Mincha Motivation

It is quite interesting that instead of using the term Mincha, which is the proper name for the afternoon prayer, the Gemara uses the term “Avrohom’s prayer.” The Tosfos Yeshanim wonders why the Gemara ascribed the prayer specifically to Avrohom? After all, the Gemara in Brachos (26b) says that Yitzchok Avinu was the one who enacted the practice of davening Mincha. It is based on the pasuk in Bereishis (24:63), “And Yitzchok went out to pray in the field towards evening” (as understood by the Gemara there). The Gemara should have referred to Mincha as Yitzchok’s prayer.

The Tosfos Yeshanim offers two answers. The first is that, after Yitzchok instituted the Mincha prayer, Avrohom Avinu adopted it as well. The second answer is that in truth Avrohom Avinu personally always davened Mincha as well. However, he did not institute it as a practice that should be followed by his entire household. Yitzchok instituted that his family and descendants should pray the Mincha service as well.

The Tosfos Yeshanim offers a proof to the idea that Avrohom always had been davening Mincha from a passage in the Gemara on the very same daf. The Gemara says that Avrohom Avinu kept all the mitzvos, even the rabbinic ones such as eiruv tavshilin. (The commentators explain that eiruv tavshilin wasn’t really relevant to Avrohom Avinu for various reasons.) He certainly davened Mincha as well. It must be that Yitzchok is credited with Mincha because he not only prayed it personally but instituted it as a practice that should be followed.

The Ben Yehoyada finds the Tosfos Yeshanim’s answers lacking. According to either answer, Yitzchok instituted the Mincha prayer for everyone. The only difference between the two answers is whether or not Avrohom Avinu personally davened Mincha before Yitzchok made the Mincha prayer universal or only after. So why does the Gemara here call it Avrohom’s prayer? Granted, Avrohom Avinu davened Mincha as well, but still, Yitzchok instituted it!

The Ben Yehoyada explains that Avrohom Avinu was the inspiration for Yitzchok to enact the Mincha prayer. It was only after he saw his father enact the morning prayer that he was inspired to enact the afternoon prayer. Since Avrohom ultimately davened Mincha as well and he was the source for Yitzchok’s conduct, it can rightly be called Avrohom’s Prayer. Someone who inspires someone to do a mitzvah gets credit for that mitzvah as well.

The Vilna Gaon says this explains the words we recite during Mussaf on Rosh Hashana “U’pokeid kol yetzurei kedem,” Hashem remembers and judges anyone who ever lived on Rosh Hashana. What is the nature of this judgement? When a person left this world, he was judged. Why does he need to be judged again every year?

A person gets rewarded for any good deeds he even indirectly caused. Perhaps during his lifetime, he inspired someone. That person in turn inspired someone else. And so, that person possibly deserves reward for the tens, hundreds, or thousands of people that perform good deeds because of his actions. Therefore, the Vilna Gaon says that everyone who ever lived is judged on Rosh Hashana to see what happened during the last year as a result of his conduct.

This is an idea one should keep in mind when he does mitzvos. When one does mitzvos, he is not only acting for himself but for all those people who are viewing his actions as well.