In this week’s parashah, Hayei Sarah, Yitzhak meets his wife-to-be Rivka as she arrives from her homeland. As Rivka approaches, Yitzhak is outdoors “meditating in the field toward evening.” The ancient rabbis taught that Yitzhak’s meditation was the origin of our daily minhah (afternoon) service.

The word sihah, meditation, is similar to the word for bush or shrub, si’ah. Based on that similarity, Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav taught that Yitzhak’s prayer included within it the prayers of all the bushes, trees and flowers. His prayer was strengthened and deepened by the prayers of all the growing things around him.

Often we think of prayer as something forced and unnatural. But Rebbe Nahman reminds us that there is nothing more natural than prayer. All of nature points toward its source, as Psalm 150 says: “Every living being praises YHWH.”  Human prayer is just our version of what all life does in its own way.

May the prayers that we say together bind us to all else that lives, and draw us closer to the source of all.