Tefillah Tips - Hallelukah Ki Tov – 3

(Tefillah Tips will return in late July)

Harofeh Lishvurei Lev Umechabesh Atzvotam – G-d heals the broken hearted and bandages up their sadness.

In modern Hebrew, a doctor is Rofeh and a medic is Chovesh. These two positions are generally mutually exclusive. A doctor assesses the diagnosis and performs the procedures. A medic tends to the injured and provides bandaging to wounds. King David is saying that G-d is both. G-d is the doctor and the medic; He is with us from the first step all the way unto the last.

The Vilna Gaon explains from this verse the concept that not only is Hashem building Jerusalem in front of our eyes without our seeing it, but those things that we view as a step backwards are really igniting future success.

Examples: Our father Joseph is sold into slavery and Jacob mourns for his lost son. It seems that the brothers will never be reunited and Joseph will never fulfill his role in the journey of the Jewish People. In reality, just the opposite takes place. Joseph is uniquely positioned to miraculously rise to power, advise Pharaoh and station the Jews in Goshen to avoid the famine in Canaan and ultimately leave Egypt miraculously to receive the Torah at Sinai.

In Megillat Esther, Haman’s evil decree to annihilate the Jews of Persia and around the world scares even Mordechai and Esther and all the Jews. Our imminent demise was scheduled on the calendar. Yet the same gallows that Haman prepared for Mordechai were used to hang Haman himself. Esther becoming the queen, having been abducted from the house of Mordechai translated into the ultimate salvation of the Jewish People.

We have confidence that - Harofeh Lishvurei Lev Umechabesh Atzvotam – G-d heals the broken hearted and bandages up their sadness- often even from the sadness itself.

Rabbi Ephraim Epstein