Prayer: A Lesson in Faith - Rabbi Akiva Fox

another way that we can learn to express or to uncover our emunah our belief is a very interesting thing it also has to do with the power of speech but this is actually a kiddush this is something that's a kind of a surprise the power of prayer praying some sperm there's a safer called the the base ello Kim other the translation is the house of God and it discusses many parts of the Jewish religion there's one section on faith one section on trouve on repentance and one section on basically on the fundamentals of Jewish faith but in the section that he discusses prayer he says something very interesting I'm going to phrase it in my own words but this is this is what he enlightens us to a very fascinating thing he explains that prayer is not necessarily from me to God prayer is for me to myself what does that mean am I Dominic am i praying to myself no that's not what he means he says that prayer is a lesson in immuno prayer teaches us to believe what does that mean so he says as follows I don't know if anybody I'm sure people have been to Israel those who are here in Israel I think you've been here you probably still are not the guy in the back over there is definitely somewhere else in the universe right now oh it's got a postcard for my father had a picture of the world and it said wishing you were here but those who have been to Israel you've noticed probably that many of the buildings look very similar to each other basically they all have that why jerusalem line start limestone and they're basically all the same if you ever noticed when we pray there are three prayers that we say every day chakras mincha and my earth and there is a shmona esra the amidah which is the silent prayer when we in a certain sense speak whispered directly it's a conversation between man and God in a certain sense it's like when you enter the chamber of the king and you're standing in front of him and it's just you and him that is the prayer of shmona esra the 18 or 19 Bracco's blessings that we say and these are the I'm going to use the word the climax of fela of prayer of intense devotion and intense connection to wash em in prayer now in all of those prayers in the morning and afternoon and the evening when we gather and we pray and we say these words it's always the same it's repetitive not only that but we're going to do that again tomorrow and the next day and the next day and not only that but after we say it silently then the cousin the prayer leader he says it again so in essence we're repeating it six times a day now that's very interesting because Hashem he hears prayer he's the show Matt fila if you say it again and then again and then again alone maybe you're going to get on his nerves why are we saying it again and again so you might think that the reason is because if you want to get stuff and if you're praying for something then the best way to get it is to get so much on his nerves that he's like alright leave me alone here take it it's yours stop asking but that's not the truth ha special so the mob bit this Bay seller Kim says the reason we constantly say the same prayer over and over is because it's not God that we want to hear the prayer it's our heart that we want to hear the prayer and he explains as follows I remember you know yeah when I was growing up I never really grew up but when I was a child my parents used to try to teach us the important phone numbers that you needed to know so 911 number your father's work number your mother's cell phone number these are were numbers that every day we would come home and when we were little you know what do you do if there's an emergency we call 911 and what do you do if there's a fire we call 911 what do you do if that we call 911 then of course when it comes down to god forbid an emergency like oh no what should i do what did I tell you what are you doing time of emergency we asked mom for candy you have to repeat it over and over and over again and not in crunch time when everything is regular you have to constantly say it again and again so that when it comes time when push comes to shove when you're in that situation that's when you're going to remember what you train yourself way back so the mob it explains that the reason we constantly say the same prayer is because we want to teach ourselves that where to turn if you need something is josh m so therefore when it comes to the brock of the blessing that we talked about refuah of healing we say to rush em please help us please help us feel better please heal the sick when it comes to repentance we say please help us repent when it comes to forgiveness we say please help forgive us the reason that this is being constantly repeated is not collection needs to hear it because we need to hear it it's because we need to remember that when the time will come that we will need that we will be desperate for God's help don't forget the place to turn is to God so we constantly repeat it to internalize the message that Hashem is the source for everything so the my bid says that in essence prayer constant prayer constantly again and again saying the same prey or over and over is a lesson in faith is a lesson in a muna it teaches us that we will learn that the place and the one to turn to is only Hashem is only God for everything that means for / NASA for Prosperity for help for wealth for cuva to repent whatever it is that we need God's help we are talking about it and we are praying constantly again and again for the same thing not for God to hear he heard but it's for us to learn that this is the source God is the source so another lesson in faith is prayer itself constantly praying again and again in the very same words speaking about the very same things is not for the benefit of God hearing us it's for the benefit of us to hear us to teach ourselves that the source for everything is God so another lesson in faith is Fela is prayer to teach ourselves that the source for every part of life the source for all goodness in the world is God so therefore constantly we keep Dominic we keep praying and it's never a new prayer it's the same prayer because it will become new to us so that we will know that in the time of need the place to turn is a xem sao prayer itself is a lesson in faith so don't only pray to God that he hear your prayer pray to God that you hear your prayer that you will learn to truly believe you will learn to truly have faith and God as being the source for everything you