Vayera

In the Torah portion Vayera we learn how, after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham moves southward and lives in Gerar. The king of Gerar, Avimelech, seeing that Sarah was a beautiful woman, took her.  G-d appears to Avimelech in a dream in the night and tells him that he will die because he has taken a married woman.  Avimelech protests and says, "I did not know that she was a married woman. I thought that she was Abraham±s sister, not his wife.“ Avimelech then upbraids Abraham asking why he pretended that Sarah was his sister and not his wife.  Abraham tells him bluntly that he thought that if Avimelech would know that he was Sarah's husband, he would kill him and then take Sarah.  Avimelech then makes up with Abraham.
The Torah then says, "and Abraham prayed to G-d and G-d cured Avimelech and his wife and his maidservants and they bore children because G-d had shut up all the wombs in the house of Avimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.“ Right afterwards we learn how G-d remembered Sarah and she became pregnant and had a son.  The rabbis explain that because Abraham prayed for Avimelech that he should have children, he, himself, was given children, that because Abraham prayed that Avimelechfs wife should conceive his own wife conceived.  The rabbis learn from this that every time a person has a problem, he should try to help other people with a similar problem solve their problem, and, in this way, he will be able to solve his own problems easier. Of course, this is not a mechanical formula.  If a person is poor he cannot say, "Well, Ifll pray for another poor person and that way I'll become rich."  But it is very true that if a person has a problem and he knows that other people have the same problem and he can share his experiences with other people who have the same problems, it helps him face his problem.  It relaxes him.  It allows him to realize that other people have the same problem but can cope. That's why there are support groups for people who have relatives with Altzheimer’s or heart problems or M.S.  If a person relaxes, many times, he is able to, if not overcome his problem, live with it a little better.  We know, for example, that if a person relaxes sometimes a problem can even be solved.  In the case of couples who cannot conceive it happens, many times, that after they adopt a child they are then able to have children.  This probably happens because they are more relaxed, but extending yourself to help other people and their problems also has an even more positive effect.  It gives you the courage and the strength to overcome your problems and gives you a new focus and a new energy in attacking your own problems.

The Jews in Russia today are suffering greatly.  Forty-five Jews this year alone have been sentenced to prison for no reason.  Their only crime was teaching Hebrew.  The courage they display in standing up to the Soviet authorities is remarkable.  They want to assert their Jewishness there where it is so hard to be a Jew, where it is impossible to go to a synagogue because you will miss work and be labeled a parasite, and being labeled a parasite means a prison sentence.  There have been some very great scientists in Russia who have lost their jobs because they asked to emigrate to Israel.  Now they are cleaning the streets and stoking boilers.
Here in the United States where it is so easy to be a Jew, there are so many Jews who do not have the will at all to pursue Jewish things.  If Judaism conflicts with a dance or a football game, Judaism is dropped.  If Judaism is the least bit inconvenient, it is forgotten. When we pray and help Soviet Jewry it strengthens us here.  We begin to realize that Judaism must be important if so many Russian Jews are willing to sacrifice so much to study and practice it.  Then it causes us to re-examine our Judaism to see whether or not we are getting its message.  When we help Soviet Jewry we are really helping ourselves.  By our praying and helping them, this strengthens our resolve to be better Jews.

This happens, too, when we work and help Israel.  To see what they go through in order to maintain a Jewish State allows us to appreciate more our Judaism.  The courage of the Russian Jews gives us courage and gives us the will to lead Jewish lives.  Praying for them helps us.

I am reminded of the story they tell about wo Jews who were walking in Moscow when they noticed they were being followed by a KGB agent. One said, "I am very worried.  I don't have my papers.?f The other said, "Don't worry.  You keep walking and I'll start running and the KGB man will follow me." And so it was.  The one with papers took off running.  The KGB agent followed him.  Finally, after a mile, he could not run any more, and the KGB man caught up and said, "Give me your papers." The man gave him his papers.  The agent saw they were all in order.  He asked the Jew, "Why were you running?" The man answered, "Because my doctor ordered me to run a mile a day." The KGB agent looked at him skeptically and said, "All right, but didn't you see me running after you? Why didn't you stop?" The man answered, "I thought you go to the same doctor." The courage of the Soviet Jewry gives us courage and gives us the willpower we need to continue on as Jews.