And he prayed in the place. (Genesis/Bereishis 28:11)
It is told of Rebbe Pinchas of Koritz Z"ya, who once suddenly stopped giving weekly support to one of the students of his beit midrash who was used to receiving support, until the student had no choice but to work for a nobleman for his livelihood.
One day the baron decided to make a beautiful monument honoring himself, and wanted to embed in it precious stones that could only be obtained in a distant country overseas, so he ordered his worker to travel there with a large sum of money to buy the precious stones.
In the middle of the journey on the ship, they stopped at an island in the middle of the sea. The captain of the ship told all the passengers that when they hear the ship's horn three times they should return to the ship. To the young man he said that after four blasts he should return to the ship. The captain's intentions were that the young man miss the ship and be forced to stay on the island, so that he could help himself to all the money the young man brought along. Indeed, he succeeded in his plot. After three blasts all the passengers except for the young man returned to the ship and it sailed off, leaving the young man stranded.
When he saw that he was left alone, he went to look for food and drink. He found a place where fruit trees grew near the aqueduct. He made the proper blessing, ate and drank his fill, and then prayed there. Some time later, another ship docked at the island and the young man joined them and came back to his house.
When he arrived home, he went to his Rebbe Rabbi Pinchas. The Rebbe told him that now he could now go back to his studies and receive support. Heaven had revealed to him that it was necessary for him to get to that island, because there was a soul waiting for several centuries to be corrected and which could only come about through the words of prayer and the blessings that the young man would say on the island.
The matter of repairing remote souls seen in this story, is explained in detail in the Holy Zohar and the writings of the Arizal. Many sparks are scattered in this world by the wicked who have been defiled by great sins for generations so that they can not ascend to the upper world. Hashem maneuvers things and Jews arrive at the places where the souls are, and when holy words are said there, it elevates the souls and they can ascend to the upper world and have the right to correction.
It is further explained in the holy books, that every Jew has a special role to raise certain sparks that belong to the root of his soul according to heavenly accounts, and G-d maneuvers things that everyone will reach during his life all the places where the sparks related to him are waiting for repair, and he will be given the opportunity to say there sacred things to raise souls.
This is the way our Holy Master the Baal Shem Tov interprets the verse in Psalms (37:23): "From the Lord a mighty man's steps are established, for He delights in his way" - Hashem arranges the steps of man to visit various places, because of his desire that in this way will rise sacred sparks for his blessed name.
Although Heaven guides the steps of man to reach the places which need fixing, it is entirely up to man to decide what to do when he gets there.
The Baal Shem Tov Zya once was sighing very deeply and he looked very pained. His disciples asked him to explain the matter. He told them that there was a wicked man who even after his death did not get to correct his soul, until G-d took pity on him and turned him into a frog and lay in a well in a distant land. If his son would come to the well, drink from the water of the well, and say a proper blessing with proper intention, then his father will have his soul repaired by him.
The son was very poor and had no way to travel far. So G-d arranged that the son became a servant to a wealthy Jew. The rich man fell ill, and the doctors ordered him to go to a distant place to seek out more specialist doctors and also to drink there from the well water capable of medicine. The rich man went there, and took his servant with him.
Once, the servant went with the landlord to inhale fresh air, and suddenly the servant was very thirsty to the point of exhaustion. This was because he came to the well that his father's soul was there in the form of a frog. When he got to the well, he hastily drew some water, and in great thirst he gulped the water down without the proper blessing. Thus, after all he had been through, the wicked man did not get the rectification he hoped for. This was the reason for the sigh of the Baal Shem Tov who was deeply pained that the wicked man did not receive the rectification he so badly needed.
In our Parsha the verse says of Yaakov Avinu, while escaping from Esav he came to this place (Mount Moriah), where he instituted the prayer of Maariv. The language of the verse is: "ויפגע במקום" - "He reached the place". Why doesn't the Torah specify the name of the place?
Also why is the word "Vayifga" used to mean davening, which is an unusually strong term?
Perhaps it can be said, that the Holy Torah wanted to instruct a lesson for generations, that wherever and wherever it may be, one must behave like our ancestor Jacob by praying properly in every place in a manner of "Vayifga" which is a strong prayer language.
Even when a Jew will be forced not to pray in his regular place in his beit midrash, only elsewhere, he must be careful to pray there properly, in order to fulfill his role that was given to him from heaven, to accomplish now essential things in this place, and to bring closer the complete redemption.
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