The Power of Prayer and Supplication

THE DAILY CHIZZUK FROM MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A – TUESDAY, 19 SIVAN 5784

IT IS BROUGHT IN MIDRASH KOHELET (KOHELET RABBA, PARSHA 9, PISKA 7) ABOUT A SIMPLE JEW BY THE NAME OF ABBA TECHINA CHASIDA WHO CAME HOME ON THE EVE OF PASSOVER WITH A PACKAGE FOR HIS FAMILY.

IN THE PAST, THERE WEREN’T SHOES LIKE TODAY.  PEOPLE WOULD WALK BAREFOOT IN THE SNOW THROUGHOUT THE WINTER.  BEHOLD, IN JERUSALEM, SNOW WAS FALLING.  EVERYONE WAS WALKING BAREFOOT, AND HE WAS BRINGING TO HIS CHILDREN SHOES IN HONOR OF PASSOVER, IN HONOR OF SEDER NIGHT.

Five minutes before he reaches the city, a distance of five minutes from the city, he saw a man dying.  The man said to him, “I’m going to die, bring me into the city.  Bring me into some house.  I am here at a crossroads.”

Abba Tachina Chasida says to him, “If I bring you into the city, then it will already be sunset and I will be unable bring the shoes and clothes to my children.  Then they will be barefoot all winter.”

The man said to him, “Either you bring me in to the city or you don’t bring me.  I’m already in the last minutes of my life.”

So, Abba Tachina said okay, tossed the package with all the shoes among the bushes, put the man on his shoulder, ran with him into the city, and brought him into the first house.

In the meantime, it already became dark.  This wasn’t like today; there was no light at all.  Darkness meant the darkness of Egypt – “The darkness will be tangible” (Shemot 10:21).  It was possible to “touch” the darkness.

Abba Tachina saw that it was already dark.  He said, “I need to bring the package home.  I don’t care, my children are hungry, barefoot.  It’s Seder night.”  He ran amongst the bushes and brought out the package.  All around it was complete darkness, the darkness of Egypt, and he ran with the package.

Suddenly, the public saw Rabbi Abba Tachina Chasida running with the package.  The man considered to be the most pious was running with a package on Shabbat inside the city, running and it was already dark, stars were already visible.

Abba Tachina was running, and everyone was shouting: “Abba Tachina desecrated Shabbat.  Abba Tachina desecrated Shabbat.”  Not only that, but he himself also felt this way.  He reached home and burst into tears: “I would have already left my packed amongst the bushes.”

AT THAT MOMENT, HASHEM PERFORMED MIRACLES FOR HIM.  WHEN HE WAS CRYING INSIDE: “I DESECRATED SHABBAT, I DESECRATED THE HOLIDAY, I DESECRATED PASSOVER,” “AT THAT MOMENT, THE HOLY ONE, BLESSED IS HE CAUSED THE SUN TO SHINE, AS IT IS WRITTEN (MALACHI 3:20), ‘A SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL SHINE FOR YOU WHO FEAR MY NAME.’”

And the question arises: For such a man as this who, at the end of the day, only knew how to say supplications, just Abba “Techina [implying ‘supplication’].”  He wasn’t a great scholar.  He wasn’t a great genius.  He only said supplications, and for him, Hashem made the sun shine anew?

That the simplest Jew – it is written: Hillel the Elder had eighty disciples (Sukkah 28).  Thirty could move the sun.  These thirty, who were like Moshe, certainly could move the sun, because Moshe moved the sun five times: in the war with Amalek, Sichon and Og – this is three, the giving of the Torah, and the day of his death.

On the day of this death, Moshe wrote thirteen Torah scrolls, twelve Torah scrolls for all the tribes, and another Torah scroll for the Holy of Holies.

https://vimeo.com/967359735