PART 18: THE OBLIGATION TO USE THE POWER PRAYER TO REDEEM OTHER JEWS
B.S.D.
Rabbi Shimon Kessin
The power groups are Jews who have a greater power to pray for other Jews
There are certain Jewish groups that have a greater power to redeem a selected population of Jews in distress through their prayers than other groups. These groups are considered the ultimate "power groups"to redeem these selected Jewish populations. A power group is a group that has the ability to utter a power prayer. We have seen that this refers to a group that prays for other Jews in need or distress where they themselves do not have that need or share that distress (level 3). If that group did have that need or shared that distress then their prayers would be less effective and they would not be a true power group (level 2).
Two groups of Jews who are currently in danger are those who are in the process of assimilating and those who live in Eretz Yisroel
There are two groups of Jews in the world who are currently in great danger. It is very important to know who these endangered groups are and who the power groups are that can possibly redeem them through their prayers. The first group is that of the millions of Jews worldwide who are currently in the process of losing their Jewish identity through assimilation and intermarriage. It is estimated that in twenty years over five million Jews will be lost, in the U.S.alone. If this process is not stopped, they will be lost to the Jewish people forever. The Jewish power group that could redeem this group in danger through their prayers would be composed of all Jews, wherever they are, who are Torah observant and who consequently do not share the endangered Jews' crisis of assimilation. Their prayers on behalf of their endangered brothers and sisters could successfully influence Hashem to become merciful as a father and stay the process of assimilation. The second group is that of the millions of Jews in the land of Israel who are currently being threatened by millions of Arab enemies waiting to destroy them. If these enemies are even partially successful, the results would be catastrophic. The Jewish power group that could redeem this group in danger through their prayers would be composed of all those Jews who live outside of the land of Israel and who consequently are not physically endangered. Their prayers on behalf of their endangered brothers and sisters could successfully influence Hashem to become merciful as a father and remove the threatening circumstances facing them.
Jews are obligated to pray for each others welfare
There is a compelling obligation for all Jews and especially for all those that can be considered power groups, to help save their endangered brothers and sisters through prayer. This is for two reasons. Firstly, there is a specific commandment in the Torah that obligates every Jew to exert all possible efforts in this direction. "You shall not stand aside while your fellow's blood is shed" (Vayikra 19:16). "Your fellow's blood" would include all physical and spiritual dangers and "standing aside" would include not even praying for them. Secondly, Jews need to do this for their own salvation and for their own protection from their transgressions. When Jews callously disregard each other's danger, they break the bonds that unite them as a family unit. Hashem considers this callous disregard as a terminal sign that the Jews have ceased to be a family and have instead become a group of strangers since true family members would never act that way. Thereupon, he withdraws his father and mercy aspect and instead shows himself as a king and judge where justice dominates. The Jews will then experience strict justice that would be seen in the many troubles that would befall them because of their transgressions. This reason, therefore, obligates all Jews to minimally pray for their endangered brothers because if they do not, they risk being dominated by Hashem's king-aspect of strict justice from then on and rarely will they see the merciful hand of their father.
Source that one is obligated to pray for the welfare of other Jews
The obligation to pray for the welfare of other Jews has already been taught by one of our greatest sages. Rabbeinu Yonah in his Sefer HaYir'ah, states the following:
"If you hear the trouble of distant Jews, groan and pray for them. One should pray every day to the Holy One, blessed be He, according to his customary language, for the Jewish people, that is, for their rehabilitation from all illness, for their redemption from amongst the gentile nations, for their salvation from all ill-fortunes, for the release of all their imprisoned, for the spiritual enlightenment of those who are captured in the darkness of the gentiles, for their approach to true repentance and that the Holy One, blessed be He, should accept them before Him."
Ignoring another Jew's danger causes Hashem to become (so to speak) enraged and brings down severe Justice
This compelling obligation should not be taken lightly. This would be a catastrophic mistake. Indeed, if you should ask, bottom line, what is the single greatest sin that the Jews have transgressed throughout their history that is more responsible than any other for causing their horrific disasters, it would surely be their failure to live up to this obligation of not standing by their brothers' blood with at least an outcry to Hashem to save them. There is nothing that so enrages Hashem (so to speak) more and provokes His immediate justice to descend upon the Jews than His watching them sit by and do nothing while a segment of their family, other Jews, face terrible danger. If you doubt this, then consider the following scenario.
You are a parent of two adult sons. One is swimming in a lake near the shore while the other is relaxing on the shore. Nearby sits a lifeguard. Suddenly, the son swimming in the lake develops a leg cramp and begins to drown. The other son on the shore sees this and strangely, he continues to relax. Moreover, he is so indifferent to his brother's terrible predicament that he even fails to alert the lifeguard about the situation. You, the parent, have observed this entire scenario. How would you feel? The answer is obvious. You would become greatly outraged at your son relaxing on the shore. If he claimed that there was nothing he could do since he cannot swim, you would accuse him of not even bothering to call the lifeguard, the least action he could have taken. If Hashem forbid, your other son had actually drowned, you would probably either disown this one and never speak with him again or severely punish him because of his callous disregard for his brother's life.
Hashem's reaction, should He see such a similar scenario amongst His children, the Jewish people, would be similar to yours, the parent. If He sees that Jews are callously indifferent to the dangers, spiritual and physical, facing their fellow Jews, He becomes enraged (so to speak). Should these indifferent Jews then defend themselves by claiming that there was nothing that they could do, Hashem would then respond as the parent would and say, "Why didn't you at least call over the lifeguard and plead with him to save your brother's life?" Hashem, of course, would be referring to himself as the ultimate lifeguard. Even though He already knows of the dangers these Jews are facing since He is causing them for His own inscrutable reasons (therefore He need not be alerted that they are in danger), nevertheless, by calling to Him to save these Jews as a brother, He could then become a lifeguard, that is, be primarily a father and dispense mercy.
More specifically, Hashem would respond as follows. "Your claim that you were so powerless to save your fellow Jews is not true. I am the G-d of all existence and therefore nothing can happen that is beyond my knowledge, consent and control. If a segment of the Jewish people are in a crisis and danger, it is because of my will and my decree. I am the cause of that crisis and therefore I can be the cause of its dissolution. You know this to be true. Why then did you not turn to me and plead with me to save your brother Jew by reversing that decree? Why didn't you cry out to me of your pain and agony in witnessing his sorrow and despair? Why didn't you plead with me, as my children, for your brothers' sake and beg me to show the compassion of a father? Your pleas could have been my justification to the Satan, the accuser, that I must turn aside from my role as a king and judge in the world and instead preside as a father because by your pleading to me for your brothers, you have acted as a family. If you could do nothing else, you could have done this. Where was your outcry (tz'akah)?"
When one Jew prays for another Jew he should do so for all endangered Jews without exception
It is very important that the prayer said for endangered Jews not be selective, that is, that it focuses only on a certain endangered group while conspicuously ignoring another endangered group. In such a case, the prayers could become essentially ineffective even for the group that is being prayed for since the Jews who utter these prayers can be accused of selective brotherhood, that is, favoring certain brothers over others. Hashem the Father would then be sorely disturbed (so to speak) and Hashem the King would emerge as dominant.
This selectivity, unfortunately, is often seen in the prayers of Torah observant Jews who specifically pray only for their own group's welfare (especially as regards the sick and unfortunate) while ignoring the great dangers facing other Jews. This exclusion is most dramatically seen when it comes to the danger facing the non-orthodox Jews (especially in America), which is their potential spiritual annihilation. In doing so, Torah observant Jews fail to realize that by neglecting the dangers facing the non-orthodox in their prayers, they are jeopardizing their prayers' ability to be heard and accepted even for their own group since these prayers lack the ability to awaken Hashem's father aspect because of their selected brotherhood. Therefore, if Torah observant Jews want their prayers accepted in Heaven for themselves, they must include all other significantly, endangered Jews as well.
A significant reason for this neglect is that, unfortunately, many Torah observant Jews remain amazingly ignorant of their power of prayer for the millions of non-observant Jews who are assimilating and facing spiritual annihilation. They have a mistaken belief that there is nothing that they can do. They do not realize that to a large degree this threat to the non-observant community is really a decree from the heavenly court of Justice and as such is subject to modification by the principle of Mercy. They do not realize that it is in their power to awaken this mercy by their prayers since it demonstrates true brotherhood.
One of the most powerful accusations of the Satan against Torah observant Jews is undoubtedly the fact that they have not extended themselves to forcefully cry out for the salvation of the non-observant before Hashem, the father of all Jews. The Satan constantly declares before Hashem that Torah observant Jews do not really care for their brothers, the non-observant Jews, since they do not demonstrate an outcry of pain and agony at the fact that they are witnessing nothing less than a spiritual holocaust that is about to engulf them. The Satan further asks Hashem as to why, in such a case, should He transcend his judgment and grant mercy for the non-observant. Torah observant Jews also fail to grasp the fact that their minimal outreach efforts towards the non-orthodox to make them Torah observant will never truly succeed as long as they perceive this group of Jews as unworthy of a supreme effort to plead with Hashem on their behalf to save them.
Torah observant Jews must correct this mistake before it is too late. They must vigilantly declare before Hashem that the horror of watching five million Jews disappear from Jewry is unbearable. Hashem awaits their outcry and prayers so that He can turn to the Satan and say, "if my children, the Torah observant Jews, can plead for their less fortunate brothers, the non-observant, how can I, the father of them all, turn away and ignore their cries!" There is no greater power group to redeem the non-observant from their crisis than Torah observant Jews. They have a great responsibility which they must not ignore. Should they fulfill this obligation, then Hashem's joy would be enormous and the benefit that they would receive would be indescribable.
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