(a) The SHULCHAN ARUCH OC 576:15 summarizes our Gemara: "A community which has two sorrows ("Tzaros") may only ask for mercy on one of them.....". This suggests that this only applies at times of public distress, but it would seem that in non-emergency times one may pray for several things together.

(b) The Shulchan Aruch also implies that this Din only applies to a community gathering, while an individual can ask for mercy for multiple "Tzaros" - Chas ve'Shalom - and for many different things. This is pointed out by the KAF HA'CHAYIM 576:63 who notes that we find in Tehilim that different requests for mercy are mentioned in the same chapter. According to this one may insert personal prayers for both wealth and health during the daily Amidah.

(c) See also PISKEI TESHUVOS (Rabinovitz) 676:3 in the name of ORCHOS CHAYIM and SUKAS SHALOM who write that the Gemara is only talking about rare tragedies caused by unnatural events. In contrast one should not refrain from asking for compassion on everyday occurences, and may mention each matter individually.

I saw an interesting insight in OR HA'CHAMAH on Ta'anis by Rabbi Zundel Kroizer Shlita of Yerushalayim. He asks why indeed should one not request two things at once? Will the Hand of Hash-m be short (see Bamidbar 11:23) to fulfill the two petitions? In every Amidah prayer we pray for 18 blessings and requests?

The Or ha'Chamah answers that it is possible that the problem is only in a case similar to the one related in our Gemara, that there was a double decree of famine and plague. This showed that the "Midas ha'Din" (the attribute of judgement) was stretched out strongly. Since the prosecuting forces ("Mekatregim") in Heaven were numerous it was impossible to make all the requests that were needed at once because the Mekatregim would prosecute even harder and Hash-m might listen to them. However if one only prayed for one thing, the Mekatregim would be unable to point out so many faults of the People and would be less succesful.

The Or ha'Chamah's explanation seems similar to the SUKAS SHALOM that we mentioned, that the Gemara is referring to exceptional, not everyday, events. In fact I looked up the reference in Sukas Shalom. The author was Rabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher zt'l, a close pupil of Rabbi Akiva Eiger zt'l. (The reference is from Klal 3 on p.40 of the 5756 edition). He cites RASHI MEGILAH 17b DH ASCHALTA who writes that the Berachah of Redemption - "Ga'al Yisrael" - is intended for us to pray that Hash-m should redeem us from the sorrows we constantly have. Therefore R. Gutmacher writes that, on the contrary, one should specify the routine sorrows in one's prayer in as much detail as possible.

KOL TUV

D. Bloom

(a) I saw an interesting insight in OR HaCHAMAH on Ta'anis by Rabb Zundel Kroizer Shlita of Yerushalayim. He asks why indeed should one not request two things at once? Will the Hand of Hash-m be short (see Bamidbar 11:23) to fulfil the two petitions? In every Amidah prayer we pray for 18 blessings and requests?

Or Hachamah answers that it is possible that the problem is only in a case similar to the one related in our Gemara, that there was a double decree of famine and plague. This showed that the "Midas Hadin" (the attribute of judgement) was stretched out strongly. Since the prosecuting forces ("Mekatregim") in Heaven were numerous it was impossible to make all the requests that were needed at once because the Mekatregim would prosecute even harder and Hash-m might listen to them. However if one only prayed for one thing, the Mekatregim would be unable to point out so many faults of the People and would be less succesful.

Or Hachamah's explanation seems similar to SUKAS SHOLOM, that we mentioned last time, that the Gemara is referring to exceptional, not everyday, events. In fact I looked up the reference in Sukas Sholom. The author was Rabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher zt'l, a close pupil of Rabbi Akiva Eiger zt'l. (The reference is from Klal 3 on p.40 of the 5756 edition). He cites RASHI MEGILAH 17b DH ASCHALTA who writes that the Berachah of Redemption - "Go'al Yisroel" - is intended for us to pray that Hash-m should redeem us from the sorrows we constantly have. Therefore R. Gutmacher writes that on the contrary one should specify the routine sorrows

in one's prayer in as much detail as possible.

(b) I have found sources which appear to contradict SUKAS SHOLOM which I cited above. See MIDRASH EICHAH to Eichah 1:16 #51 which discusses the same subject dealt with by our Gemara below 27b :- what fasts did the "Anshei Ma'amad" carry out each day of the week? Midrash states that on Thursdays they fasted so that pregnant women should not have miscarriages and that the babies of nursing mothers should not die. (Gemara below also states something similar to this). However Midrash rejects this because of the principle stated in our Gemara that one does fast for two things at once.(Possibly our Gemara was not disturbed by this question because it considered that miscarriages and nursing babies dying are really one thing - that the new born, or not yet born, should survive.)

At any rate one observes from Midrash that the principle that one does not request two things simultaneously, applies for the matter of young babies not dying, even though this is a natural event, and in those times was presumably not so unusual. This is inconsistent with Sukas Sholom.

MEIRI also seems to contradict Sukas Sholom. Meiri writes that on the basis of our Gemara, some of the Rabonim of Nevorna rebuked Chazanim who, when they prayed on fast days for rain, used to intersperse together with the verse they said mentioning mercy, other verses requesting revenge from the enemies. (MICHTAM, who lived slightly before Meiri, also mentions this account about the Rabonim of Nevorna.) One sees that the principle that one should not request two things simultaneously also applies for more routine troubles, not only for unnatural occurences.

(I saw the above Midrash Eichah cited by CHIDA, in his Sefer on Tehilim -YOSEF TEHILOT - to Tehilim 27:4 on the verse "one thing I asked for from Hash-m". See also TEHILAH Le-YONAH - Lakewood,NJ).

However the distinction I made in my first reply in the name of Shulchan Arukh -that the principle of our Gemara only applies to communal prayer- remains valid and is also apparent from Meiri.

KOL TUV

D. Bloom