Tosafos asks why we don't mention that Kalev davened improperly bec. his tefillah could have caused his daughter to marry a mamzer, yet received Asniel ben Kenaz. Tosafos answers that it was considered proper since he knew that his zechus combined with that of his daughter's would entitle her to a proper shidduch. Why don't we use the same logic by Avrohom - the gemara should not have listed Avrohom's tefillah as improper since his zechus combined with Yitzchok would certainly entitle Yitzchok to a proper shidduch?
Perhaps zechus helps to prevent spiritual deficiencies, but would not prevent physical deficiencies, since that is not as important. Therefore, it is true that by Yitzchok the zechus would prevent spiritual deficiencies such as pesulei yuchsin like mamzer, but the tefillah of eliezer was still improper bec. it was open to physical deficiencies. It is very meduyak in the gemara by yitzchok where it switches to "chigeres or sumah" rather than "mamzeres or eved" - since it was clear that zechus would protect against "mamzeres or eved" (this would answer tosafos question in d.h. yachol). But by kalev, there was no concern for a physical deficiency bec. the person would be a warrior it top physical shape, and since zechus protects from spiritual problems, all concerns were alleviated. That is why the tefillah of Kalev was considered to be proper.
3 comments:
Very nice.It seems from rashi that the reason it says a phyisical mum by yitzchack is because he was blind and he would not notice.
also do you have any idea's about why only Yiftach was not answered properly? it seems he was no different than Eliezer or Shaul
I mentioned your diyyuk in Yerushalayim, and was told an interesting answer to it. There was very little chance that Shaul could end up with a chigar or summah for a son-in-law, since that severely handicapped person would have had to kill Golias.
i think that the reason there was no concern for a physical problem by shaul is fairly obvious from the gemara as you pointed out, but that just explains why by shaul the concern is yichus and not a physical concern. the question that i was dealing with is why the gemara doesn't stick with the yichus concern by yitzchok as well. To that i suggested that zechus helps for yichus issues but not for physical issues.
in short, the concerns are:
Yitzchok - physical not yichus (bec. of zechus).
Shaul - Yichus not physical (bec. he would have to kill goliyas as you pointed out).
Kalev - not physical bec. he would hae to fight, and not yichus bec. of zechus.
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