Spark of Jewish Experience

Hi! This is Rebbe speaking:

In this week’s Parsha, Parshat Va’Etchanan we see the power of Tefillah (Prayers). Moshe Rabbeinu davened (prayed) to Hashem 515 times asking to be allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael (Israel). If Moshe would have prayed one more Tefillah, Hashem would have allowed him entry into the Holy Land. Therefore Hashem told him to stop praying.

Chaim, a poor man needed a loan. He went to Natan a wealthy businessman and requested a loan. “Please lend me some money to build up my business.” Natan replied, “Call me in a week.” Exactly one week later Chaim once again contacted Natan. Once more Natan pushed him off saying, “Surely I will loan you money but now I’m very busy, try to catch me in the morning before I leave for work. Each day for a while, Chaim would wait in the synagogue for Natan to finish his morning prayers. Often Chaim would try to speak to Natan but did not succeed. Other times Natan would realize he had just missed him. Even when he finally did speak to him, Natan had some excuse for putting him off. Finally one day Chaim walked up to Natan. All he had to say was “the loan?” and Natan wrote out a check for the full amount Chaim had requested.

At that precise moment Daniel, another man in need, entered the shul and saw the transaction between Natan and Chaim. “It’s that easy”, he thought to himself. Daniel walked over to Natan and requested a loan. Natan curtly replied, “Sorry. Now is not a good time.” “What for me you don’t have the time? Only Chaim is worthy of a loan!” Daniel took a moment to explain himself. “You don’t understand. It may seem like Chaim got his money effortlessly. This is not the case. Chaim has been asking me for quite some time now. Come back to me and I’ll see what I can do.”

Sometimes we have to pray for something more than once in order for us to achieve the results we want. Hashem likes our prayers. All our forefathers, Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak Avinu and Yaakov Avinu did not have children immediately. Hashem cherished their prayers. We do not realize how meaningful our Tefillot are to Hashem.

It may seem that various prayers remain unanswered. This is not so. Every prayer is used for something. We may pray for someone who is not well and unfortunately they do not get better. How can this be? Hashem stores our precious prayers for others that need it or even sometimes puts it aside for future use for the person who said them. We do not know Hashem’s reasoning but we do know that He knows what’s best.

There is a fascinating story told about the Holy Baal Shem Tov.

The Baal Shem Tov asked to be shown the person who would be worthy of sitting near him in the world to come.

When the person was revealed to the Baal Shem Tov, he immediately set out to the far away city where Mendel resided. He wanted to see who this great man was.

The holy Baal Shem Tov was astounded to see a simpleton who was sitting and praying. Mendel had an interesting way of praying. He did not know that there are set prayers for different times of the day. Each day, Mendel would take out his prayer book and open it to the first page. He would not stop praying until he reached the very last page of the siddur. Mendel did not know that one does not say the entire siddur from cover to cover in one sitting.

When the Baal Shem Tov saw this he offered to make bookmarks for Mendel, in order for him to know what to say when. He marked the morning prayer. He marked the afternoon prayer and also the evening prayer. He placed bookmarks for the Shabbat and Holiday prayers. Mendel thanked the Baal Shem Tov profusely and the Rabbi left.

Mendel lovingly lifted his siddur, when a gust of wind blew and all the bookmarks that the Baal Shem Tov had placed were blown right out of the siddur. Mendel was almost in tears. He quickly ran after the Rabbi. The Baal Shem Tov had reached a river. He took off his belt and placed it on the water and thus he was able to cross over. Mendel did the same and he too crossed over. “Rebbe, Rebbe sorry to bother you, but I need you to replace all the bookmarks.” The Baal Shem Tov could not believe his eyes. How did Mendel cross the river? “Mendel how did you get here? Did you have a boat?” “No, I did what the great Rabbi did. I too walked across the river on my belt.”

The Baal Shem tov realized that Mendel was no ordinary Jew. “It must be his prayers.” he said to himself. “You do not need those bookmarks. Go back to your old way of praying. Hashem appreciated your Tefillot immensely. Wow, what prayers are worth!”

We need not know how to pray as long as we are sincere in our prayers. We must have prayer be a part of us. In all that we do we can pray to Hashem. It does not only have to be a tefillah from a siddur. We can thank Hashem and ask him for things all day. It is our connection to Hashem that we are fortunate to have. We have access to the King of Kings at all times.

Keep praying and know that your prayers are worth much and no prayer is for naught.

What have we learned today?

Where do our Tefillot (prayers) go?

Our Tefillot are put to good use. Hashem knows where to put our prayers. We can relate to this answer by comparing Tefillot to money that we deposit in a bank. Some are deposited and used immediately to pay outstanding bills. Others are deposited only to be stored in order for it to be available at a time when we need it most. So too, our Tefillot may be used immediately and we can see results right away. Some are put aside for a later time.

What are some examples of things that we can pray for throughout the day?

We can pray for anything that we think we may need or want. All things both big and small are achievable by Hashem. Sometimes the answer may be “no”. We may think that our request would be good for us but Hashem knows better. A child may want to eat sweets all day, but the parent will not let. A parent says “no” because he knows what’s best.

One can ask Hashem to help him find a parking spot, have a successful shopping adventure or win a ball game. It makes no difference what the request is. It is praiseworthy to ask Hashem for what we want. It shows that we know and believe that He is in charge. Hashem is always listening. The door to prayer is always open. The King of Kings is always available.

I’m sure all you intelligent boys and girls have come up with outstanding examples of your own.