A House of Prayer for All Nations
Reflections

Prayer and Fate: Why the Three Great Gifts Require More Than Merit

· editor
In short: Drawing on a teaching from Rabbeinu Bachya's Kad HaKemach, this article explores a Talmudic saying that children, long life, and livelihood depend not on personal merit but on mazal — one's destined portion. Rather than diminishing the role of prayer, the teaching elevates it: prayer alone has the power to overturn fate itself. Scripture shows that all three gifts were granted specifically through prayer, making it the indispensable tool for the deepest human needs.

The Sages, of blessed memory, taught: “Banei, chayei u-mezonei — children, life, and livelihood — do not depend on a person’s merits but on his mazal” (his destined fate or astrological portion). One might read this as saying that these matters are governed by the fixed order of nature, and that prayer is therefore useless in pursuing them. But we find, in fact, that all three were granted precisely through the power of prayer. The teaching must mean something else entirely.

What the saying comes to tell us is how great the power of prayer truly is. Whatever has been decreed by the arrangement of the stars — that is, whatever flows from a person’s mazal — the Holy One, blessed be He, has the power to annul. Even the ancient students of the heavens acknowledged this: the Holy One is the universal whole, while the stellar order is merely a particular part, and the whole is greater than any part and can override it.

For most of life’s circumstances, a person can nullify a harsh decree through personal merit alone, without any explicit prayer or outcry — it is enough simply to feel concern and sorrow in one’s heart over the matter. This is the sense of the verse:

“He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him” (Psalms 145:19)

— meaning: through desire alone, even without spoken prayer, the Holy One fulfills what a person wishes, without his having to ask at all.

But these three — children, life, and livelihood — are different. Because all three are bound to mazal, they require prayer: specifically, prayer directed at changing the mazal itself. And we find that all three were indeed granted through precisely this kind of prayer:

  • Children were given to Rachel, as it is written: “And God heeded her and opened her womb” (Genesis 30:22).
  • Life was extended for Hezekiah, as it is written: “I have heard your prayer; I will add fifteen years to your life” (Isaiah 38:5).
  • Livelihood was granted through Elijah and Elisha, in the accounts we find where food multiplied and people were saved from famine.

The Sages’ saying is thus not a counsel of resignation — it is an illumination of prayer’s depth. These three needs are tied to mazal, and that is precisely why they require abundant, heartfelt prayer: because only prayer carries the power to overturn fate, just as fate was overturned in each of these three cases through prayer.

(Based on Kad HaKemach by Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Paquda, entry on Parnasah — livelihood)