Insights in Prayer – Avraham Weinroth Dedication “Many women have performed valiantly, but you exceed them all” This book is dedicated to the elevation of the soul of my mother, my teacher; The dearest of people, the crown of my head; The noblest soul, good-hearted and wise; Her ways were noble and gentle; Her heart was infinitely broad; Who feared Heaven and whose prayer was plentiful Dreizel Weinroth of blessed memory (Daughter of Rav Aryeh Aftergut and Esther Zissa nee Shtrual of blessed memories) Her heartfelt prayers pierced the heavens 1 Page Insights in Prayer – Avraham Weinroth Preface and Dedication Prayer Was Established by the Patriarchs Prayer is an entire Torah in itself and requires study – in-depth study. The act of prayer is repeated so often, yet its meaning is so easy to forget. I, too, would probably have continued praying without understanding the essence of the matter and I wouldn’t have been drawn to the topic except that I was searching for a lacuna to fill, in honor of my father, Rabbi Moshe Aharon son of Rabbi Mordechai Eliezer Weinroth of blessed memory. When I was a child my father met a man who told him that when the Rebbe of Satmar, Rabbi Yo’el Teitelbaum, arrived in Israel in the middle of the last century, he asked a young boy at the train station if he knew how to say in Hebrew an “erlicher yid” (a faithful Jew). The boy knew the translation of “religious” and also “ultra-Orthodox” but did not know how to say in Hebrew “a faithful Jew.” So the boy answered, to the satisfaction of the Satmar Rebbe, that, “There is no such thing as ‘erlicher yid’ in Hebrew.” When I heard this conversation I looked at the speaker and my heart cried out, “Look at my father! He is a living example of a faithful Jew in Hebrew! One’s faithfulness to HASHEM shows itself in every single step of his life, and it is most clearly expressed during prayer. “Great is Your faithfulness” (Eicha 3:23) -- at least three times every day a person’s faith is clearly recognized, in the morning, afternoon and evening prayers. My father, who was truly a faithful Jew, used to pray with tremendous intensity and with every fiber of his being. My father prayed like someone counting coins, every single letter and word was important to him. My father never missed the very early morning minyan., He would often cite the verse, “We will walk to the house of HASHEM with feeling,” (Psalms 55:15), and say that the Hebrew word “feeling” (beregesh) is spelled bet, resh, gimel, shin which is an acronym for the inclement weather – hail (barad), wind (ruach), rain (geshem) and snow (sheleg). He said this and lived by it. My father also embodied the plain meaning of the verse, in his emotional expression during prayer. He embodied the verse, “All my limbs will say, ‘Who is like You, HASHEM?’” (Tehillim 35:10). My father would pray with 2 tremendous devotion and would often be covered in tears by the time he Page finished praying. Insights in Prayer – Avraham Weinroth My father stood for many of the prayers and for the entire Yom Kippur service, even in his old age. Yet my father took ill and passed away, and this living portrait is no longer with us. I sought a topic to write about in his memory and found nothing more appropriate than prayer. “But as for me, when I was on my way from Paddan, Rachel died to me on the road in the land of Canaan,” (Bereishis 48:7). As I wrote those words my dear mother fell ill, the crown of my head, Dreizel Weinroth, daughter of Rabbi Aryeh Aftergut. My mother would pray constantly, pray for us. She would beseech and entreat. Her prayers were the prayers of the poor person, as will be explained later. My mother was so goodhearted and sympathetic to the pain of others. She was insightful and truly knew how to pray and what blessings to give us. I dedicate the chapters to women’s prayer and prayers for the ill to my mother. It was not long afterwards that I gave a shiur, and this time on the essence of the kaddish prayer. The loss of my mother is tremendously painful and I miss her prayers and her blessings. Several chapters in this book were written and signed with tears. This book is dedicated in great sorrow to my father and mother of blessed memories. My parents were so worthy of having a book on prayer dedicated to them. With my whole heart I pray both that the words I have written are worthy, and that I, poor of deeds, was worthy to write them in their memory. 3 Page Insights in Prayer – Avraham Weinroth CHAPTER ONE Introduction Three times each day a Jew stands before his Creator and prays, from his childhood until his old age. Why? What purpose does prayer serve? In-Depth Prayer Prayer is defined as serving HASHEM with one’s heart. The Torah source for the obligation of prayer is the verse, “To love HASHEM, your God, and to serve Him, with all your hearts and all your souls,” (Devarim 11:13). The Talmud (Ta’anis 2a) explains: What kind of service is done with the heart? The verse must refer to prayer. The essential part of the liturgy, according to the Rabbis of the Talmud, is the standing prayer, known as Tefillas Amida (lit. “Standing Prayer”) or Shemoneh Esrei (lit. “Eighteen”). During that prayer one must view himself as if he is standing before a king, before his Creator. Glancing superficially at the wording of the Shemoneh Esrei it appears that it is primarily about asking HASHEM for our human needs. How does a person serve HASHEM through prayer if it means asking for things that he himself needs? In prayer a person asks HASHEM for livelihood and success, a life-partner and marital harmony, children, a healthy long life, national redemption, rainfall – in short, every aspect necessary for an enjoyable life. It seems that in prayer a person focuses primarily on himself and his needs. Prayer seems to be totally egocentric, yet it is called “serving HASHEM.” How can this be? The purpose of prayer cannot be to give HASHEM information about one’s human needs. We believe that the Creator of the universe already knows even the smallest details and needs of every individual. HASHEM is aware of the troubled soul that longs for salvation and He is aware of everything that transpires even in the most private of settings. He knows what is in one’s soul, mind and heart. Why should we need to state these matters to HASHEM 4 during prayer if He already knows everything? Page Insights in Prayer – Avraham Weinroth Furthermore, HASHEM is the ultimate cause and reason for everything that happens in our world. Every adversity or difficulty that a person goes through comes ultimately from HASHEM. For example, HASHEM does not need a patient or his friends to ask for health in order to know about the sickness, since the illness itself came through Divine Providence in the first place. If so, what need or purpose is there for a person to plead with HASHEM about every trouble or event that happens to him? Nor could we suggest that prayer is laying out one’s requests before HASHEM. If a person deserves to be saved, through his deeds or a Divine calculations of reward and punishment, then HASHEM will certainly save him, since HASHEM is trusted to repay people for their good deeds. Why should we pray for something which we deserve anyway? Conversely, if the person does not deserve to be saved according to HASHEM’s calculation of reward and punishment, how does prayer help? Does praying imply that HASHEM veers from the principles of reward and punishment simply because someone entreated Him in prayer to do so? That would make a mockery of this principle which is the foundation of our faith, as Rambam states (11th Principle of Faith): I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be He, rewards those who observe His mitzvos and punishes those who transgress them. We could suggest that perhaps prayer itself is a form of repentance and contains a dimension of purification. When someone stands before HASHEM in prayer and makes requests he expresses his strong belief in HASHEM, which in and of itself brings the person closer to HASHEM. The idea of prayer as a form of personal improvement is attributed to the Baal Shem Tov, who used to say: If you are exactly the same person after prayer as you were before, what was the point of praying? This is why one who prays is called in Hebrew a mispalel, which is the reflexive form, meaning “to plead with oneself,” rather than the active form mepalel, meaning “to plead.” When praying one acts to change oneself. 5 Page Insights in Prayer – Avraham Weinroth For this reason the Talmud (Berachos 32b) states that “If one prayed and was not answered he should pray again.” If the prayer was not answered at first, it is a sign that the person did not do enough. This is similar to the Talmudic dictum (Megillah 6b) that “If someone says he worked hard but did not succeed - do not believe him.” If someone wasn’t successful in their prayer it is a sign that he didn’t try hard enough.