Ta'anit 8 How to Get What We Want Through Prayer

If a student's studies are difficult for him, like iron, what should be done?  Different rabbis quote different sources to different ends. Perhaps go easier on him. Perhaps have him work harder.  Perhaps have his friends intercede with his teacher.  Rashi believes that he should learn with others, while other rabbis tell us that he should study alone.

Ecclesiastes (10:11) teaches that "if the snake bites before it has been charmed, the charmer has no advantage".  The rabbis take this to mean that we must know the proper prayers for rain to ensure that we get that rain.  So that is our first lesson on how to get what we want through prayer: pray properly.

But how do we know how to pray properly?  Rabbi Ami teaches that we must put all of our souls into our prayers, even with our hands turned upward, for our prayers to be heard. Shmuel however has said that all prayer is heard whether or not the pray-er is sincere.  The Gemara accounts for this difference by teaching us that Shmuel is referring to communal prayer while Rabbi Ami is referring to prayer while we are alone.

Rabbi Ami strengthens his point by alluding to the story of the pit and the marten.  We learn that a man saved a woman who had fallen into a pit.  They pledged themselves to each other, as witnessed by the pit and a marten.  Later the man married another woman and their two children died - one by falling into a pit and the other by a marten. The man realized his error and returned to the woman he had rescued.  A nice story - except for the wife who lost two children and then her husband.  But this story is used to teach us that if a pit and a marten hold us to our word, how much more powerful must be the power of G-d's commitment?

In amud (b), we learn that both rain and the heavens closing are compared with women in childbirth.  In Deuteronomy 11:17, we learn "And he will close up the heavens".  This is compared to a woman who is in childbirth but does not give birth.  Her pain helps us to understand G-d's pain when G-d closes the heavens and keeps the rain from us.  In a number of places, rain is compared to childbirth, for it falls and then plants are 'born' and then blossom.  Verses regarding Sarah and Rachel's experiences of childbirth are used as proof texts.  The rewards (and the consequences) of 'praying properly'.

Between a rock and a hard place: in Shmuel's time, the people faced a plague and a draught at the same time.  How should the people pray?  The Gemara reminds us that we must pray for one of two troubles as G-d will attend to our other difficulties without the need for prayer.  Rabbi Ziera faced a decree of persecution; Jews were not allowed to fast.  He instructed the community to forgo the fast as it could be done after the decree was lifted.  So now we know that we should focus our prayer on one, big ask rather than focusing on many of our competing needs.

The daf ends with a number of examples of acts of G-d that can be called a curse; how our pray can change G-d's mind.  We learn from Rabbi Yitzchak that "a blessing is found only in an object that is hidden from the eye" (Deuteronomy 28:8).  This means that G-d does not want to draw attention to G-d's miracles, for they are rare and we should not upset people's understanding of the natural order.  In addition, this suggests that our prayers and vows said privately are that much more likely to be fulfilled, for we are doing these actions for G-d and not for others who have been witness.

The theme of today's daf seems to rest on the notion of sincerity of prayer.  And we might pray that we are understanding these instructions properly!