Reflections on the DIVINE Dialogue
Is there a heimishe bakery worthy of the name at which one doesn’t have to wait on line at 11 o’clock on a Friday morning? And who, after having endured the enforced passivity of the de rigueur fifteen minute wait at the more popular venues hasn’t been told: we’re out of large challahs with seeds or some other response no less disappointing?
Our Tefillos tend to follow a similar pattern.
We do our best (with our best being a five star relative term) to knock out a tefillah that will garner a positive response, but regardless of its intrinsic quality, it’s first stop is at the back of the line where it will wait its turn to be heard.
We’re out of large challahs with seeds also doubles as a metaphor for the Heavenly responses to our tefillos that go south of what we requested, because as we said in EmunahSpeak: So Say Something Already!, We have the power to talk to Hashem like a person talks to his fellow because the real idea of prayer is communication. And in the context of that dialogue, we attempt to push the buttons to which everything in the world is connected. The good news is that no sincere prayer goes unanswered. That’s heads. Tales is that sometimes the answer is no.
And this is how the process of tefillah works for the vast (with vast being an understatement) majority of us. Every word we utter will be attended to and someone somewhere will be the better for it. But as for us, we may come home from Hashem's bakery with a medium chalah with no seeds or perhaps no challah at all because there are no guarantees in the realm of tefillah.
But for those few who are on a rarified madreiga of trying to come close to Hashem, Rabbi Mordechai Aderet tells us that the Zohar HaKodesh puts forth four conditions that will put one’s tefillah on an express track.
A person must feel poor. You can be the wealthiest person on earth but you must mentally and emotionally undress yourself from your wealth. It’s crucial to think that everything belongs to Hashem.
And you must be a slave to Hashem in your heart. Unlike most everyone else, your actions are no longer motivated by your welfare, but rather by what’s in it for Hashem.
You also have to be a chossid in that you love to learn Torah and keep the mitzvos. And what does it mean to love to learn? On Tisha B’av, the restrictions on your learning ache you more than your hunger.
And if you should chas v’shalom be an Onain who is forbidden to perform mitzvos, your suffering from that prohibition is as acute as your suffering from the loss which caused you to become an onain in the first place.
And you must be ready to stand up for Hashem in any and all circumstances.
You are attending a large fundraising dinner, and the speaker makes a somewhat disparaging remark about the Gadol Hador. Do you continue eating or do you walk out in protest?
Many years ago, at a very big fundraising dinner for a major Jewish organization, the president of the organization made a negative comment about Rabbi Moshe Feinstein z”l. Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l, rose from his seat, walked up to the speaker, who was standing at the microphone, and slapped him across the face in front of hundreds of people.
Many years ago, at a very big fundraising dinner for a major Jewish organization, the president of the organization made a negative comment about Rabbi Moshe Feinstein z”l. Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l, rose from his seat, walked up to the speaker, who was standing at the microphone, and slapped him across the face in front of hundreds of people.
The Zohar HaKodesh promises that if you do these things, your tefillah is guaranteed to be accepted. No ifs, buts or maybes, and no going to the back of the queue.
Those tefillos literally cut the line, go straight to the front, and receive a two thumbs up Heavenly equivalent of a large challah with seeds.
