Q&A: Prayer for a Miracle and for the Past
Prayer for a Miracle and for the Past
Question
Hello Rabbi,
The Shulchan Arukh in section 230 writes: “One who enters to measure his grain heap says: May it be Your will, Lord my God, that You send blessing upon this heap. If he began to measure, he says: Blessed is He who sends blessing upon this heap. If he measured and afterward recited the blessing, this is a vain prayer, for blessing is found only in something hidden from the eye (that is, concealed and not seen).” I did not understand why before the measuring this is not a vain prayer. After all, we do not expect things beyond nature. And if this is not talking about a quantitative change through the blessing, but rather that the business should succeed, for example that the grain should become more expensive, then why after the counting would that no longer be relevant?
Answer
The conception here is that there is blessing, but it rests only on something hidden from the eye. That is, according to this Talmudic passage, one may ask for a hidden miracle. And perhaps there is a conception here that blessing in grain is not considered a miracle at all, because success in crops is in any case entrusted to the Holy One, blessed be He.
It is obvious that one may ask that the business succeed before undertaking it. It is hard to believe that anyone forbids that. At most, one could prohibit it if the conception is that success in commerce depends on the quality of the grain itself (and not on market conditions, chance buyers, and so on).
Discussion on Answer
In the plain sense of the Shulchan Arukh’s wording, it seems that he distinguishes between future and past. That is, paragraph 1 is not dealing with prayer for a miracle but with prayer about the future. It follows that prayer for a miracle is permitted. The difficulties with this have already been explained by me elsewhere. He apparently understood that determining the sex of the fetus is not a miracle.
Here he is speaking about something hidden or revealed. To pray for a miracle is possible, but only if the matter is hidden. After he knows the quantity and quality of the grain, it is a prayer about something revealed.
In short, I do not think one can derive from here a neat and consistent doctrine, at least when one understands reality in the terms of contemporary science. That probably was not the way the Sages and the author of the Shulchan Arukh looked at things.
Thank you
First, in the previous סעיף the Shulchan Arukh wrote that it is forbidden to pray concerning his pregnant wife that she give birth to a male. According to the Rabbi’s words, that contradicts this paragraph.
Second, it seems to me that when they speak here about grain in a heap, they mean after it has already been harvested.
Since it is obvious that they do not forbid praying for success in business, necessarily they are praying about the amount of grain, and then it is difficult, because that is a vain prayer.