לקחתי אשר אחיך על אחת שכם לך נתתי ואני” (כב מח) “ובקשתי בחרבי האמרי מיד
Chazal ask about this passuk (Bava Basra 123a) “And did he take it with his sword and his bow?! Doesn’t it say (Tehillim 44:7): ‘Ki lo bekashti evtach vecharbi lo soshieni?” The commentaries explain: “Charbi, my sword – is tefillah, and kashti, my bow – is bakashah, a request.”
The reason tefillah is compared to a bow and sword is explained in a few ways:
The Maharsha explains that the comparison between a sword and bow comes to allude that the tefillos of Yaakov helped him overcome the brachos of Eisav and Yishmael. Because Yishmael was blessed with the brachah of the bow, as it says (Bereishis 21:20): “Vayehi raveh kashas,” and he was an archer, while Eisav was blessed with the sword, as it says (ibid 27:40): “V’al charbecha sichyeh,” by your sword you shall live.”
Rav Azariah Figu, author of Gidulei Terumah explains that the passuk compared tefillah to a sword and bow, to instruct that the power of tefillah is compared both to a sword that is intended to fight face to face and to a bow that serves to shoot an arrow to distances. With these comparisons we learn that it is within our ability to prevail over the yetzer using tefillah, both in a war that he wages with us from close up, in his efforts to incite us to transgress the laws of Torah, and with a war that he wages from a distance – when he prosecutes against us in front of the Kisei Hakavod.
The Sfas Emes brings in the name of the Baal Hatanya that comparing tefillah to a sword and a bow describes the two forces that are active in tefillah – the power of the Anshei Knesses Hagedolah who instituted the nusach of tefillah, and the power of the person who davens. The nusach of tefillah composed by the Anshei Knesses Hagedolah is compared to a sword, whose power is contained in its very being – in the sharp blade, while a person who davens is compared to a bow that is made from a thin branch, and only with the right action and with the power of the shooter and his skills can one attain the desired result from it.
Rav Yosef Yisrael Deutsch, author of Ben Garni, explains that by comparing his tefillos and requests to a sword and bow, Yaakov meant to describe two types of tefillos that he was fluent with. The sword serves to kill the enemy that is already at our door, and that corresponds to a tefillah said after the arrival of the trouble, which is also effective, as Chazal say (Brachos 10a): “Even if a sharp sword is resting on a person’s neck he should not despair of mercy.” But the bow is used to shoot arrows when the enemy is still at a distance, and that corresponds to tefillah before the arrival of a trouble, and that is the tefillah that Chazal praised and said (Sanhedrin 44b): “L’olam yakdim adam tefillah letzarah.”
The Meshech Chochmah explains that Chazal clarified: “Charbi is tefillah kashti is bakashah” because there is a difference between a tefillah and a request. Indeed, the tefillah is compared to a sword and the request to a bow. That is because tefillah is the nusach established by the Anshei Knesses Hagedolah, and that is accepted even if there was no kavanah, and that is why it is compared to a sword, whose use does not require skill or knowledge. In contrast, a bakashah is the personal request that a person adds, and in order for those to be accepted, they need to be said with kavanah of the heart, and therefore, they are compared to a bow, whose use requires precision and skill and practice.
Rav Moshe Leib Shachor, one of the gedolim of Yerushalayim, explains that based on the words of the Meshech Chochmah, we can understand why the Torah preceded the sword to the bow, even though the way of war is that it starts when the enemy is still at a distance and attempts are made to fight it with a bow, and only if it continues to advance, do we fight it with a sword. This is because a person should first employ the sword, which corresponds to fixed tefillah, before the bow that alludes to the private requests, and that is the order of tefillah – first the fixed nusach is said, and then bakashos are added.
Maharsha Bava Basra 123a; Binah L’Itim, Eis Hazamir Drush 62; Siddur Harav p. 23b; Sfas Emes Noach 5635; Ben Garni; Meshech Chochmah; Avnei Shoham
