[Avodah] Machnisei Rachamim

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 07:12:18AM -0400, Michael Mirsky wrote:
:> (Not that I personally say "Machnisei Rachamim". For that matter, I
:> don't even say "borkhuni leshalom". My current solution is to replace
:> it with the verse Sepharad says that Ashk skips, "Beshivtikhem
:> leshalom".)

: Is this because of the issue of it appearing that we are davening to angels
: as intermediaries (I believe this is a concern of the GRa and others)?

I don't think the Gra's problem was mar'is ayin. Rather, he felt it
actually /is/ praying to angels as intermediaries.

Personally, I don't say these tefillos because I often find my thoughts
drifing in that direction when I say them. I don't know the line between
tefillah and AZ, and since we're talking about AZ, I avoid the question
altogether.

It's not like I can keep up during selichos without choosing things to
skip anyway...

: Actually, this bring to mind a halacha that I heard that one davening
: in private shouldn't say any parts of the davening that are in
: Aramaic because when you daven b'yichidut you are relying on angels
: to take up your tefilla....  it seems to contradict the view that we
: shouldn't be (and can't be) davening to angels in the first
: place!  So I ask, is this an actual halacha?  And if so, how do we reconcile
: with the angel issue?

There is a diference between davening to Hashem knowing that mal'akhim
bring up the prayer and actually turning to the mal'akh and begging him
to do so. "Machnisei Rachamim" is literally the latter.

Asking mal'achim for a berakhah, as in "borkhuni leshalom" is grayer. We
ask rabbanim to give us berakhos, Yaaqov and Eisav each beg their father
for a berakhah, so why not ask mal'achim?

There are a couple of relevent differences:

1- Mal'akhim don't necessarily have free will. Certainly according to
the Gra's derekh they don't.

2- They're intangible. That makes beseeching them much more dangerously
close to dor Enosh's error of worshipping HQBH's entourage than asking
another person to daven on your behalf.

WRT the neshamos of niftarim, it is common during the close of a hesped
for someone to ask the niftar to be a meilitz yosher for us. The Gra
would assur that as well. As far as my own, more personal, criterion, I
don't find myself focusing on the niftar to the exclusion of THE Barukh
when I hear such things, so it doesn't bother me.

This is of a piece with other limitations of mine, like my inability
to understand the concept of metaphysical mechanics -- the notion that
the cheftzah of the mezuzah protects beyond the sechar mitzvah, the
discussions in the gemara of qemei'os, etc... I need a simpler model
for my relationship with the supernatural -- I act, and HQBH insures I
live in a universe that best helps me get from where I took myself to
where I'm supposed to be going. All the mess in between that qabbalah
addresses, be it spiritual causality or the actions of mal'akhim (and I
am not saying those are necessarily different things) seem to me to be
complications that get in the way of my understanding of sechar va'onesh.

But until that's cleared up, I'll avoid tefillos that cause within me
thoughts that may very well be shituf or mamash full AZ.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             None of us will leave this place alive.
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