Our theme is that we have to rewire our brains. We keep reviewing the same concepts over and over until we have automaticity in these attitudes of Bitachon. Just like we need to say מוריד הטל 100 times to get used to it, our rabbis tell us that the best place to practice this is in our daily prayers. We are praying three times a day anyway. All the thoughts we are supposed to have are in our prayers.
The goyim, lehavdil, have different practices and ideas of meditation and mindfulness, which they say puts them in the right frame of mind all day. We have this built into our tefillot. If we would just focus on the first three berachot of the Amida, we could change our lives and rewire our brains.
How so?
The Ein Yaakov explains:
If you want something from someone, there are three variables to consider:
1- Does this person owe me or am I asking for a favor?
2- Is this person able do it? Maybe he can, maybe he can’t
3- Is there anyone else I can ask?
For example: If I need help paying the mortgage and I want to ask my uncle, I have to consider:
1- Does my uncle owe me one or is he doing me a favor?
2- Can my uncle actually do it? Does he have the money?
3- If Uncle Harry can’t help me, can I ask Uncle Jack?
These are the three variables of making a request.
The Ein Yaakov says that before we go before the King of the world three times a day, to ask Hashem for things we have to think:
1- He doesn’t owe us anything but He loves us and has more mercy than anyone else and wants to give us even if we’re not worthy because he loves us.
*This is the beracha of Magen Avraham. Hashem loved our forefathers. We are their children, therefore He loves us and he wants to give us.
2- Can He do it? Of course. He’s all powerful.
**This is the beracha of אתה גבור Ata Gibbur. )
3- Can anyone else do it? As we say in Atah Kadosh- You are holy and above anything. Even the angels praise You. They too realize that You’re the only one to ask.
If you have these fundamentals clear in your head:
One- G-d doesn’t owe us but He’s full of kindness and wants to give us
Two- He’s all powerful
Three- He’s the only address
Then we can make all the rest of the requests in our Amida (wisdom, health, parnassa etc,)with clarity.
The Ein Yaakov says that we make a mistake in thinking that we make these berachot of praise to Hashem because G-d needs praise. This is false. He doesn’t need it. We need it, to understand these things before we pray.
I recently heard a question/answer session from a Torah U’Mesorah convention where someone asked Rav Reuven Feinstein how to get Junior HS kids to appreciate prayer. His tried and proven answer was to tell them the following:
What would you do to be able to talk to someone who could give you anything you need? Someone who could take care of anything... a trip, good marks, anything.
Well, we can and are already doing this three times a day! We are talking to the Being than can do all of that!
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And the first three berachot contain three of our seven prerequisites: We can put them in our Amida.
G-d loves me- first beracha
He can do anything- second beracha
He’s the only One- third beracha
We can’t start any Amida without these berachot. Not Shabbat, not Kippur. Nothing .
These are the fundamentals, and we must keep thinking these 3 important thoughts. Don’t just do it by rote. Pause and think of these. Drill them in:
-Hashem loves me and His kindness is unlimited
-He is All Powerful
- He’s the only one to ask,
When we have that, we’re ready to go!