[Avodah] Praying for Miracles

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2017 at 11:01:03PM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
: Question: Why did the Mishna need to give 2 examples, is there a chiddush
: in each?

The Mesivta (Berakhos 60a) quotes Shoshanim leDavid who answers:

1- The case of the burning home is needed, because there is still
something to pray for. So, even though he is praying that it not
be his home, one might thing Hashem could still answer his basic
intent by quieting the fire before there is further destruction.

2- The case of the baby's gender is needed because the father really
only cares about the gender once the baby is born. However, any damage
done in the fire cannot be undone. So there is a way in which the fire
is more firmly in the past than the prayer for gender. and so we need
the mishnah to say that even so, both would be a tefilas shav.

To fill in, and answer the question the subject line refers to...
Leah davenend that there be more of the 12 shevatim left for Rachel to
birth, and that tefillah did change Dinah's gender, to free up another
possible boy for Rachel. So why can't one daven that a fetus have a
particular gender? First answer is that we don't pray for miracles. (The
second is that she davened before 40 days.)

: As far as: It is proper to pray before measuring produce. But is this
: not equivalent to praying AFTER hearing screams or AFTER the woman is
: already pregnant

I would suggest that nothing is set in stone until observed. "Ein berakhah
sherurah ela behe'elem ayin". But I would argue this is because the
unobserved isn't real yet.

As for the gender of a fetus, it would seem that according to halakhah,
Schroedinger's fetus observes itself.

: My take is that the prayer by the produce is like the bracha of mvarech
: hashanim -- not for more crop but more satisfaction from what we have

My take was that birkhas hashanim was about the shanah -- the time. IOW,
not for more crop, but for our time spent on parnasah being more
spiritually productive.

This is tied to R' Shimon Shkop's idea that the reason why Moshe made
his fortune off the sapphire chiseled off the second luchos is to teach
us about our own work life. The job is to refine our souls to be capable
of holding Torah; work is a nice side-benefit.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             People were created to be loved.
micha at aishdas.org        Things were created to be used.
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Fax: (270) 514-1507      things are being loved, people are being used.