We read parasha Ve’Etchanan on the Shabbat after Tisha B’Av on Shabbat Nachamu.
The Pre Sadik says it’s there to give us hizuk. We shouldn’t feel that we prayed and went through Tisha B’Av and nothing happened. Every tefilla works and has an impact Therefore don’t think your tefillot were wasted.
The Steipler, in his sefer Chayeh Olam, says sometimes it takes days and sometimes it takes years for a tefilla to be answered, so don’t stop praying because in the end, you’ll see with your own eyes that your prayers will work. He mentions a Midrash that says a prayer sometimes takes 100 years, and if it’s not answered for the person, it’s answered for his children or grandchildren. But it gets answered. That’s the lesson of V’etchanan- Keep praying; don’t give up. The Steipler goes on to ask: How do you know what your prayers did or didn’t do? What would’ve been if you hadn’t prayed?
The S’fat Emet says that the source of this concept, that every prayer does something, is found in this week’s parasha. Moshe Rabbenu prayed 515 times and didn’t get answered, but one thing that did get answered was his request to go across and see the land.אֶעְבְּרָה־נָּ֗א וְאֶרְאֶה֙ אֶת־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַטּוֹבָ֔ה ׃
Later on in Devarim, we read that Hashem said, “This is the land- you saw it. Don’t say you weren’t answered.”
But so what? Was it such a great accomplishment that Moshe saw the land?
The S’fat Emet says that anytime we pray, we are supposed to imagine, as it says in Gemara Masechet Berachot, that we are in the Bet HaMikdash, and so in a sense, we are actually there standing at the Bet HaMikdash! This makes the land around us becomes holy. It is for this reason, says the Bach, that we don’t walk in front of someone who is praying-because that land around him has become holy. He’s in Eretz Yisrael for the moment.
Who accomplished this for us- that we can close our eyes and see Eretz Yisrael, that the land around us becomes the Bet HaMikdash? Moshe Rabbenu. When he saw Eretz Yisrael with his eyes, even though he wasn’t actually there, that gave every Jew the ability to “see” the Bet HaMikdash and have the power of the Bet HaMikdash in our prayers. Whatever Moshe Rabbenu did is forever.
This brings us to another important point:
Why weren’t his prayers answered? All of our tzaddikim had a specific middah. Moshe’s middah is Netzah- Forever. Whatever Moshe Rabbenu did is forever.
His Mishkan is forever, hidden somewhere beneath the Temple Mount. Had Moshe Rabbenu built the Bet HaMikdash, it too would have lasted forever. The only reason we survived the Hurban is because G-d let his anger out on the bricks and stones of the Bet HaMikdash, rather than on us, so that we wouldn’t be destroyed. Had the Bet HaMikdash been built by Moshe, we would’ve been destroyed.
But what did Moshe Rabbenu do that lasted forever? He looked at the land. That’s why the air of Eretz Yisrael still makes one wise. And Moshe gave us the ability to envision the Bet HaMikdash. In our tefillot, we bring one down. This enables us to pray, and it allows us to be in the holy of holies.
All of this was impacted by Moshe Rabbenu’s tefillot.
We read this every single year after Tisha B’Av, so that we don’t think that we wasted our prayers or didn’t get any nachama/ comfort.
It says
כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה
Anyone that mourns over Yerushalayim, will merit to see it in its happiness. That means right now, he sees it. He’ll have a level of Yerushalayim in his life because of that mourning.
B”h we will merit to see the real Yerushalayim speedily in our days.