Thank you very much for the answers, and for the quick response.

That is my prayer from a philosophical standpoint. From the standpoint of experience, I do not look at it that way; during prayer I pray in such a way that I believe what I ask for will happen. What matters here for me is what I feel. Like Rabbi Hasdai Crescas, who argues for a deterministic view on the issue of providence but says that we choose how to feel about what happens to us or what we do.
How do you see prayer?

Rabbi Hasdai Crescas’s words are very strange in many respects. First of all, even the way we relate to things is a kind of event (mental) in the world, and therefore on his view the Holy One, blessed be He, knows that in advance too. So what has his whole approach achieved?
And in general I do not accept a demand that I work on myself and/or say things that are not true for various reasons.
I have a serious problem with some of the requests in prayer, and I redirect them toward those who are especially in need—perhaps the Holy One, blessed be He, will intervene for their benefit. That much, maybe.

Of course I also have this difficulty with Rabbi Hasdai Crescas.
I am aware that at some level I am “working on myself,” and that does not bother me in the slightest from the standpoint of religious experience. I am not capable of living only according to the analytic—and it is not that I am incapable of living that way because my intellect tells me so, but that is simply how I feel. It is clear to me that this does not work for you, and that, for example, the talk that came after yours yesterday did not affect you at all (nor me), but to me this feels emptying.

I am not arguing about anything on the therapeutic plane. A person can do what helps him, however strange it may be. But this is not prayer.
If you go one step further, you could say that faith too is really a kind of therapy because that is what is comfortable for you (and not because that is what you actually believe).

Why not say, like Yeshayahu Leibowitz in his article on prayer?
Because we were commanded.

http://www.leibowitz.co.il/leibarticles.asp?id=1

Rabbi, you claim that “there is no escape from concluding that the Holy One’s policy has changed.”
In my opinion this is a grave mistake to say, because with this claim we sin by anthropomorphizing God. At the same time that I write these words, I hear ringing in my ears the words of Maimonides in the Laws of the Foundations of the Torah: “And He does not change, for there is nothing that could cause Him to change.”
This does not mean that God is some fixed object. Rather, it means that the concept of change, just like the concept of fixity, belongs to humanity, which is tied to a body and a psychophysical system that either becomes fixed or changes.

And therefore the concept of changing policy applies only to the psychophysical creature in nature.

To Neria,

Because, as I wrote above, according to Leibowitz prayer is a meaningless mantra. He proposes saying words whose content is a request to the Holy One, blessed be He, even though we understand that the requests will not be answered. That is falsehood. True, he can propose doing so despite the fact that prayer has no content, simply because of the authority of the Sages who established that one must pray—but that is not giving content to prayer, only proposing that it be recited even without content. Except that specifically regarding prayer, even that is problematic, because prayer is a commandment fulfilled through speech, and speech is not mere lip movement, but lip movement that expresses content. And if I do not intend to express content, then I am not speaking, and in any case I am not praying.
And these are the words of the Sages in Yoma 69b:

“For Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Why were they called the Men of the Great Assembly? Because they restored the crown to its former glory. Moses came and said, ‘the great, mighty, and awesome God.’ Jeremiah came and said: Foreigners are ravaging His Sanctuary—where is His awesomeness? He did not say ‘awesome.’ Daniel came and said: Foreigners are enslaving His children—where is His might? He did not say ‘mighty.’ They came and said: On the contrary, this is His mighty might, that He suppresses His inclination and gives patience to the wicked. And this is His awesomeness, for were it not for the fear of the Holy One, blessed be He, how could one nation survive among the nations? But how could the rabbis do so and uproot an enactment instituted by Moses? Rabbi Elazar said: Because they knew of the Holy One, blessed be He, that He is truthful, therefore they did not speak falsely about Him.”

Study this carefully.

As for your second question, there is no difficulty at all in this. He also changed policy in that miracles disappeared and prophecy disappeared. His providence changes over the years, whether you like it or not. And if for some reason you are troubled by changes in Him (a question that does not bother me in the slightest), you can always say that this was His plan from the very beginning.

Whoever prays on behalf of his fellow is answered first.
“Behold, at that time I will deal with all who afflict you; and I will save the lame, and gather those who were driven away, and I will make them a praise and a name in every land where they were put to shame. At that time I will bring you in, and at the time that I gather you.”
“On that day, says the Lord, I will gather the lame, and collect the outcast, and those whom I have afflicted. And I will make the lame a remnant, and the weary a mighty nation; and the Lord shall reign over them on Mount Zion from now and forever.”
I did not understand Mr. A.’s point in Rabbi Hasdai Crescas’s words. After all, what difference does it make how we feel about what we do or what happens to us—what is that supposed to express? Will our feelings change anything? What?
Prayer needs to be in such a way that it reflects your ultimate desires for the sake of doing His will, may He be blessed. And afterward, in order that you should feel better, and money, etc. etc., all the material side.
The blessing “Heal us” is unique because it includes the health of body and soul, because without mental health how can we serve Him (and serve Him with a whole heart and willing soul). Willing—for what? Willing to do His will, may He be blessed.
As for the blessing for rain, it is a matter of “and I will give your rains in their proper time,” that is, at the right time and in the right quantity. And not so that we should invent things and so on. If we were closer to Him and did His will in a more loving way, like our father Abraham, then His providence over us would be stronger, and “cast your burden upon the Lord,” and everything would be fine.

To the Rabbi,
But I am really not taking that step; rather, I believe on the philosophical level. Maybe I also recognize the contribution of religion and faith to humanity, but that is not what leads me to hold this faith.

If I believe that at the fundamental level my prayer can be accepted, arouse heavenly mercy, and change something in reality? Yes. If I think that will happen? Not really.
But is there not something in the Sages’ conception of prayer that brings me into a state of submission and standing before the Infinite? Wasn’t that one of their aims—that we should feel some kind of dependence, and not only on the therapeutic plane?

Faith was only an example meant to illustrate the difference between psychologistic “therapy” claims and claims of fact. You did not claim that faith, for you, is therapy; rather, I was illustrating for you the meaning of your conception regarding prayer if one applies it to faith.

I do not know what it means to believe that this could happen but not think that it will happen. Clearly the Holy One, blessed be He, can respond, and it is in His power to deviate from the laws of nature. But if you do not think He will do so, then your prayer is not prayer. A person does not ask when he knows he will not be answered.

As for submission and standing before the Infinite—that is the therapy I was talking about. You are saying words that you do not mean (because you think your requests will not be answered) in order to create an experience of standing before the Infinite and submission, etc. If that helps you (which I do not understand how that can be, by saying words that you know are not true)—good for you. But it is not prayer. Their goal may indeed have been to reach submission and standing before the Infinite, but the way to get there is through prayer מתוך a conception that you really are in the hands of the Holy One, blessed be He (because that is how they understood reality). Once that changed, I would recommend that you study physics or biology (as Maimonides says in the Laws of the Foundations of the Torah); that brings far more submission and standing before the Infinite than mumbling words you do not believe in, like some kind of mantra.

I do not think He will do so because it is not God’s way to be persuaded by every whim I have. But I do pray that He will hear me, with complete faith that He can.

But no matter, we are repeating the same point.

And indeed, from the slight contact I have with these fields, I grasp the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He.