Yismach Yisroel · Addenda to Vayigash and Vayechi · Maamar א

Yehudah's Prayer: Joining the Na and the Yad

From the Torah ofRav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok Dancygerהרב ירחמיאל ישראל יצחק בן יחיאל דנציגרProfile ›

Bereishis 44:18

וַיִּגַּשׁ אֵלָיו יְהוּדָה וַיֹּאמֶר בִּי אֲדֹנִי יְדַבֶּר נָא עַבְדְּךָ דָבָר בְּאָזְנֵי אֲדֹנִי וְאַל יִחַר אַפְּךָ בְּעַבְדֶּךָ כִּי כָמוֹךָ כְּפַרְעֹה

Then Yehudah approached him and said: Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not your anger flare against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.

1“Let your servant, please (na), speak a word” [Bereishis 44:18]. The holy books explain that this verse speaks of a person praying before his Maker. Yehudah was praying about the exile, for the whole exile of Egypt is hinted in this episode. It is taught that about the exile Moshe said, “Please (na) send by the hand (b'yad) of whomever You will send” [Shemos 4:13]. For in exile, the na of the Name Adnus is separated from its yad: the letters of אדני divide into נא and יד. So Moshe pleaded, “Send na b'yad,” that the two should be joined together again. And this is Yehudah's “Let your servant speak na.”

ידבר נא עבדך דבר כמבואר בסה"ק דזה קאי על אדם המתפלל לפני קונו, ויהודה התפלל על הגלות שע"ז מרומז כל ענין גלות מצרים, ואיתא בגלות נאמר שלח נא ביד תשלח כי "נא" מאד' נפרד מ"יד" דאד', וע"ז ביקש משה שלח "נא" "ביד" שיתחברו שניהם. וזהו ידבר "נא":

In shortYehudah's plea was a prayer over the exile, in which the Name Adnus is split into na and yad; like Moshe's “send na b'yad,” it sought to rejoin them.

Takeaway

Exile is, at root, a rupture within the Divine Name itself, the na of the Shechinah's Name cut off from its yad. Every heartfelt prayer for redemption, like Yehudah's and Moshe's, works to join together again what has been separated above.

Learn this in the merit of Rav Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchok Dancyger. His yahrzeit and life ›

All of Yismach Yisroel