RAV KOOK ON Tzav Part 1: The Community's Prayer of Thanks

After Rav Yehudah recovered from a serious illness, a delegation of rabbis and students paid the illustrious scholar a visit. “Blessed is the merciful God Who has given you back to us,” they exclaimed, ‘and not to the dust!” Rav Yehudah responded: “[By your statement], you have exempted me from the obligation of offering a prayer of thanks.” (Berachot 54a) The Sages taught that one who survived a perilous situation — imprisonment in jail, crossing an ocean, traversing a desert, or recovering from a serious illness — should recite Birkat haGomeil. This Blessing of Deliverance expresses our appreciation to the “One Who bestows kindnesses to those who are not deserving.” The episode with Rav Yehudah is quite baffling. How could his visitors’ somewhat peculiar greeting qualify as a substitute for Rav Yehudah’s own offering of thanks for his recovery to health?