Intentionally empty prayer
Hello Rabbi Michael,
I read No Man Has Dominion Over the Spirit, and the book sharpened for me insights that had long been ingrained in me. In particular, the central thesis you present in it – that we have no reasonable basis to assume that God intervenes in the world in a private way, much less responds to specific requests – makes prayer in its simple sense irrelevant to me. In fact, my feeling is that there is no real reason to think that when I ask, “Give us wisdom, understanding, and knowledge,” there is anyone who hears – and certainly not anyone who is going to answer.
I also read the suggestions you made there to try to direct not at myself but at all of Israel, or to leave room for a faint hope that perhaps this time the prayer will be answered – but honestly, they fail to keep me in practice. I fail to feel that I am really addressing someone or that something is happening. As a result, I find myself standing and praying, but not asking, not expecting, and not believing in the reality of the act.
On the other hand, I am still committed to halakha, at least in a formal sense, and therefore also to prayer as a rabbinical obligation. But when I try to observe it, I am unable to go beyond the externals – and I have no sense of emotional, faith-based, or intentional participation.
I wonder if there is any meaning to such an existence of prayer. Is there value in an act empty of intention? Is it right to try to cling to a framework even when it has no inner content? And is there another way you suggest to view the act of prayer, in a situation where a realistic perception of reality negates the very relevance of the request?
I would very much like to hear your opinion.
Respectfully,
In general, you are describing a psychological difficulty, not a principled one. My suggestions solve the principled problem, but it is difficult for you to connect to the prayer or to feel. So do not connect and do not feel. Commitment to the halakha does not include connection and emotions. It is not an act devoid of intention, but an act with complete intention without emotion. On the contrary, such an intention is purer and cleaner than those who ask with the assumption that they will be answered. You pray because of the mitzvah in it, and this is the content of intention in the mitzvah. It is true that in prayer, in addition to the general intention, the intention of the words is also required, hence my above suggestions.
This is not a psychological problem, because technically I am not making any requests.
I didn't understand.
Since I don't think she will answer, I don't really intend to ask for anything, so I didn't pray.
Are you suggesting that I always aim for all of Israel?
If you have come to the clear conclusion that prayers are not answered, you cannot indeed ask. But that is not what you described.
They probably won't answer me, so the request won't be sincere.
Yes, that's what I wrote. Except in cases where you yourself have no natural outlet, and then perhaps you will be the one who will be answered within the framework of sporadic response.
If it's just "apparently," then everything I wrote is in our eyes.
If I may ask, are you directing wisdom, understanding, and knowledge toward all of Israel? Why would God answer this prayer and improve the IQ of the Jewish people?
It's not about improving IQ, but about helping with their application. Increasing intellect over passions and emotions, as in your case, in my opinion, where emotion thwarts intellectual understanding.
Okay, thanks for your time, I'll try to implement what you said.
In general, thank you for your books, my shelf is full of them…
With pleasure. Good luck. I am very happy that my words are being read, especially by serious people who think about them and try to implement what they see.
I will point out, you've probably heard this, that you are simply a savior for certain ultra-Orthodox guys.
I identified with the one who said you left his head under the dome.
Following on from this question, it is well known that you cannot rule out sporadic intervention. But do you at least have no doubt about it? That is, in light of the renewed understanding that God, in general, is not involved in the world, and that "God has forsaken the earth," does not doubt arise about the very sporadic involvement itself? And if so, because the obligation to pray is from the rabbis, and doubt about sporadic involvement leads to doubt about the rabbis' voice. Isn't that so?
Clearly there is doubt. A big one. And yet, in order to cancel an existing law that was established in a minyan without another minyan that permits, certainty is required. It has nothing to do with doubting the Rabbis.
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