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Thought for the Day: You are Always Allowed to Daven for Yourself... Even for a Fly

I have, Baruch Hashem, bli ayin hara, puh-puh-puh, several very bright and adorable grandsons. I have one in particular who has an incredible eye for details. He recently told me that he had a question on Chumash, parshas Lech L'cha; the battle of the four kings vs the five kings. I told him to get a chumash and show me. As he was headed to the Mikra'os HaG'dolos, I redirected him to a regular chumash. (I mean, he's only seven. How complicated could this be?) He showed that in 14:2 and 14:8 the verses tell me that one of the kings was from Bela, which is now called Tzo'ar. Verse 14:3 says that they engaged in the battle in the valley of Siddim, which is the Dead Sea. Verse 14:8 also mentions that the battle was in the valley of Siddim... but does not mention that the valley of Siddim is the Dead Sea in that second verse. In all innocence, he asked why the new name was repeated for one place but not for the other.  I sent him back for the Mikra'os HaG'dolos.... I do have an approach; but it is way beyond the scope of this TftD.

I decided to try him out on halacha. Rabbi Fuerst, in his very popular and quite informative (as well as entertaining) Sunday morning shiur had addressed the question of whether or not one is permitted to daven that a fly should survive an accident and have a complete recovery. So I asked my grandson what he thought. He answered immediately an in extraordinarily cute innocence, "Of course! You have to have respect for all of HaShem's creations. So you can daven that he gets out of a spider's web or can just fly through it." I pointed out that the spider also has to live, so if you daven for that fly to live, you are davening for the spider to suffer. "Hmm... ok, you should daven that that fly should escape and a different fly -- who is old and about to die anyway -- should land in the web." My rejoinder was simple: Maybe that fly is the old one who is about to die?

I then agreed that one must, of course, have respect for all of HaShem's creations... but, is one ever allowed to kill a fly? What about if he is bothering you during davening? "Yes... you could kill him then.... but, wait... not on Shabbos!" Exactly. Of course, I hugged him.

The case was someone was davening on Shabbos and absentmindedly swatted away a fly. He then remembered it was Shabbos and realized what he had done! Then he saw the fly on the table/shtender (I don't have that detail...) down, but not out; its wings and/or legs were still moving. The question was: are you allowed to daven that the fly should not die (at least immediately) from it's wounds in order that the Jew will not have transgressed Shabbos. The answer was that you certainly are allowed to daven for the fly to live. After all, you don't really care about the fly; you are trying to avoid a serious Shabbos transgression. Someone asked R' Fuerst what name to use; R' Fuerst -- quick as ever -- pointed out that since the fly was right in front of you, there is not need to use a name; as when Moshe Rabeinu davened for his sister, Miriam.

Back to my grandson's first response. In truth, you do need to have respect for all of HaShem's creations. The mishna in Avos, in fact, says explicitly not to take anything in Creation for granted; it has a purpose for you. One foundation of avodas HaShem is that we, as Jews, are expected to never react, but to always act -- with a thought and planning.
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