A story that illustrates the point of view that one must not rely on the Davenen alone helping him with his problems. He must do. He needs to try and rectify the situation himself.
A yidene shteyt afn bes-oylem -- a bes-oylem vi ale
bes-oylems iz es ober nisht, dos heyst nisht ka bes-oylem
far mentshn, khas-vekholile, nor lehavdl a bes-oylem far
khayes (ir zolt visn zayn az in amerike feln nisht azelkhe
bes-oylems) -- un zi yomert un makht yeloles. Zi veynt mit
trern s'harts ken tsegeyn. Di trern rinen fun ponim un af a
hoykhn kol baklogt zi un ruft oys, "Hintele, hintele, zay a
meylets-yoysher far mir un far der gantser mishpokhe. Bet,
s'zol zayn sholem in erets-isroel, s'zol zikh shoyn nemen a
sof dortn tsu di milkhomes, me zol ufhern hargenen undzere
yidn. Un nokh epes, hintele, bet got er zol farshtarkn di
tel-oviver berze un di prayzn zoln zikh haltn." Nisht vayt
fun der yidene shteyt a yid un er hert vi zi shrayt un bet.
Geyt er tsu un shushket ir in oyer arayn: "Yidene, far
azelkhe toyves shikt men nisht ka hunt -- me geyt aleyn!"
This and other stories here
{You go yourself!: A woman was standing in a cemetery --
not, mind you, an ordinary cemetery, one for people (God
forbid!), but an animal cemetery (there are such places in
America) and she wailed and lamented and it was enough to
break your heart to hear her. She wept buckets and cried
out, "Doggie, doggie, ask God to give me and my family good
health. And let there be peace in Israel, no more wars,
let there be an end to killing Jews! Also, dear doggie, ask
God to keep the Tel-Aviv stock market strong and prices
steady. A man standing nearby, who heard her cries, went
over and whispered in her ear, "Missus, for such favors you
don't send a dog, you go yourself!"}
Isn't the idea that we have a direct connection... we need not look for intermediaries?
ReplyDeleteWell, then who's the dog?.....
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean: "He needs to try and rectify the situation himself."
ReplyDeleteMeaning?
The humor in the sudden conjunction of the
ReplyDeleteordinary (sending messages) and the aweful (the mystery of
death and the afterlife), a domestication of Death by plain
speech. The joke has a fresh flavor owing to the
stockmarket reference and seems more aimed at releasing
financial than war anxieties -- both are real.
A group of wealthy people, supporters of Chabad, came to the Rebbe after procuring land to build a mosad.
ReplyDeleteIt was Shvat, and the Rebbe said that the project should be completed for yud-aleph Nissan (to the shock of the crowd) - one of the group said "Amen!"
The Rebbe turned to him and said, "Amen is not a pledge."
I think the story is pointing out the foolish way we often daven, and foolishness of what we sound like while davening (especially the combination of things we want to daven for).
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Perhaps in some Protestant religion there is no need for intermediaries, but in the Jewish religion we do not rely solely on our own merits, or on our own prayers. In selichos we say Machnisei Rachamim, and the uncensored version of Shlosh Esrei Midos, and when we need a yeshua we go to the cemetery and enlist the dead to pray for us. Learn the chapter of Zohar that's printed in the Maaneh Loshon; you may be astonished at what you will see there.
ReplyDeleteI think the story (if there is a point to it at all) may be reflecting the tendancy we have to put our faith in non-holy or foolish avenues for help and salvation, Vda"L.
ReplyDeleteCE may very well be right. If it is a Maskilishe Mayseh Then it may just be poking fun at the idea of going to Kevorim and davening there. The dog analogy seems to be pointing in that direction.
ReplyDeletefor the best Yiddishe meises, read a book titled Royte Pomerantzen.
ReplyDeleteMillhouse -
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure as to your sources. However, in Chabad thought - they are not intermediaries per se (C"V). As the famous R' Shimshon the T"T brings in Derech Mitzvosecha, "הריני מתפלל כדעת זה התינוק", and NOT like the other shitos haMekubalim cited there.
Another point, which the Rebbe brings in his haoros - entitled "Likkut Taamim U'Mekoros" on Selichos - regarding Machnisei Rachomim (how can the malochim..) - and he even quotes Zohar, to boot!
Here's the full quote from there, for the readers' benefit (The second paragraph, b'ikar - witht the 'mishnah achrona' of the T"T):
מכניסי רחמים: סידור רע"ג. עד"ז – גם בתשו' לרב שרירא גאון (זכרון לראשונים סי' שע"ג)6.
6) שקו"ט אם לאומרו בשו"ת יודא יעלה (לר"י אסאד) ח"א סכ"א; בשו"ת שמש צדקה חאו"ח כ"ג כ"ד מראה פנים לכל צד; חת"ס או"ח קס"ו; ענפים לעיקרים ב', כח; מו"נ ג, ג; שבלי הלקט ובתניא רבתא לר' יחיאל הל' ר"ה מסתייע מסנה' עה"פ היערוך שועך לא בצר. ראה ג"כ מבוא לסידור אוצר התפלות פ"ג.
ובשרש מצות התפלה להצ"צ פ"ז מביא מהק"נ ספ"ק דר"ה. אבל בהגהותיו לד"ה נ"ח (שבתו"א) פ"ג שנכתבו לאחר שכתב שרש מצות התפלה מסיק וז"ל: הענין כי אין הפי' שמבקשין מהם דבר ח"ו – רק להיות בבחי' שליח להוליך השפע מלמעלה למטה וכן הן מעלין התפלות כאמרם בגמרא ובזהר פ' שמות כו' עכ"ל.
ben eliezer, did you actually read the Hebrew that you copied in? The Rebbe says explicitly that they are intermediaries. להיות בבחי' שליח להוליך השפע מלמעלה למטה וכן הן מעלין התפלות How much clearer could it be? We are asking them to bring our tefillos up. That's as far as Machnisei Rachamim is concerned.
ReplyDeleteBut what about Shlosh Esrei Midos? We say the uncensored version, asking the middos to pray for us. How do you explain that, if you stick to the Protestant no-intermediaries doctrine?
And then comes the theme of this post: our practise of going to the cemetery and asking the dead people to pray for us. We inform the tzaddik or relative who is buried there that we are in trouble, and we ask him or her to intercede for us. Yes, exactly as Catholics, lehavdil, pray to their saints. There is no difference, except that our saints are kedoshei Elyon and theirs are kochos hatum'oh.
And we go to the grave because without that the person won't know that we're in trouble, and won't intercede for us. (See the meiredige mayse with the Mitteler Rebbe, when his son-in-law passed away. I can't remember where it's recorded, in one of the sichos or reshimos.)
I hate to point out the obvious here, but in the story it's clearly an animal graveyard, not a bais hachaim...
ReplyDelete