Amidah: Refaeinu 3/4/10 Part One

Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky: Explanation of why waited until this bracha to address why we daven in plural

The Baruch She’Amar transformed  my davening and he doesn’t discuss why we daven in the plural until Refainau. Therefore out of respect for a person who changed my davening, I wanted to wait for Refainu to discuss why we daven in plural..But in truth it is what he teaches about refua and the plural sense of refainu that gives us a chance to understand why we are davening in the plural.

And because now we understand why we davened in the plural can now go back through to previous 7-8 steps of Shemonei Esrei in order to now take all learned into other brachas to take each one to a higher level.

Review of Previous Aspects of Refua Bracha

1. Refua:
   1. Definitions:
      1. means not only healing
      2. Also means to soften
      3. Also means to rebuild – as in posuk in Malachim  – when Eliyahu rebuilds the mizbayach– “vyirapei et ha mizbayach”
   2. Explanation: for example – even if someone recovers from a long illness their lives still need to be rebuilt. Both their lives, and also the lives of their spouses and their children; illness just spreads out and affects everyone and it is destructive  so the refua of rebuilding is necessary
   3. Story: Rabbi Weinberg once went to a surgeon right before went to Germany. The surgeon said he can’t do the surgery that was necessary but gave him great advice: he said go to family therapy because you have had 12 surgeries (that’s how many it was at that time)and it is too much for your children to go through so go through family therapy otherwise they will all carry this the rest of their lives. This was great advice and this is refua aspect of the situation.

1. Refua’s placement after geula in Shemonei Esrei shows it is it is greater than redemption
   1. If I am sick one day and I wake up and am perfectly fine the next day – that is not refua-  that is geula – that is redemption – I am free; Refua is beyond this
   2. Geula is the b’anyanu – the inside of our struggles/the inside of our suffering – “riva rivvanu” Hashem is helping us fight the deepest internal things and face and be able to taste eternal redemption
   3. And refua is greater than this? We said Yes; Because even after redemption from galus we still carry deep scars  from being in galus. This is  the same way family still carries deep scars after someone has been ill even after person has healed/recovered
   4. Story: One of his children didn’t want to relate to him because he said”one day is he better, one day sick, one day is he better, one day sick” and so on…“I don’t want to get accustomed to you being well because if you get sick again I will just get disappointed again” – so this child needed refua after geula, he needed the rebuilding
   5. This is part of what we daven for in this bracha of refaianu