Yesterday, we discussed the importance of tefila, in making everything happen.
But it’s important to understand that tefila is not just a way to get things done. It is actually the opposite. We need tefila. G-d made it that tefila gets things done, in order for us to pray. It is like the mother who coaxes her child into taking her medicine by hiding it in the applesauce. The purpose isn’t the apple sauce, the purpose is the medicine.
G-d wants us to pray, so He covers it up with other things. Prayer is considered food for the soul. The Hovot HaLevavot writes that just like the body needs to eat a few times a day or it starts getting weak, so too with prayer. We need prayer in order to nourish our souls. We live in a physical world that sends the wrong messages, and our souls get weak. Therefore, we need to feed our souls three times a day.
For those of us in the Sephardic world who have started selichot already, it is interesting that selichot is considered an additional prayer. We start with Ashrei, just like Mincha starts with Ashrei. It’s like we are adding another prayer. Being that we are currently in the month of Elul, and we are in a “spa,” so to say, we are going to “eat healthier.”So we add another special “power meal.”
That is what the selichot are.
We have to understand this concept, that Tefila is there to strengthen our souls and give them the right medicine.
Yesterday, we mentioned a pasuk, in reference to wisdom, that says that Hashem is the One that gives wisdom
כי ה׳ יתן חכמה מפיו דעת ותבונה
From G-d’s mouth comes wisdom and knowledge.
I saw a very beautiful thought about this, from Rav Shmuel Auerbach, ztl, the great rosh Yeshiva and Gadol of Yerushalayim.
He points out that in our prayers, we ask Refaenu- give us health,Barchenu- bless us with parnassa ,Tekah B’Shofar- blow the shofar..,
These are all requests. But when it comes to the first request, we say,
אתה חונן לאדם דעת-
You give man wisdom,
Why do we phrase it that way?Why don’t we say, “Give me wisdom?”
The answer is that when it comes to wisdom, we tend to think that we have it. We question, “I need G-d to give me wisdom??”
We acknowledge that we need G-d to give us money and health, but we think our brains are ours. A person thanks G-d he was born with a good IQ, but he thinks he’s sharp, that his brain is just fast.”
And that’s why you can’t even ask for wisdom until you say, “You give me wisdom.”
That’s part of the request, to realize that “I need You, and You give me wisdom. I don’t have wisdom on my own. Therefore, I have to request it.” So, we say, “Please give me wisdom.”
We have to make that statement first.
A physical example would be that you have to warm up before you exercise. The warm-up is “Atah Honen”
The first blessing is, “I don’t have my wisdom. My brain is not my own.”
As we have mentioned before, Rav Wolbe says that a brain resembles a bowl of grey porridge. How it the world can it think and create all those thoughts and concepts and ideas and memories? How does it keep track of things? It is a wondrous, wondrous creation! It’s not just given to you and then and it’s yours. every single day you need to get wisdom from G-d.
When you get that epiphany- where’d it come from?
Like the famous Targum, where it says (and some count this among the 613 mitzvot), “
כי הוא הנותן לך כח לעשות חיל
G-d gives you the strength to amass wealth.”
The Targum says that this refers to the ideas to make money. And who gave you those ideas?
Who gave you the great idea to sell masks when Covid 19 came out? There are people that made a killing. Wow You knew how to play the market. You did not know how to do anything! G-d gave you those ideas.
This is the a,b,cs of prayer. Atah Honen- You give me wisdom.
Just a daily dose of this wouldn’t be sufficient. We need a three-times-a-day dose of this. We have to put the proper way of looking at things into our minds. Then we can move on to other prayers.
Hashem is in control and in charge of everything.
With all of that being said, it’s important to know that tefila/prayer needs work, especially in this age and generation of limited focus. Because we can only stand small bites of concentration, we have to work at prayer. It is not easy to focus. It takes Avodah. But it’s very important to understand that just like we have to toil in learning, and people have to work hard to understand, we all have to toil in prayer. It’s an avodah/work.
The Chazon Ish said he did not work any less on his prayer that he did on understanding a difficult piece of gemarah. Our minds wander, but we have to bring them back again.
There’s a very good Eitzah/advice, that I heard from Rav Wolbe, that other Baalei Mussar have said as well: Before each blessing, think to yourself, What am I about to ask for? Atah Honen- you can simply say the words or you can think to yourself, “I’m about to ask G-d for my wisdom, for my knowledge, for my psyche.” And for each blessing as well... I’m about to ask G-d for forgiveness, I’m about to ask G-d for my health, I’m about to ask G-d for my well. I’m about to ask G-d for the exiles to be brought in, I’m about to ask G-d for good judges..”
And for each one, think for a moment, just an English sentence in your brain. “What am I about to ask for?”
Bring yourself back to focus, and work on your prayer. That’s the way you feed your soul.
To go back to our physical example, it’s like a workout. After a good workout, a person sweats, because it took effort.
Prayer is supposed to be a workout. Great people, after their prayers, would be sweating. It was a workout that took a lot of effort. I have seen people like this, that really put a lot of effort into their prayers.
Your soul grows this way.
As we mentioned above, prayer is necessary, because you want to get certain things.
But we also have to realize that prayer is a spiritual workout for the soul, three times a day. This is especially true in the month of Elul, when we are really preparing for a marathon.
The month of Elul is about getting ready for the big day. You can’t just run a marathon. You have to prepare.
Rosh Hashana prayers are long. We can’t just dive right in. We have to start practicing. We have to build ourselves up. We have to build up our stamina.
BeEzrat Hashem we will build up some prayer stamina.
Have a wonderful day.