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I heard from the attendant of Maran Malka, author of Yabia Omer, zt”l, Rabbi Tzvi Hakkak shlit”a, that when Maran Rabbenu Ovadia Yosef zt”l prayed at the graves of the righteous, they could hear nothing of what he said, apart from one phrase that he said regularly: “If Hashem decrees life.” Seemingly, this is not a formula of prayer but an introduction to undertaking a positive commitment. Yet he would say it during his prayer (entirely in streams of tears). What may be understood from this (at least as a conjecture—and this is also how the aforementioned Rabbi Tzvi Hakkak explained it) is that when Maran zt”l wished, for example, to request Siyata DiShmaya to compose further books, he would pray in the form of undertaking a resolution, for example: “If Hashem decrees life, without a vow I will write such-and-such a book. Please, Hashem, help me, for the honor of Your Name, to accomplish this, in the merit of the tzaddik buried here,” and the like.
The source for this formula used by Maran Rabbi Ovadia Yosef zt”l (“If Hashem decrees life”) appears to be the words of Rabbi Avraham Kalfon zt”l in his work Leket HaKatzir, in Shiyarei HaLeket, letter 109, in the name of Derech Chaim by the rabbi of Ostroh zt”l, p. 64a, as follows: “A person should accustom himself to say concerning every matter, ‘if Hashem decrees,’ the initials of which are IAH; and the allusion is: ‘The counsel of Hashem, it shall stand’—the initials being ‘if Hashem decrees.’” End quote. Seemingly, this allusion refers to the Name IAH, which is one of the seventy-two sacred Names, derived from the verses “Vayisa,” “Vayavo,” and “Vayet,” when all three are written in their regular order. It is possible that Maran zt”l deliberately added the word “life,” so that “if Hashem decrees life” forms the initials of the Name Ehyeh, a Name highly efficacious for the acceptance of prayers, as Maran the Chida writes in his work Yosef BaSeder, siman 7.
The reason for this practice seems clear: when one prays at the grave of a tzaddik and wishes to pray for success in Torah study or in matters of Heaven, he should incorporate a positive resolution concerning that matter into his prayer. Thus, his prayer itself becomes a request for Siyata DiShmaya to fulfill what he has just undertaken at the grave of the tzaddik, and such a prayer is presumably especially likely to be accepted. Furthermore, in another responsum we have already cited the sacred words of Rabbi Shandukh Sasson zt”l regarding the necessity of undertaking teshuvah when praying at the graves of the righteous. He wrote that the souls of the righteous are aroused to pray for one who comes to their graves only if the visitor repents beside the grave, adding: “Therefore, if one goes and prays at the graves of the righteous without teshuvah and arousal, he has accomplished nothing, for there is no one who is aroused.” End quote. Surely, there is no more fitting teshuvah than when a person undertakes a positive resolution: “If Hashem decrees life.”
What we wrote—that it is fitting for one who prays at the grave of a tzaddik to undertake upon himself, near the grave, some positive resolution in an area in which that tzaddik excelled, or in an area regarding which the tzaddik urged the public during his lifetime, thereby drawing upon himself spiritual influence from the tzaddik, etc.—is likewise written in the booklet HaDa’at VeHaDibbur (5776), by the Rebbe of Toldos Aharon, p. 35 (see there in the note). He further brings several examples, such as one praying at the gravesite of Rabbi Yehudah ben Teima undertaking to rise in the morning with the strength of a lion, since Rabbi Yehudah ben Teima is famously the author of the statement: “Be strong as a lion to fulfill the will of your Father in Heaven.” See similarly the booklet Pekudat Elazar Abuhatzeira (from the Torah teachings of Baba Elazar zt”l), discourse 15.
This response was translated automatically from Hebrew and has not yet been reviewed by a person. Therefore, it may contain inaccuracies and should not be considered a definitive reference.
