Brachot 32 – Flinging words upward toward Heaven

Hannah flung words upward toward Heaven, that is, she spoke insolently to God. She said (in the book of Samuel), “Give me a child! If You do not, I will hide myself with another man and cause my husband Elkanah to become jealous of me and to warn against that man. I will then hide with him again, be tested with bitter waters, and, since I will be innocent, You will be forced to fulfill the words of Your Torah, 'then she shall be proven innocent and she shall bear seed.'”

Elijah also spoke without proper respect, when he said, “You have turned their hearts backwards.” In other words, he said that it was within God's power to make his people behave correctly. Actually, generations later God agreed to Elijah, when He told the prophet Micah, “...one whom I (God) caused to be evil.”

In fact, it is within God power to stop people from acting badly, and thus they always have this defense. As Rabbi Chama expressed it, “If not for the following three verses, the feet of the enemies of Israel would falter.” By the “enemies of Israel” he meant the Jews themselves. The first is the verse above, “whom I caused to be evil.” The second is in Jeremiah, “Behold, as clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in My hand, O House of Israel.” The third one is in Ezekiel, “And I (God) will remove the stone hearts from you and give you feeling hearts of flesh.”

Art: Eanger Irving Couse - The Pottery Maker