T'filla #6- Rabbi Maroof

Review of #5

The preoccupation with taking the general principle of Hasgachically guided delivery system and applying it to the self, is fraught with difficulty. How is one to know the ways of hashgacha?

As is has been so many times in the past, it is the clear, honest questioning of RJM that leads the way to the answer.

R. Maroof's struggle

In purely practical terms, the difficulty that I struggle with is the material reality that most of us obtain our parnassa through some form of human agency - we are employed by a company managed by humans, our salary is paid by humans, and our job security is dependent upon human opinion - so the hashgacha focus, while theoretically true, is limited in its impact on our "bottom line" conduct.

How resonant, how succinct, how quintessentially honest and true. Yet, there is a path to victory in this very struggle that RJM identifies- if we look through the eyes of Yaakov.

Yakov's struggle with Human Agency

The struggle with falling prey to seeing the "human agency" as the hand which delivers our food, is indeed a fundamental one. Why is it so fundamental? It is fundamental because it lies at the root of transcending the limiting function of our animal psyche. It is significant to note that the very names Yakov and Yisrael connote struggle. Yakov indicates material struggle, the immature grasping of the younger brother for the material heel of the animal Bechor- Esav. The struggle for bechora was over the most significant of issues- control of the material resources needed to maintain a legacy of the Abrahamic seed. But a legacy founded on what- there were two possibilities- the material power and glory offered by Esav the hunter. Or the metaphysical educational legacy of Yakov the tent dweller.

Underlying these two individual men, lie two principles of Man. Yakov the tent dweller is moved by the principle of Hashgacha- a Superior systemic Chochma guiding a material process the reflective mind can see providing the good possessed by mankind and ones very self. Esav the hunter is guided by another principle- the principle of animal psyche that seeks to make its own self image the motive force of the environment.

From these two principles arise two mutually exclusive priorities of human greatness. Mikdash versus Migdal bavel. The land cannot be ordered primarily to both. Resources can either be dedicated to the the functioning of Mikdash needed for greatness in the educational priority of Yakov or it can be ordered to the pyramids and towers of Babels needed to project the illusion of the animal greatness of Esav.

Hunter or manipulator

The animal hunts, not so much through brute force,as through cunning. The human animal is the same. Chazal point out that Esav hunted his father, created illusions of himself as a "righteous son" that Yitzchak could not see through. Indeed it is precisely this ability to manipulate relational images that is the power source of Esav leaders. The salesman manipulates the image of "friend" to his advantage. The client falls into the web of the salesman's "friend" image and swiftly finds himself with a car he does not need or want.

The fan finds himself swayed by the larger than life image of his idol, the child falls prey to the image of the parent and vice versa. As Rabbi Maroof notes, the employee falls prey to the mighty image of his employer.

What is critical to note, is that the leadership principle of Esav, this tendency to found one's actions on the image of an all powerful human, is a natural principle of animal man. Without בכורה, families and tribes would not form, nations could not emerge, economies and social systems would grind to a halt. Yet from this power an Esav arises who must attack Yakov, an Egypt arises that must enslave Israel.

Yakov's struggle with the angel

It is this notion that Chazal point to when they note that the angel that Yakov struggled with as Esav approached, was none other than the angel of Esav, the rhetorical power of illusion needed to maintain the state. Yakov realized that if he were to survive, if the principle of Hashgacha were to be maintained through him, he would have to transcend not only Esav the man, but the very natural principle underlying him. The reason for this is that if Yakov were to prevail, a plan worthy of being realized would have to be formuated. Such a plan would have to find a logical chink in the armor of the image of Esav -it would have to use this underlying weakness as a tool to allow a weaker tent dweller the bechora.

In the prophecy it was made clear, not only would this particular struggle with Esav over בכורה have to be waged, it would be continued throughout generations. The nation of Israel was born and named through this struggle- B'nei Yisrael- the sons of struggle. So it was with David and Goliath so it was with Mordechai and Haman. It fell to the sons of Yakov to find the necessary chink in the armor of the "invincible leader" for Hasgacha to relate to them as a vehicle.

Avoda and struggle

This clarity of Yakov's, the insight into the necessity of struggle with the animal principle of Esav, as well as its individual human expressions, is the struggle Rabbi Maroof describes so well. Yakov's way out-is the only way. Yakov realized that the Hashgacha would relate to help the sons of Yakov in their struggle to be vehicles of the Shem Hashem taught by Avraham. Yakov in his tefilla, realized his fear, from his older brother from Esav would ultimately only be overcome through a plan expressed in terms of t'filla. He knew that only formulating his sense of his own instrumentality in the Nvua could be the basis of redemption from the natural principle of the angel of Esav. It is precisely this seeking of a reasonable interpretation of Nvua in which one is oneself the instrument of Hashgacha that is the core of Yakovian t'filla. As Mordechai says- "who knows if this is why you were put in the Queenship"?

Seeing Hashgacha through Yakov's eyes

So it is for us. Once we realize the natural animal basis of our seeking security through the various leaders or image manipulators, we see that only seeing ourselves and our plans via the prism of Nvua can be our release. It is this function that t'filla in fact does serve. T'filla shows us how to formulate our plans, as instruments of N'vua regarding Geulat Yisrael in the 19 areas of life.

Through T'filla we see Hasgacha as a living system in which we can root our plans and release ourselves from human agency. Of course if we look through Yakov's eyes.