Davening for Others

Apropos what was spoken about yesterday, the lashon HaRambam מבקש צרכין שהוא צריך להן. In order for a person to daven, a person can't just be intellectually cognizant of need, but he has to feel the neediness. And that's why the Rambam doesn't just say mevakesh tzorcho but rather מבקש צרכין שהוא צריך להן. So apropos of that, it's kedai to see the Maharal has in נתיב העבודה פרק י"ב, quotes a Gemara in Sanhedrin, that

רבי יוחנן אמר לעולם יבקש אדם רחמים שיהיו הכל מאמצים את כחו ואל יהיו לו צרים מלמעלה.

A person should always be imploring, should always be beseeching that he shouldn't have any adversaries, that no one should be opposing his tefillah. So the Maharal says, you'll take a look in Rashi there in Sanhedrin you'll see the background to the Maharal, so the Maharal says what it means is that a person is being mispallel to Hashem Yisbarach שלא יהיו לו צרים, but he's not being

אבל שישתפלל ויאמר למלאכים אל תהיו צרים לי אין זה ראוי.

He says a person is addressing Hakadosh Baruch Hu that he should have no adversaries, he's not addressing the malachim, don't you be adversaries. And then he takes issue with Machnisei Rachamim for that reason. He says

אנו נוהגין לומר מכניסי רחמים הכניסו רחמינו ואין זה ראוי כי דבר זה כאלו מתפלל על מלאכים ולא מצאנו זה.

So then he says אי והא דאמרינן במסכת תענית that

כאשר גזרו תענית היו יוצאין לבית הקברות כדי שיתפללו עלינו המתים רחמים.

So what difference does it make malachim or meisim? So says the Maharal,

אין זה שאנו מבקשים מן המתים שיתפללו עלינו, רק שאנו הולכים לבית הקברות,

listen to the lashon rabosai,

ומתחברים למתים שגם המתים יתחברו לחיים ויבקשו רחמים על ישראל כי המתים גם כן ישראל והם אוהבי ישראל ומבקשים רחמים על ישראל, אבל לומר למלאכים הכניסו רחמינו אין זה ראוי.

So what did the Maharal mean here? This chibur and that they're ohavei Yisrael, what does it mean? It's a little cryptic. But then what comes next is even more cryptic.

ואפילו אם מותר לומר לאדם אחר התפלל עלי זהו אצל האדם שהוא עושה חסד עם חברו לפיכך יכול לומר עשה עמי חסד זה והתפלל עלי אבל במלאכים לא שייך לומר כך רק דרך תפלה ובקשה וחס ושלום שיתפלל כך.

Then he says even if it's muttar to ask another person to daven for me, you can only ask a person, you can't ask a malach. What do you mean even if it's muttar? Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells Avimelech that ויתפלל בעדך וחיה. Avraham Avinu is going to daven for you and you'll be cured and you'll live. What do you mean even if it's muttar? Of course it's muttar, no greater ma'aseh rav than that. So the Chasam Sofer has a tshuva where he explains what this Maharal means. And he says that the first approach the Maharal presented is that there's no such thing as davening for someone else. In order to daven, a person has to feel the need. When one person davens for another person, for a choleh, it's only if there's enough empathy that the person himself now feels needy. The Maharal says you can only daven for a choleh if there's enough empathy, right, the story of Aryeh Levin, our knee hurts. Only if to a degree that that is true, then and only then can a person daven. There's no such thing as davening if you don't feel the need. You can't daven with detachment. That's what the Maharal says, we go out to the beis hakevaros, the meisim, the meisei Yisrael become aware of our predicament, so then mimmela our need becomes their need, they are ohavei Yisrael and then mimmela they daven. But it's not the pshat that we are addressing them, we are beseeching them. That you can't do. Then the Maharal says ואפילו אם מותר לומר, even if you'll say no, there is such a thing as Reuven davening for Shimon without that empathy, without appropriating Shimon's pain as his own, without making Shimon's tzarah his own, even if there is such a thing, even if. That also is a basis for tefillah, that's only by a person who does chesed, but by malachim who don't do chesed, you can't do such a thing.