In this week's parsha, we find Yitzhak going out "to converse in the field." Rashi explains this to be prayer -- Yitzhak went out to daven. The Ishbitzer Rebbe takes this to say that Yitzhak was davenning for a wife. Yitzhak's relationship with G-d is one of fear. Fear (awe) of G-d is an incredibly difficult level to reach, because when you can't physically detect something with at least one of your senses, it's really hard to know that it's there. Yet Yitzhak was able to have faith and reach a level whereby his desire was only to do the will of G-d. The problem was, this fear was an obstacle to action. Yitzhak felt that doing G-d's will meant being passive, for fear that his own actions might be motivated by a desire that was his, but not G-d's. Going out to the field is his move to take action. Avraham had sent his servant out to find a wife for Yitzhak. Perhaps this was the wake-up call for Yitzhak, pushing him to plead out loud in that field for G-d's help.
The Gemara says that for some, they must go half-way around the world to find their beshert (their intended soulmate) and for others, they don't have to leave their house. This reminds me of a friend…
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"So, Max, I've got this great girl for you. She's from Far Rockaway, and…"
"Oh no, Al, not again. I have the worst luck with ANYONE you set me up with. How old is this girl?"
"Don't you mean, how old is her soul?"
"No, Al. How OLD is she? "
"Um, well… okay, so she's 17, I mean, what's a few years?"
"A few years?! Al, I'M 30!!!"
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My friend Max was living in Maine, trying with all his might to find the right woman, to find his beshert. He wasn't having much luck with his friend Al's "Never-Fail Dating-Service," so he decided that he would just stay put in Maine and stop shlepping all over the East Coast only to be disappointed. He continued learning at the shul in the tourist town where he lived -- greeting guests, doing maintenance, and making phone calls to insure minyans. He had emunah (faith). He was confident that the woman he would marry would walk right through the door of his shul. Talk about Chutzpah! We're talking about Maine here, not Manhattan. So a month went by and there Max sat, day in, day out, keeping the shul alive as a place for guests to feel comfortable and for natives to learn Torah. Another month went by and Max was still sure it would happen. Finally, after three months, it was Shabbat in that little shul. Max, a Sephardic Jew from Egypt, was chanting the Shema aloud just as he'd done every Shabbat since he'd been observant. Just then, a woman in the shul turned to her mother beside her and said, "Do you hear that man's beautiful voice? Whoever can say the Shema like that is going to be my husband!" And within the year, Max and Sarah were married. GEVALT!
In Likutey Moharan #7, Rebbe Nachman talks of r'eh emunah (shepherding faith). How does a shepherd guard his flock? Does he rush them to and fro with whistles and yells? No. If I had one word to describe shepherds, it would be patience. It is this patience that cultivates caring and sensitivity to the needs of the flock. So too, Max's patience allowed the emunah he had to blossom and grow and be nurtured over those three months. And it was when he said Shema, the ultimate expression of a Jew's faith in the oneness and truth of G-d, that he finally merited to reap the fruits of the faith that he had planted. And Yitzhak, what happened when he davenned for a wife, when he expressed to G-d his faith? His wife to-be, Rivka, appeared on the horizon!
I bless us that we should have Max's faith, Yitzhak's awe, and the strength to take an active role to achieve what we need.