You asked about the fact that Avraham's tefilot didn't save any cities yet Lot was able to save Tzoar. Not sure of you were going to suggest an answer before the conversation went off on a tangent.
The answer I've said is that we see from here the raw power of tefilos of someone in need. Lot sincerely felt his life quite literally depended on being able to be take refuge in Tzoar and that powerful personal tefila coming to HKB"H is even more effective than the tefila of a tzaddik. Bottom line, not to belittle asking tzadikkim for tefilot during one's time of need, but it shouldn't be a substitute for one's own tefilot.
We also see this idea in Rashi (21:17) in reference to Yishmael: מִכָּאן שֶׁיָּפָה תְּפִלַּת הַחוֹלֶה מִתְּפִלַּת אֲחֵרִים עָלָיו וְהִיא קוֹדֶמֶת לְהִתְקַבֵּל
Nice discussion!
ReplyDeleteYou asked about the fact that Avraham's tefilot didn't save any cities yet Lot was able to save Tzoar. Not sure of you were going to suggest an answer before the conversation went off on a tangent.
The answer I've said is that we see from here the raw power of tefilos of someone in need. Lot sincerely felt his life quite literally depended on being able to be take refuge in Tzoar and that powerful personal tefila coming to HKB"H is even more effective than the tefila of a tzaddik. Bottom line, not to belittle asking tzadikkim for tefilot during one's time of need, but it shouldn't be a substitute for one's own tefilot.
We also see this idea in Rashi (21:17) in reference to Yishmael:
מִכָּאן שֶׁיָּפָה תְּפִלַּת הַחוֹלֶה מִתְּפִלַּת אֲחֵרִים עָלָיו וְהִיא קוֹדֶמֶת לְהִתְקַבֵּל
whoops!
ReplyDeleteposted to wrong thread :-)