Today I’d like to share a beautiful Yerushalmi. As we know, there are two Gemaras, Talmud Bavli, which was written in Babylonia, and Talmud Yerushalmi which was written in Jerusalem.
The Talmud Yerushalmi, in Masechet Berachot discusses the following pasuk:
כי מי גוי גדול, אשר לו אלקים קרובים אליו
Who is a great nation, that they have a G-d that is close to them.
The Gemara brings down that a heretic told a rabbi it seemed that there are many gods, because the word “Elokim” is plural, and “Kerovim” was also written in plural form.
The Gemara says the rabbi answered the heretic, but then went on to explain the real answer, which is that
קרוב בכל מיני קרבות
G-d is close in all types of closeness.
This means that He’s everywhere. G-d is everywhere, so therefore, He is close to you in your room, and He’s close to you on your roof, and wherever else you go. As the pasuk says, מלא כל הארץ כבודו
The world is full of His honor, so He’s everywhere.
The Gemara then continues and says that an idol may look like it’s close, but it’s really far. You can scream out to it, and it doesn’t answer. On the other hand, it looks and seems like G-d is far away, but there is no one closer than Him.
The Gemara then describes the distance in light year it would take to get to G-d’s throne from here. It’s thousands of light years away. Yet a person goes and prays in a whisper, and Hashem listens to him!
The Gemara quotes a few pesukim about this. One of them was that Chana spoke softly, with her lips moving, but her voice wasn’t heard, which was why Elie HaKohen thought she was a drunk. Why not speak louder, he wondered. But G-d heard her prayer.
The Gemarah says that she whispered, and we whisper, like someone whispering in a friend’s ear. When you’re very close to someone, you don’t have to raise your voice. You can whisper and they’ll hear you. The Gemara says, Is there any god closer than our G-d?
In the words of the Gemarah,
שהוא קרוב לבריותיו כמפה לאזן
it’s like you’re literally talking with your mouth in G-d’s ear.
It doesn’t get closer than that. That’s a fundamental of our prayer. It’s especially felt during the Amidah, when we are literally talking to G-d. Everything before that is preparation, when we sing His praises. But we aren’t talking to G-d, so to say, until we get to the Amidah. That’s why it says that anyone that screams his prayers is considered a heretic. Does G-d need you to scream? Do you think He is far away?
He’s as close as a person whispering in someone’s ear, like two kids whispering together.
That was Chana’s secret. She understood how close she was to Hashem, and she was answered.
Mesilat Yesharim says that the biggest difficulty of prayer is that we don’t see G-d. We must work on that. When we pray, we are talking to G-d like we talk to a friend who listens and responds to us. It’s a conversation. It’s not just closing your eyes and having an imaginary meditation session. Prayer isn’t a meditation session. Prayer is literally talking to G-d.
In the Sefer Minchat Ani, which tells stories about Rav Wolbe, there is a story told about how he was once speaking to his daughter on the phone, and he asked to speak to his granddaughter. She got on the phone and said, “Hi Saba!”
He asked her how she knew it was him.
She said, “I know it’s you, even if I can’t see you. I don’t have to see you- I know you exist. I can talk to you even though I don’t see you.”
Rav Wolbe said that is what we are supposed to imagine when we are in the Amidah. When we pray, we are talking to G-d. Just because we can’t see Him, it doesn’t mean we aren’t talking to Him. He’s listening. Rav Wolbe told his granddaughter to take out her siddur, and draw a picture of a telephone inside the front cover, so that every time she’d start to pray, she’d realize that she was talking to G-d.
Maybe the world of Zoom makes this more difficult. We don’t really need to see the person in order to talk to them.
This is what we should be thinking when we pray.
The Gaon M’Vilna says that this Yerushalmi is actually a pasuk we say in Ashrei.
קרוב ה׳ לכל קוראיו
G-d is close to all those who call out to Him.
לכל אשר יקראהו באמת
to all those that call out in truth.
The Gemarah asks, G-d is close to all those that call out to Him? Does that mean everyone?
And that’s why the next pasuk stipulates:
(No, just) those that call out in truth.
What does “in truth” mean? Who lies when they pray?
It means, “I know who I am, I know my situation, I know how far I am. and what I’m up to. I’m not fooling myself or anyone else. I’m talking to G-d, and my prayers are real.”
You can be in an imaginary, fantasy world when you pray. But this is real prayer. You are talking to G-d. You know you are not an angel. You know what you’re up to, and you call our to G-d in truth. This is an important principle in prayer.
**The rest of this lesson is extra credit**
There 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
We remove the א alef, מ mem and ש shin because they correspond to air אויר water מים and אש fire, the three building blocks of creation.
Then we take away ב, ג,ד, פ, ר, ת the seven letters that all can have a dagesh. The Zohar says that these letters correspond to the seven days of the week.
After we’ve removed these 10 letters, we have 12 letters left, which correspond to the 12 months of the year, starting from Nissan. The last letter left is ק, which corresponds to Adar, the last month
( the ת, ש, ר are already removed)
The pesukim in Ashrei also have the 22 letters of the alef bet. ( except forנ
The pasuk for ק , which is the month of Adar, is the pasuk we mentioned above:
קרוב ה׳ לכל קוראיו
אשר יקראו באמת
G-d is close to all those who call out to Him.
to all those that call out in truth.
This was the lesson of Purim. The Jews had sinned, and there was a decree of destruction against them. They realized what they had done, they called out to Hashem in truth, and G-d was close to them, and answered them.
That’s the secret any time the Jewish people are in trouble.
Realize who you are, realize the situation, and realize that Hashem is so close that you are whispering into his ear.
And with that attitude, we will be answered, like Chana was answered in her prayers.
Have a good day.