Connecting Redemption to Prayer

The cardinal prayer in Judaism is called the Amidah, literally, the standing prayer. When Abraham takes it upon himself to plead for God to not destroy the evil people of Sodom, it says that he was standing before God and then he approached Him in prayer. Abraham standing before God is a textual precedent for the importance of standing during the Amidah prayer. When we pray the Amidah, we first take three steps back and then three steps forward, as if approaching the Almighty. This mirrors how Abraham stood and approached God in prayer.

The Amidah is followed immediately by the conclusion of the previous section of prayer, which closes with the blessing: Blessed are you God who redeemed Israel. Jewish law dictates there should be no interruption between this blessing and the beginning of the Amidah. Although this seems quite straightforward and easy to accomplish, the Talmud relates the story of the Sage Rav Beruna, who was known particularly as one who had great joy when doing mitzvot. He claimed that one time he was able to connect the blessing of redemption to the Amidah in a way that the smile remained on his face the entire day (Berachot 9b). Further, the Talmud claims that one who attaches the blessing of redemption to the Amidah merits to be a “child of the World to Come” (Berachot 4b). What we learn from these two statements is that it is not simply the juxtaposed recitation of one prayer to another, but a much deeper acknowledgment and attitude about the connection between God as Redeemer and our ability to approach God in prayer.

For prayer to be meaningful and sincere, there must be a basic belief that God not only listens and cares, but ultimately has the ability to answer; to “redeem” our prayer. This then is the essential importance of the juxtaposition between the blessing expressing God’s power to redeem and the Amidah prayer.

As mentioned previously, Abraham pleading to save Sodom is the first recorded prayer. Therefore, we might ask what experiences did Abraham have that would allow him to believe that God answers prayers and wants an intimate personal relationship? There are, in fact, many incidents in Abraham’s life that would lead him to the conclusion that God does redeem and that prayer is a powerful means of connecting with the Creator of the world.

According to Midrash, when Abraham was becoming aware that there must be one Divine force unifying all reality, he cried out:

Who is the master of the city [the universe]? To which God responded “I am the Master of the city.” This revelation led Abraham to reject idol worship and to begin to teach publicly the reality of one God. Because of this revolutionary idea (as mentioned in a previous chapter), Abraham was brought before the ruler, Nimrod, who demanded that he stop his preaching. When Abraham refused, he was thrown into a fiery furnace and miraculously came out unscathed. Thus, we can understand how Abraham, through direct experience, could believe in a God who redeems. Later, Abraham and Sarah were saved by God from a disastrous situation in Egypt (as discussed in the portion of Lech Lecha).

Immediately before Abraham approaches the Almighty in prayer, the angels who came to Abraham and Sarah’s tent revealed to them that after years of waiting they would finally have a child. Until then, the greatest frustration and challenge in Abraham and Sarah’s lives was their inability to have children. The mystical tradition teaches that on a spiritual level, their intimate marital unions created the souls of all future converts; however, biologically, they were not able to have children. This was, in essence, their greatest trial. Thus, the news that they were in fact going to have children was the epitome of experiencing God as Redeemer.

When God changes Abraham’s name by adding the letter hei, the Torah explains his name to mean that he was “a father of many nations.” Abraham understood from this that God was making him responsible for the entire world. Isaiah later framed this mission in the statement that Israel was to be “a light unto the nations.”

Before Abraham begins to pray for Sodom the Torah reveals God’s inner thoughts:

And God said: “Shall I conceal from Abraham what I intend to do. And Abraham surely will become a great nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him and they will keep the way of God to do justice and judgment, that God may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken of him.” (Genesis 18:17-19)

God revealed to Abraham what he intended to do because he knew that Abraham would rise to the occasion and feel responsible for the entire world. God wanted Abraham to feel this responsibility and be driven to pursue justice, even if it meant confronting the Almighty in prayer. And Abraham does just that: “Abraham drew near and said: Will You also destroy the righteous with the wicked … far be it from You to do after this manner to destroy the righteous with the wicked … will not the Judge of all the earth do justice?” (Genesis 18:23-25).

Thus, we see that in Abraham’s own life, he experienced not only direct revelation of God, but being saved and redeemed by God. Therefore, when Abraham stands and approaches the Divine, which is the archetypal precedent for Jewish prayer, we see how his confidence and belief in a redeeming God encouraged him to take that position.

The Jewish people’s firm belief in the ultimate redemption of the world in the Messianic era is based, in great part, on our experiencing God’s redemption throughout history. Although Jewish history is full of tragedy, defeat, exile and oppression, it is equally full of miracles, Divine assistance, and salvation. We will only know the secrets of why Jewish history unfolded in such a manner in the Messianic era, but it is clear that the ability to continue to exist as a nation – to pray, dream and work towards a better future, is in large measure based on the redemptive reality of Jewish survival. We will continue to pray for a redeemed world and hope we will see it quickly and in our days.