E ishes Ovadya
Wouldn’t we all want to know the secret to help us achieve spiritual success? What are a sampling of the magic ingredients needed to help facilitate our constant upward growth? Some of these secrets are contained in the very poignant story of Eishes Ovadya found in the fourth chapter of Melachim II.
Try Try Again
During a time of famine Ovadya had supported 100 prophets providing them with bread and water. He’d done so by borrowing money from the royal coffers. When he died he still owed a large sum to Yehoram the king of Israel. In lieu of money — which the penniless widow obviously couldn’t provide — King Yehoram wanted to take Ovadya’s two sons as a payment for the debt. Desperate the widow approached Elisha the prophet (who happened to be one of Ovadya’s beneficiaries the commentators point out) and asked him for help. When he heard that all she had was a bit of oil he told her to borrow as many vessels as she could from neighbors and pour the bit of oil into the vessels. A miracle occurred and the oil continued to flow as long as there was a vessel to receive it. Elisha instructed her to sell the oil use the money to repay the debt and live off the remainder.
Tosefta notes that the wife of Ovadya implored Elisha to help her over 250 times. Finally she went to daven at her husband’s kever who directed Elisha to this specific manner of salvation. Ohr Chadash highlights her perseverance: she never gave up hope and all her pleas contained the same power and poignancy. Something to bear in mind when we find ourselves in a difficult situation our prayers seemingly unheard.
It’s easy to fall into a state of despair and in such a situation it can be so hard to summon up the emotional strength to keep davening. Eishes Ovadya shows us that when the right moment arrives we will see the salvation. Meanwhile we must fight despondency. Chazal teach us about tefillah “Kaveh el Hashem chazak ve’ametz libecha v’kaveh el Hashem.” Davening involves an inner process of determination: We first daven then strengthen ourselves — and continue our prayers. In fact this very process imbues us with a deeper level of bitachon. Maintaining our emunah in the face of an overwhelming silence is acutely challenging and yet it builds us on a fundamental level. We look to Eishes Ovadya as a role model of determination and prayer.
