BackJacob's Legacy of Prayer
By: Rabbi Dr. Abraham Unger
Jewish tradition relates that Jacob established Maariv, the daily evening service, in this week’s parsha of “VaYetzei.” The dark of night reflects the torment of Jacob the patriarch, on the run from his brother Esau, and involved in this week’s parsha with a devious father-in-law in a land far from home.
Maariv itself has an interesting Halakhic, or legal, history. It was not originally required, but rather, in the realm of “reshut,” simply permissible. After all, it does not represent a daily sacrificial offering as do the morning and afternoon prayers. At Maariv, the leftovers from the daily sacrifice were consumed, but no korban, or sacrifice, was offered up in full.
Nonetheless, Maariv is recited daily by worshipers devoted to observant lives. It is not viewed as optional by the Jewish people. It has become a normative practice. Imagine such a community – a community that has accepted upon itself the practice of reflection each morning, noon, and night. This is spiritual nourishment for the soul.
Jacob’s message then is that prayer is needed as much at the exhaustive hours of night as much as the hopeful sunrises of morning. It is as important to review one’s inner life when the stars come out, just as one makes plans at the start of each new day. As King Solomon writes later in Jewish history, there is a season to all we experience in life. Judaism asks that we reflect each step of the way, each and every day.