Everyone’s Tefillah Counts - R. Yitzchak Oelbaum - TorahAnytime.com

The Rebbe to Rebbe was from the great everyone heard of him. You know, one night he was trying to get a minyan for Maariv. But they're short one person. So they're not mentioning it. It was very late. And the Rebbe had a custom that last time when he done with minyan, but he never ever took someone if the guy didn't daven. We have had one tells us we have six people who daven for didn't daven give me shout for minyan. The Rebbe needed people always that they didn't daven. So he has nine people who didn't daven. It's very late. 3:00 2:00 12:00 2:30. It's late. And they can't find anybody. And the people who daven already know you can't bring me stuff cuz the Rebbe had his thing. It's got to be 10 people who didn't daven. The guy goes outside to find someone and finally a boy passes by. And he asked the boy he says, "Did you daven?" And the boy thought for a moment he says, "No. Couldn't get out. I didn't daven." I didn't. And he comes in and the Rebbe is ready to start davening. And as he ready to start davening, the Rebbe paused. Seeing something's wrong and he turns around and he says, "Is it possible that there's somebody in this room who daven already?" The Rebbe says, "Is it possible there's someone in this room who daven already?" After a few moments of silence, that boy who just walked in said, "I daven Maariv already." And they had to go find another person to complete the minyan. After Maariv was over, the Rebbe went over to this teenage boy and apologized to him for calling him out. "So I just sensed something in the minyan that someone already daven." the Rebbe said. And the boy with tears in his eyes says, "The Rebbe, you didn't single me out. You made me feel special." The Rebbe said, "Why?" And the boy says, "When your guy by I asked if I had davened yet. The boy said, "I knew I davened already. But I said no because I figured in Shamayim I might feel it doesn't mean anything. After all, what difference does my tfillah make? What am I? 16-year-old boy. So I looked at myself and thought, "I'm not the type of person whose davening actually counts in Shamayim." But you turned around, Rebbe, and you said so what davened? It meant THAT MY TFILLAH MAKES A DIFFERENCE. MY TFILLAH MAKES A DIFFERENCE, REBBE. Do you know what you did for me? I never believed that my davening means anything. Look at me. At best, I'm average when I davened. I didn't have much kavana. I said the words quickly. But you told me that even for me, my tfillah really did count. Which to me changed my It's going to change my life. The boy said, "We have to believe in ourselves. We all count. We all count. But we have to understand that now's the zman we have to understand that tfillah counts. Doesn't matter. If we explained before if it's on a higher level or a lower level, at the end of the day tfillah counts. And that's what we see from the Rebbe, that every single tfillah counts, and that's how we have to understand and really really go to.