[Avodah] Machnisei Rachamim

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger wrote:

> 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?

Depending on one's perspective, the differences between "davening", "begging", and "asking" might be subtle or glaring.

Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach discusses this problem, and his response is to use yet another verb to describe what we are saying to the malachim. But I don't like quoting from memory, so, for now, I'll just make two points.

1 - For those of you who have Halichos Shlomo on the yom tovim, look for yourself. It's in the pre-RH halachos. For everyone else, I hope my next post will be published before RH. (If tomorrow were Erev Yom Kippur, I'd be meikil and post it from memory, but we'll still have yet another week of selichos.)

2 - Beside Shalom Aleichem and Machnisei Rachamim, another data point to consider is the "V'imru Amen" (at the end of Oseh Shalom during Birkas Hamazon and Shmoneh Esray) which we say even when we are alone. To whom is this directed? RSZA refers to Magen Avraham on Orach Chaim 66:7, that it is directed to the mal'achim "hashomrim oso".

Akiva Miller

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