Q&A: Why Is Prayer Not Answered?
Why Is Prayer Not Answered?
Question
Hello and blessings to the Rabbi,
One of the Rabbi’s arguments against prayer is that we do not see that we are answered. Does the Rabbi accept the answer brought in Hasidic books, that sometimes prayer works in other places?
“And so I heard [from my teacher (the Baal Shem Tov)] an explanation of the Talmud in Berakhot (6a): ‘Things that stand at the height of the world, and people treat them lightly [disparage them],’ and the meaning is: since the effect of prayer is above, ‘at the height of the world,’ and not below, at times, therefore people disparage them, thinking that their prayer, God forbid, was in vain—but this is not so; and the words of the wise are gracious.”
Answer
I’ve written more than once what I think about these strange excuses. If you ask for healing from an illness you have, and as a result rain falls in Indonesia, is that a reasonable explanation from your point of view? Well then, good health to you.
Discussion on Answer
If a person asked for healing from cancer and as a result of his prayer rain fell in Indonesia—obviously that would not improve his condition (to put it mildly), but if he knew that it accomplished something in the upper worlds (and not in Indonesia), why shouldn’t he be happy about that?
Or does the Rabbi claim about that too that this is a lofty approach, etc.?
Indeed, remarkably “lofty.” When people ask for healing from cancer, they do so in order to be healed from cancer, with all due respect to Indonesia.
If in your opinion the claim that when you ask for healing from the cancer you have, rain falls in Indonesia is a sufficient explanation, then good health to you. When the heading for things is “Hasidism,” any meaningless nonsense that falls under it turns into profound ideas, depth upon depth, and the awestruck listener’s breath stops as he attributes his lack of understanding to the limits of the grasping mind and the depth of the concept. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with that lofty approach of such extreme charitable judgment.