definition

This is an interesting claim. The question is how do you define recurrence in time? I discussed this in the fourth book of the Talmudic Logic series and showed that it can be defined in a way that is free from logical contradictions. In any case, praying for the past is certainly not related in any way to going back in time. This is just a mistake. The example given in the Gemara is praying for a fetus in the mother's womb, which I pray will be a boy. Let's say it is now a girl. Why can't God change it to a boy? This is a physical impediment at most, and even that is not necessarily the case. After all, today even a flesh-and-blood doctor can perform sex change surgery. Therefore, there is no contradiction to the laws of nature here, and hence, even in the time of the Sages, there was no physical impediment here. Certainly, certainly not a logical impediment.