רְאֵה בְעָנְיֵנוּ. וְרִיבָה רִיבֵנוּ. וּגְאָלֵנוּ מְהֵרָה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ. כִּי גּואֵל חָזָק אָתָּה. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', גּואֵל יִשרָאֵל
ראה בענינו - see our affliction
The concept of עניות – poverty, is a sense of lacking, in any sense of the word. We are asking Hashem to see our suffering the way we see it. The suffering doesn’t have to be physical – it can be when something doesn’t go our way, or we don’t get the outcome we want.
What we ask Hashem to see is בענינו – into our suffering. There can be suffering that a person does not acknowledge or is not aware of, and it is still a perfect prayer as all people want to be better, and this is what the prayer is requesting. Furthermore, בענינו encompasses our deepest yearnings, even the ones we dare not ask for for fear of sounding silly. בענינו – we are asking to Hashem to analyse us to our cores, plumbing our depths, and stop our pains.
We ask Hashem to see the pain we go through fighting our battles for Him, and that He help us.
וריבה ריבנו – and fight our battles
We are eternally at war, and our enemy is the Yetzer Hara. It stands for everything the Torah does not, and it is overrunning each of us. It is essential that we recognise that this is a battle – there are battle lines, distinctions between the warring factions. Just as in a battle, we can reinforce areas isolated for attack by the enemy. It extends beyond the Yetzer Hara though – by asking us to help us in the real fight, by default the reverse reaction is that we are also asking Hashem to help us abandon our pointless fights – be they with parents, teachers, siblings, friends.
We are asking Hashem to aid us in our fight against the Yetzer Hara and help us fight where we ought to.
וּגְאָלֵנוּ – and redeem us
The concept of גלות – exile, is that it is foreign – it’s not where we’re supposed to be or where we belong. When a person is occupied with the Yetzer Hara one way or another, he’s not where he’s supposed to be, by nature of what the Yetzer Hara is.
We are asking Hashem to remove the Yetzer Hara from us, in order to return us to where we ought to be.
מְהֵרָה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ – speedily, for Your Name’s sake
Much like with an individual prayer versus a group prayer, when a person prays on his own behalf, Heaven weighs up this person’s merits and evaluates his worthiness to receive his request. But what this bracha is about is strongly weighted towards the spiritual angle – we are not in this fight for ourselves, we are “holy warriors” – we fight our every day struggles for Hashem, and this removes the evaluation process that an individual on his own behalf would go through.
We have to mean this when we say it – we are asking for aid to be a Kiddush Hashem.
כִּי גּואֵל חָזָק אָתָּה – because you are the Mighty Redeemer
Hashem is גּואֵל חָזָק because this is Hashem’s creation – as such, when we face adversity of any kind, Hashem has caused one part of creation to battle another – the mightiness is that this situation is sustained. This is the might – the redemption is mightier as this situation can be stopped – when there is no reason to. We can be entirely undeserving, and Hashem can still have mercy on us.
In effect, this bracha has two parts to it. The first is that we are requesting something, and the second is that we are recognizing Hashem’s ability to do anything in our lives and everyone else’s, and part of the recognition is that we are undeserving of being sheltered from this ability.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', גּואֵל יִשרָאֵל – who redeems of Israel
This is written in the present tense, and is the key to the whole bracha. Hashem is always and continually redeeming. Consistent redemption on the spiritual side from the Yetzer Hara; and constant redemption from dangers that we may or may not know of. As we say in והיא שעמדה on Pesach, in every generation we are saved from genocide, and we are protected from it.
We are meant to recognize that if nature took it’s course, and survival of the fittest was in effect, we could not possibly be here. We are being perpetually sustained by Hashem.
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