In this week’s parsha we learn all about the nazir. A nazir is a person who accepts upon himself added restrictions.
ending if he were allowed to live). We prefer to “put him to death while innocent, rather than wait and put him to death when he is already guilty.”
Note that the Gemara in Sanhedrin (71a) says that these are theoretical halachos which teach a homiletic lesson but which can never actually happen throughout Jewish history.
Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi, in Parshas Vayera, asks a very famous question on this idea cited by Rashi, that a Ben Sorer U’Moreh is judged now based on his future deeds:
In Parshas Vayera, the malach told Hagar that Hashem heard the cry of her son, Yishmael (who was dying of thirst), “b’asher hu sham” (as he was there). (Bereishis 21:17) The Medrash relates that the malachei hasharays [ministering angels] questioned, as it were, the Judgment of the Almighty: “Master of the Universe – what are You doing? This Yishmael will have descendants who will cause Your children to die by thirst; why are You providing a well for him?” Our current suffering from Yishmael’s descendants only strengthens their question!
The Almighty responded to the malachim: Currently, what is he – righteous or wicked? The malachim had to respond that at that point he was righteous, to which the Almighty responded that He only judges man based on his actions at a particular point in time, not based on Hashem’s foreknowledge of future actions. This is the connotation of the expression “b’asher hu sham” (i.e. — as he was there, at that time).
Rav Eliyahu Mizrachi points out the contradiction: By the Ben Sorer U’Moreh, the young man is judged based on what will become of him eventually. However, Yishmael was given a pass since at the time of judgement he was still not guilty of his future crimes.
There are many answers given to this question. One answer is that Yishmael – the individual – never made Jews die of thirst. Only his descendants sank to that level. However, the Ben Sorer U’Moreh himself will become a danger to society.
R’ Frand brings another answer from a sefer called Bei Chiya, which was written by a Rav in the Five Towns (Rav Elisha Horowitz). He suggests an answer based on a Gemara in Rosh Hashanah (18a): “Rabbi Meir used to say you can have two people who fall ill with the same illness or two people who are accused of identical crimes, who are both on the gallows – yet one will descend (i.e., get better) and one will not descend (i.e., will die from his illness). Likewise, one person will be hung, and the other person will not be hung. Why? It is because this one prayed and his prayers were answered, and the other one prayed and his prayers were not answered. This one prayed a tefilah sheleimah (a complete, sincere prayer) and the other one did not pray a tefilah sheleimah.”
Even though both had the same illness and faced the same verdict, one of them was saved by virtue of his tefilah sheleimah and the other one, who did not pray a tefilah sheleimah, went to his death.
The Bei Chiya asks: How does the Gemara know that this was the crucial factor that explained the distinction between the fate of these two individuals? Why doesn’t the Gemara attribute it to other zechusim [merits] that one had vis-a-vis the other? Why attribute it to prayer rather than to charity or to other positive attributes which might also explain the difference?
This Gemara teaches us an idea that is essential for us to know, especially at this time of year. Prayer is all-powerful. Sometimes zechusim cannot save a person and other things cannot save a person, but the Almighty placed in His world, within the metaphysical laws of spirituality, the fact that tefillah helps rescue man from crises. Statistically, these two individuals should have met the same fate. However, the power of prayer of one of them tipped the scales for him, and that saved the day.
The Bei Chiya suggests that this is the difference between Yishmael and the Ben Sorer U’Moreh. Theoretically, Yishmael, too, should have been judged “al shem sofo” (based on the future actions of his offspring) just like the Ben Sorer U’Moreh. But Yishmael cried out to Hashem! He davened. This, in fact, is emblematic of the power of the nation of Yishmael, going all the way back to their founding ancestor. When the aspect of koach hatefillah comes into the equation of two individuals facing identical statistical possibilities, all bets are off. Theoretically, a person could be judged “al shem sofo,” as we see by the Ben Sorer U’Moreh. However, if concurrently, while a person is being judged, he reaches out to his Father in Heaven with the pure cry of a child reaching out to his father, the tefillah can overpower any other factor.
R' Frand adds: This should be a lesson to us during these holy days. Elul is a preparation for the Yomim Noraim. When people ask me, “What should a person be concentrating on during these days?” I answer that a person should try to learn how to daven better. That is what the Yomim Noraim are about: “Seek out Hashem when He is to be found, call out to him when He is near.” (Yeshaya 55:6). It is all about davening.
Pardon the mundane analogy, but there is such a thing in baseball known as “spring training.” A fellow has to get his timing right in order to hit. There are six weeks of spring training because that is what it takes to get into shape. L’havdil elef alfei havdolos, that is the way it is with Elul. It is the time that we need to prepare for the Yomim Noraim. How do we do this? We do with the power of tefillah. We do it by trying to daven a little bit better and a little bit slower. We read seforim about davening. At the end of the day, the difference in fate between one man and the next may very well be that “this one prayed a tefilah sheleimah and this one did not pray a tefilah sheleimah.” (R’ Frand)
