The System Called Prayer
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Rav Yerucham writes in his Sefer, Da'at Torah, that our purpose in life is to work on becoming closer to Hashem. He loves us and wants us to become close to Him for our benefit. He has so much good that he wants to give us, but He doesn't want it to turn us away from Him. When everything is going smoothly, we tend to forget about Hashem. If that would happen, what would all the blessing be worth? Therefore, Hashem created a system in which we can attain blessing and still be able to be close to Him. This system is called prayer. The Aleh Shur writes that the purpose of prayer is for us to realize how much we need Hashem, and that we are nothing without Him. Only He can fulfil our needs. The Mabit expresses the same idea in his work, Bet Elokim. Every time we ask Hashem for money, we should think that we cannot do business on our own. Each time we ask Hashem for a Refuah Shelema, we are supposed to realize that it is not the doctor, but Hashem, who heals.
Rabbenu Yonah writes in the Sha'are Teshuva that Hashem wants us to ask Hashem for even our most minute needs. The more insignificant the request, the more we show Hashem how much we need Him. We are telling Him, "We can't even do this without You." Once a person realizes how much he is dependent upon Hashem, he can then be showered with blessing and still remain close to Him.
The Midrash at the beginning of this week's Parasha, Va'etchanan, says: "יפה שעה אחת בתפילה יותר ממעשים טובים"-one moment of prayer is greater even than good deeds. One may ask what is so great about requesting of Hashem something we need? The answer is that we learn to recognize that we need Him. That is very powerful and opens the door for success. The Navi in Sefer Shoftim (CH. 10) describes how the Jewish people abandoned Hashem and worshipped foreign gods. Hashem turned them into the hands of their enemies for 18 years. Finally, the Jews said to Hashem, "We have sinned," but He responded, "I have helped you so many times in the past, yet you continue to worship other gods. Why don't you cry out to them for help?" Although they were turned away by Hashem, the next Pasuk says that the Jews again turned to Hashem and said, "We have sinned. Please help us. We know the other gods are nothing." Then Hashem said He will save them, now that they got rid of their other gods and recognized Him as the only One who could really help them.
A rabbi told me about a man whose wife had been looking for an afternoon daycare job to supplement his income. She tried everything she could for two months, including telephone calls and advertisements, but she still could not find a job. One day he was driving home from work, listening to a class about Emunah. The rabbi was talking about putting in a normal effort of Hishtadlut and then putting our energy into prayer and recognizing that Hashem is the one who is giving. The man came home and told his wife, "We have done much more than a regular effort for this. We haven't yet brought Hashem into the picture enough. We're done with our hishtadlut, now it's time to focus on praying harder and leaving the results up to Hashem." The very next day, the woman received a call from someone seeking to hire her. Baruch Hashem, she got the job and it's paying her double the going rate.
Once we reach the level to be able to have all of the blessings and still stay close to Hashem, B'ezrat Hashem, He will answer our Tefilot and shower us with Berachot.
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