ISAAC AND MINCHA
[The following analysis is an elaboration of “Three Motivations for Prayer”. It focuses on Yitzchak who models the second “motivation”]
תלמוד בבלי מסכת ברכות דף כו עמוד ב
איתמר, רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא אמר: תפלות אבות תקנום; רבי יהושע בן לוי אמר: תפלות כנגד תמידין תקנום.
Rebbe Yossi stated in the name of Rebbe Chinana that the Avos legislated the three daily prayer services…
In Maimonides’ alternative formulation, they “prayed” (rather than “legislated” thereby modelling or setting the precedent for the three daily prayers, Maimonides’ formulation correlates with the concept that prayer must emanate from an inner-directed need to communicate with God.
The inner urge for prayer is clearly manifest in both the Avraham and the Yaakov narratives. Avraham is desperate to rescue the inhabitants of Sodom from annihilation; Yaakov is fleeing from Esau’s murderous rage.
What about Yitzchak?
Bereshis 24:62-63
Now Yitzchak was on his way, coming from Be'er Lachai Ro'i, and he dwelt in the land of the south.
And Yitzchak went forth to pray in the field towards evening, and he lifted his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were approaching.
Rashi citing the midrash in BR may provide an answer:
coming from Be’er Lachai Ro’i: where he had gone to bring Hagar to Abraham his father, that he should marry her (Gen. Rabbah 60:14).
to pray: לָשׂוּחַ is an expression of prayer, as in (Ps. 102:1): He pours out his prayer (שִׂיחוֹ). - [Gen. Rabbah 60: 14, Ber. 26b].
After Sarah’s death, Avraham and Yitzchak had the benefit of one another as “mourning partners”. Only those who had been intimately connected with the Sarah would be able to appreciate the cosmic, boundless nature of the loss. The rest of the world would empathize, especially since Avraham eulogized her, but mourners always sense that others will never be able to perceive the immeasurable nature of the loss.
This “cluelessness” of the non-mourning “outsider” finds its symbolic expression in the traditional rule that a person entering a house of mourning not speak until the mourner chooses to address him or her. This “comforter’s silence” constitutes an implicit realization of the event’s unknowability. Words and sentences, in their quantifiable, measurable aspect, ultimately ring hollow. Silence, along with wordless weeping, are more appropriately expressive.
Berachos 6b:
אמר רב פפא אגרא דבי טמיא שתיקותא
Rav Pappa said: The reward for attending a house of mourning is for the silence…
אמר רב ששת אגרא דהספדא דלויי
Rav Sheshes said: The reward for delivering a eulogy is [for causing those in attendance] to raise their voices and cry.
בראשית פרק כג
וַיָּבֹא֙ אַבְרָהָ֔ם לִסְפֹּ֥ד לְשָׂרָ֖ה וְלִבְכֹּתָֽהּ:
And Avraham came to eulogize Sarah and to cry for her.
Note that in English, the verb “to cry” takes an indirect object: “He cried for her”; the verb “to eulogize, in contrast, takes the direct object: “He eulogized her”.
In Hebrew, the opposite occurs, and as such, Lashon Hakodesh mirrors more faithfully the realities of grieving and loss. Crying is precipitated by confronting the irreversible loss of a direct, unmediated connection with the deceased, and therefore takes the direct object. Eulogizing, in contrast, requires a certain amount of emotional distance from the deceased. That distancing is indicated in the Hebrew by the use of the indirect object.
Only Hashem, who plumbs the infinite depths of every soul, comprehends the boundless nature of every human loss. Yitzchak heroically divested himself of his “mourning partner” by enabling him to re-marry Hagar. At this point, therefore, he must turn to Hashem, who may comfort him by neutralizing the painful loneliness that has now become a significant aspect of his grief.
Thus the only person who is able to empathize completely with a mourner – to fully validate the intensity and the specificity of his grieving - is a “co-mourner” someone who was as close to and as appreciative of the deceased as he was. Yitzchak and Avraham were able to serve that function for one another.
Yitzchak’s heroism, therefore, lay in his decision to enable Avraham to remarry Hagar, his deceased mother’s co-wife and enemy. In so doing, he indicated a willingness to divest himself of his co- mourner, of the validator of his heartbreak, and thus to remain alone in his grief.
Isaac represents the waning of the sun, as symbolized by the loss of a parent. The time for Mincha is “when the shadows of eventide begin to grow long…” With the loss of parents, death “hits home” - our own mortality, which until now had been only a concept, now becomes an ongoing feeling defining – or at least informing – our inner world. Isaac has no maternal siblings with whom to share his loss. His father, Abraham, had just remarried Hager and was no longer a co-mourner. Who else would be able to empathize with him in his painful loneliness, other than God, Who, in His own uniqueness, understands the specific pain of each unique infinite soul which He created in His image?!