The meaning of prayer
Hello,
I recently discovered the rabbi’s website and read a few articles and responses, and I wanted to ask a question.
What does the Rabbi understand the meaning of prayer to be? How does prayer work?
For someone who doesn’t have a lot of free time and barely has time for prayer, like a soldier for example, why isn’t it appropriate for him to study Torah instead of praying?
This issue requires a long discussion. As far as I understand, prayer has no role and is not effective. It is a mitzvah (according to the Rambam of the Torah and the Ramban of the Rabbis) and must be observed like any other mitzvah and one must be prepared to fulfill one’s duty. Its essence is standing before God, the Holy One.
Since, as far as I understand, God is not involved in the world these years (at least in the vast majority of cases), it must be assumed that requests will probably not be answered and praise should be given for the creation of the world and its laws, and not for specific things that He apparently did not do.
If I were to stand up for myself, I would change much of the wording of the prayer, but I do not have the authority to do so. Something that one minyan needs another minyan to permit and change.
Goodbye and have a good week,
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Asks:
But most of the Amidah prayer is requests to God, so what is a person supposed to mean when he asks God for requests as part of the prayer?
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Rabbi:
The daily requests are the main problem, and there you can plan to help someone in great need somewhere in the world (it is possible that sometimes he does intervene). The general requests (redemption, etc.) are simpler.
The basic premise: All of reality is completely owned by the Holy One, blessed be He. The human researcher does not “look from the sidelines” at a closed system, but operates within the system of the owner of the house. When trying to empirically test “whether prayer is effective,” an internal contradiction quickly arises:
1. Methodological-theological problem
A statistical test requires a representative sample, that is, a complete list of all worshipers, every request, every connection, every right and duty of every person, and every stage of the cosmic trajectory. Since this information is kept only by the owner of the world, any human “sample” is always partial and arbitrary. If the Holy One, blessed be He, chooses to encrypt his traces, he will simply ensure that the sample collected includes precisely those cases in which the prayer is not actually expressed or is expressed in ways that cannot be identified. The researchers will declare “no effect,” even though in the heavenly reckoning the prayer worked in full force.
2. Concealment of Face
Already in the prophecy “I will conceal my face,” it is explicitly stated: There is a period in which the Creator chooses to conceal His visible appearance. Concealment of face is not an accident, but a policy. Any attempt to illuminate the concealment by scientific means essentially circumvents the divine policy. If the measurement succeeds – the concealment is nullified; and if the concealment is valid – the measurement will fail. Both possibilities negate the value of the research from the outset.
3. Prohibition of “Thou shalt not test”
The Torah prohibits “Thou shalt not test the Lord your God.” The Sages elaborate: It is forbidden to put the Creator to the test, even with pure intention. Anyone who seeks to “prove” God by empirical means crosses a halakhic line. The one who violates the prohibition may be punished by having his test come out distorted, and will then have to give an account in the next world as well.
4. Prayer as an operative tool that is not probabilistic
Prayer is not “strengthening percentages” in a mathematical sense, but rather opening a channel. If a person lacks rights, or if the request conflicts with the supreme good, the channel will remain closed. When the only barrier is the lack of prayer, the appeal releases abundance. This occurs behind spiritual scenes to which a person has no access. No statistics will record such channels, because their activation is conditional on the particular decision of the Creator of the world at any given moment.
5. The logic of the “free lottery ticket”
Prayer is free and belongs to everyday mitzvot. To renounce it is like a person Who refuses to fill out a free lottery ticket, even though he does not know whether his numbers are going to increase. In any case, even if the winning rate is absolute behind the curtain, only those who asked can receive it.
6. Throwing the discourse onto the right plane
A demand for empirical evidence introduces faith into a foreign field that we are not qualified to handle. Those who demand conclusive evidence miss the essence of concealment, cross the “thou shalt not try,” and ignore the line that separates scientific knowledge from traditional loyalty. The question of whether to pray is not a statistical question but a question of obedience to a mitzvah and a desire to open up a spiritual possibility.
Therefore, the argument “prayer is useless because there is no empirical evidence” misses the entire theological structure. Those who believe in the Creator’s ownership, in the policy of concealment, and in the prohibition of experimentation understand that such research is doomed to inherent failure. In any case, the logical way is to continue praying, since there is no cost, there is a mitzvah, and there is the potential for abundance. Unmeasurable.
I have expanded on all of this more than once. You are just claiming that this is an irrefutable thesis. That is perfectly fine. That is also what I am claiming. We both also agree that we do not see this happening in the world. But you still choose to accept it even though there is no indication of this, and in fact the opposite seems to be the case, and I choose not to. Therefore, there is no point in all this longing.
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