Re'eh: redemption

Two back-to-back verses in Tehillim

The opening is close to Tehillim 119:153-154. Verse 153: "See my affliction (re'eh onyi) and rescue me." The next verse: "Argue my case (rivah rivi) and redeem me." Abudarham (a commentator on the prayers who lived in Spain around 1340) says the first words of the blessing are based on "see my affliction." The psalm says "my." The prayer says "our."

The order was bent on purpose

Tehillim 103 lists three gifts in this order: He forgives, He heals, He redeems. By that order, healing would come right after forgiveness in the Amidah. It does not. Rashi (the main commentator on the Gemara, who lived in France and died in 1105) explains the Gemara's question that way: why not healing after forgiveness, as in the verse? The Tur (a code of Jewish law from Spain in the 1300s) answers: they changed the order of the verse to get redemption into the seventh place.

On a fast day, a second prayer joins it

On a public fast day the leader's repetition adds a special blessing, Anenu, right after this one. The Mishnah (the first written collection of the oral law, about 1,800 years old) gives an order of extra prayers for special public fasts. The first one ends with this blessing's own ending. Before it the leader says: "He who answered Avraham on Mount Moriah will answer you and hear the sound of your cry today."

Why Anenu sits exactly here

Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo's commentary on the Tur; he also wrote the Shulchan Aruch) passes along an older reason from Tehillim. The last line of Tehillim 19 is "Hashem, my rock and my redeemer." The next psalm, right after its one-line heading, opens: "May Hashem answer you on the day of trouble." The redeemer comes first and the answer right after it, so Anenu goes right after the redeemer blessing.

The Rambam's version is different

When the Rambam (Maimonides, the great codifier of Jewish law, who died in 1204) wrote out the Amidah, the printed text of this blessing reads: "Look at our affliction, argue our case, judge our judgment, and hurry to redeem us, for You are God, King, a strong Redeemer." He has "judge our judgment" and "King." He has no "complete" redemption and no "for Your name's sake."

Look inside the trouble

Rabbi Elimelech Shapira of Grodzisk (a Chassidic rebbe in Poland in the 1800s, and the father of the Piaseczno Rebbe) asks why the Hebrew says "look in our affliction" and not just "look at our affliction." Deep down, he says, the main pain of every Jew is not being close to God. It is the weight of exile and suffering that stops that wish from turning into action. So we ask God to look at what is inside our affliction. Now read "look in our affliction" again.

עיקר היסורים על זה שח"ו אינו מקרב את עצמו לאלקים חיים ומלך עולם ב"ה... וזהו ראה נא בענינו ר"ל בפנמיות שבענינו

Why does it say "strong"?

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (a great Chassidic master who died in 1809) asks why we call God a "strong" Redeemer. Does God need to build up strength? He answers with a line from the Mishnah (Avot 4:1): "Who is strong? One who overcomes his urge." Doing what is simply deserved takes no strength. So "strong" means redeeming us even when we have not earned it. That, he says, is what "for the sake of Your Name" is asking for.

וזה וגאלנו מהרה למען שמך, אפילו אם אין אנחנו ראוים לגאול, כי גואל חזק אתה והתחזק על מדותיך

God's Presence is in exile too

An early Midrash on the book of Shemot, the Mekhilta, says that wherever Israel was exiled, God's Presence (the Shekhinah) went into exile with them, starting with Egypt. Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai (a kabbalist who wrote Avodat HaKodesh between 1523 and 1531) reads this blessing with the same idea. God's Presence is with us in exile, he says, so we pray to be redeemed "so that He redeems Himself." And "for the sake of Your Name" means: let God's Presence come out of its exile. Now read "for the sake of Your Name" again.

כי השכינה סוד השם הנכבד עמנו בגלות ואנו מתפללין שיגאלנו כדי שיגאל את עצמו, והוא אמרנו למען שמך שתצא השכינה מגלותה

The cure comes before the blow

The Gemara (Megillah 13b) says God never strikes Israel without first creating the cure. Shem MiShmuel (Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain of Sochatchov, a Chassidic master in Poland who died in 1926) applies this to Egypt. A Midrash says the tribes are listed at the start of Shemot because their names point to the redemption. Reuven, for example, points to "I have surely seen." So the way out existed before the exile began. Only time was missing. He adds that this gave them strength to stand against the flood of exile.

וע"כ בהכרח שנבראה הרפואה קודם המכה והגאולה קודם הגלות, וזה שמות השבטים ע"ש הגאולה כאלו הגאולה כבר במצאות ואין חסר רק הזמן

I'm not the leader. Where do I say Anenu on a fast day?

Inside the blessing Shomea Tefillah ("Who hears prayer"), not here. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules that an individual says it there. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi custom to it) adds: say it before "for You hear," and leave off the closing line about a time of trouble. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on Jewish law, about 1900) explains that only the leader got a separate blessing. Even if you pray along with the leader word for word, you still say it there.

Do I say Anenu at every prayer on a fast day?

The Shulchan Aruch reports a view that an individual says it only at the afternoon prayer, in case he faints from hunger, has to eat, and his prayer turns out false. But on the four required fasts (Tisha B'Av, 17 Tammuz, the Fast of Gedaliah, 10 Tevet) even an individual says it at every prayer, since the Sages set those fasts. The Rema writes that the custom on all fasts is the afternoon prayer only, plus the leader in the morning repetition.

My Sephardi friend says it at night on Tisha B'Av. Is that different?

Yes. The Kaf HaChaim (a major Sephardic law commentary, written in Jerusalem in the early 1900s) reports the Sephardic custom. On Tisha B'Av they say it in the evening prayer too, since people stop eating before sunset. On the other three public fasts they say it in the morning and afternoon, but not at night. The same book says Ashkenazi custom follows the Rema: afternoon only, plus the leader in the morning, even on Tisha B'Av.

I'm not fasting because I'm sick. Do I say Anenu?

No. The Beur Halacha (the Mishnah Berurah's author's longer notes) rules that an individual who is not fasting does not say Anenu at all. One earlier authority, quoted there, had allowed it with wording about the community's fast. A later one objected, and the Beur Halacha agrees with him. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) gives the reason for the objection: the prayer is for yourself, so it would look like a lie. It then quotes the Beur Halacha's ruling.

Why does my shul skip the separate blessing?

The Shulchan Aruch says the leader adds it as its own blessing only if ten people in that synagogue are fasting. Ten fasters elsewhere in the city do not count. The Mishnah Berurah says that when there are not ten, he says it in Shomea Tefillah like an individual. It also says that if one of the ten will not finish the fast, the blessing is not said.

The leader forgot Anenu. Does he go back?

Not once he has finished Refa'enu (the healing blessing after this one), says the Shulchan Aruch. Going back would be a blessing said in vain, because he would have to say Refa'enu a second time. The Rema adds that he says Anenu in Shomea Tefillah, as an individual, and the Mishnah Berurah adds that he leaves off its closing line there too. The Mishnah Berurah also notes one exception: if he remembers before he says God's name at the end of Refa'enu, he says Anenu with its closing and then says Refa'enu again.