ויהי כאשר כלה יצחק לברך את יעקב ויהי אך יצא יצא יעקב מאת פני יצחק אביו ועשו אחיו בא מצידו (כז:ל)   

And it came to pass, when Yitzchak had finished blessing Yaakov, and it came to pass Yaakov had just left his father Yitzchak's presence, and his brother Eisav came from his hunt (27:30)

Right at the beginning of the parsha we learn about the incredible level of tefillah our avos demonstrated. Furthermore, we know that maaseh avos siman labanim, so obviously we are all capable of pushing ourselves in our own davening. However, there is another beautiful lesson in tefillah that we can take home from our parsha.

The gemara in Masechta Brachos (8a) relates: לעולם יכנס אדם שני פתחים בבית הכנסת – “When davening, a person should enter into the shul through ‘two doors’.” The commentaries bring many explanations:

Rashi and Rabbeinu Yona write that by sitting just next to the shul’s door, it appears as though the person is itching to make an escape from davening (this would not apply if one has a set seat near the door). The Tur writes that when one davens, he shouldn’t just “run into davening”, but rather, he should walk in and wait the amount of time it takes to walk two doorways (obviously, this doesn’t work if one is always running late). The Maharam Mi’Rotenberg says that this means not to daven next to a door that is open to a main thoroughfare because he will be distracted. 

There is a novel pshat from the meforshim based on the passuk in Parshas Re’eh (Devarim 15:8) כי פתח תפתח את ידך לו  - you shall surely open up your hand. This passuk teaches us about tzedaka, and that we have opportunities to fulfill this mitzvah time and time again. Some meforshim suggest that the words “pasoach tiftach” refers to the two “pesachim” in davening, i.e. one should be careful to give tzedakka before davening.

Based on a midrash in our parsha (B”R 66) that we are all familiar with, there is yet another beautiful pshat in this gemara. The midrash relates that as Eisav was returning from hunting an animal to serve Yitzchak, Yaakov was just leaving. Yaakov had beaten Eisav to the brachos and was now making his exit. The Midrash describes the scene. There were two doors in the room. As Yaakov was exiting through one, Eisav was entering the other (Rav Ayvo). Another explanation in the midrash (Rabanan) is that the door was a double door that would swing, and as Yaakov was coming through it, Eisav came through on the other side.

We need not imagine what Eisav would have done had he came just seconds earlier. Gone would be Yaakov and of course, there would be no Klal Yisrael to tell the tale. It is very possible that Yaakov was not even aware that he had narrowly escaped what would have been certain death at the hands of Eisav.

How often in life do we experience the wondrous miracles of a “double door system” without even knowing about it? A person can miss a light, a flight, a plane or whatever it is and be dejected about it. They can wonder why HaShem caused such a misfortune. At times a person might even resort to complaining about HaShem and how unfair things seem. But do we even know what was on the other side of the door had things worked out the way we expected them to?? The truth is that we never really know to what extent HaShem spares us from untold disasters.

The Vilna Gaon comments on the passuk in Hallel הללו את ה' כל גוים שבחוהו כל האמים כי גבר עלינו חסדו ואמת ה' לעולם הללוקה – All the nations shall praise HaShem…. Because of the kindness that HaShem has done for us (Klal Yisrael). He explains that the nations of the world will have no choice but to give praise to HaShem in defeat because they know all that they planned to do to us, yet HaShem protected us without us having any knowledge of the fact.

Accordingly, the gemara may be telling us that לעולם יכנס אדם שני פתחים בבית הכנסת – when davening, a person should enter into the shul through “two doors”, meaning when we come to daven, we should say to HaShem, “It may be that I have many questions on things right now. I just don’t begin to understand why, when, what, and how, yet I DO know with a one hundred percent certainty that You HaShem, You operate the world with a two door system. Everything that You do for us is for our good even though we do not understand it.”

When we approach HaShem through tefillah in this manner, we are demonstrating our complete faith in Him. A baby in his parent’s loving arms may or may not realize that the road has many bumps. He knows but one thing: that his parent will never drop him. As long as he is in his parent’s hands, he will always have what he needs.   

Good Shabbos, מרדכי אפפעל