’t complete the ta’anis, and it will come out that he is a liar. Although at the time of davening the person wasn’t lying, since in the end of the day he never fasted it turns out he lied, this seems to contradict the Ritva?
However, R’ Elyashiv explained that עננו is different as it’s a tefillah about יום תעניתינו – the day of the fast, it goes on the entire day, already from the night, and if one is onus and doesn’t end up fasting it wasn’t a יום תעניתינו at all. However, by netilas yodayim, the obligation is to wash the hands and make a berachah, and even if one doesn’t end up eating bread, in the end of the day he did wash his hands and at that time he was obligated in a berachah of “al netilas yodayim”.
According to this, by Tefillas HaDerech as well, when setting out for the journey one was obligated to make a berachah, and even if later he never traveled, at the time of the berachah there was an obligation, therefore, it is not in vain.
The Shu”t Betzel HaChochma (5:66) brings that the Shu”t Eretz Chemdah (siman 1) already discusses this shailah. The Eretz Chemdah quotes the Elyah Rabbah (239:3) who asks how we recite the berachah of “hamapil” on sleep, when perhaps one may not fall asleep? And he answers, that “hamapil” is not on an individual persons sleep, rather it is on the minhogoi shel oilam [the general idea of people in the world sleeping], therefore, even if one individual doesn’t fall asleep it doesn’t matter. The Eretz Chemdah then says, that by Tefillas HaDerech we can’t say this, therefore, one is obligated to make sure to travel a parsah in order to avoid having made a berachah levatolah.
However, the Betzel HaChochma refutes this, and he says that Tefillas HaDerech is like netilas yodayim, and just like “al netilas yodayim” was fixed for when one washes his hands with intention to eat bread, and even if in the end he doesn’t eat bread since at the time the berachah was recited one washed his hand it’s not levatolah, the same thing is with Tefillas HaDerech. Tefillas HaDerech was fixed to be said when one intends to travel on a journey more than a parsah, and even if one doesn’t end up traveling it’s not levatolah, especially if one only recited Tefillas HaDarech whilst he was already on the way.
