Today we continue with the concept we mentioned yesterday, about the importance of accepting upon yourself the positive commitment of V’Ahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha/Loving your friend like you love yourself before you pray.
Sefer Hasidim, written by one of the Rishonim, says (in chapter 553) that some people pray and are answered, whereas others pray and are not answered. Why?
He says that it is because they don’t think about the pain and suffering of their friends. We should be thinking, “If I was in trouble, I would want somebody to pray for me.”
It says, V’Ahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha, so if it doesn’t bother you that your friend is in pain, that is why you aren’t answered.
That’s why all our prayers are said in plural form:
“Refaenu-Heal us,”“ See, in our pain,”
The pasuk says, “If you have the trait of mercy, God will deal with you mercifully.”
If not, if you don’t have mercy on your friend, then, in the words of the Sefer Hasidim, “How is that person any different than an animal that doesn’t care about his friend’s pain?”
This is a very scary concept. When a person prays, if he only prays for himself, those prayers are not accepted. That is what the Sefer Hasidim says, based on the pasuk of V’Ahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha.
Therefore, every day, and surely on Rosh Hashanah, we should be thinking about every body.
The Sefer Yeriot Shelomo, from Rav Shelomo Kluger adds a nuance to this. He says that we pray in Lashon Rabim/plural form, so if you don’t accept V’Ahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha before you pray, then you are lying.
Refaenu/Heal us?
Berechenu/ Bless us? Do we care about our friend’s business?
It says in Tehilim (101,7)
Hashem says, someone that lies, I cannot look at.
So, Has veShalom, if a person is not thinking about the Jewish people when he prays, and doesn’t accept V’Ahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha before he prays, how can he stand in front of God in prayer?
This is yet another reason that we need to accept upon ourselves the Mitzvah of V’Ahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha before we pray.