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Thought for the Day: You Probaby Don’t Want Your Prayers Torn to Bits in Your Face

Great title, no? But that's the gemara (Brachos 5b/6a): 

אַבָּא בִּנְיָמִין אוֹמֵר: שְׁנַיִם שֶׁנִּכְנְסוּ לְהִתְפַּלֵּל. וְקָדַם אֶחָד מֵהֶם לְהִתְפַּלֵּל, וְלֹא הִמְתִּין אֶת חֲבֵרוֹ. וְיָצָא. טוֹרְפִין לוֹ תְּפִלָּתוֹ בְּפָנָיו...  וְלֹא עוֹד, אֶלָּא שֶׁגּוֹרֵם לַשְּׁכִינָה שֶׁתִּסְתַּלֵּק מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל

Abba Binyamin says, [if/when] two enter [a shul] to daven and one starts to daven before the other and doesn't wait for his friend, but leaves -- his t'fila is torn up in his face... Not only that, but he causes the Divine Presence to be removed from the Jewish people.

Sounds bad, right? Like, really, really bad. What did the first guy do so wrong? The basic understanding is that they went to daven ma'ariv and in those days the shuls were out in the fields. That meant that leaving someone alone out there was putting him in some danger. At the very least it would make him nervous and distracted. That is, Jew A basically took away Jew B's t'fila. So, מידה כנגד מידה/measure for measure, Jew A has his t'fila torn up in his face. But that's not all! Jew A also causes the Divine Presence to be removed from all of us. Yikes! (Grand understatement.)

At this point, I am pretty well convinced that I shouldn't do that. But the Gemara isn't finished. Here comes my favorite part:

וְאִם הִמְתִּין לוֹ מַה שְּׂכָרוֹ? אמר ר' יוסי ברבי חנינא זוכה לברכות הללו שנאמר (ישעיהו מח יח) לוא הקשבת למצותי ויהי כנהר שלומך וצדקתך כגלי הים ויהי כחול זרעך וצאצאי מעיך וגו'

And if he does wait; what is his reward? R' Yossi son of R' Chanina says: he merits the following blessings, as it says, etc.

Honestly, I am thinking that not having my prayers ripped to shreds in my face and not being guilty of causing the Divine Presence to be removed from the Jewish people ought to be plenty of motivation. Also, how does this apply nowadays, given that our shuls are not out in fields? Moreover, since when does the Gemara feel the need to tell us the reward for a mitzvah? (I asked around; this is a very rare question for the Gemara to ask. Not unique, but rare.) Finally, it feels like leaving a fellow Jew alone in a dark, deserted field is, to say the very least, not mentchlich. Since when do I expect some grand reward just for acting with normal human decency?

I will leave it to you, my dear reader, to explore those questions and any others on your own. There is a lot written about it. I just want to share a single explanation that I found absolutely relevant and motivating to improve my t'filos.

The Ben Yehoyada says the "two" here is referring not to two Jews, but to one Jew -- his soul and his body. It is talking about when the soul/mind finishes davening and goes flying around attending to all sorts of worldly "needs" and leaves the body to finish by itself. (A distressingly accurate description of many of my t'filos, I am sad to say.) Now the Gemara comes to give us encouragement: But if you can just keep it together and daven like a mentch, do you know what that is worth? A river of peace, an ocean of righteousness for you and your descendants. (See Yeshayhu 48:18/19)

My mincha after seeing that Ben Yehoyada was much, much better. Let's see if I can keep it together.

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