Tefillah - 136 Silent Prayer & Emunah

A Prayer That We Not Be Empty-Handed

In the blessing of שמע קולינו we ask Hashem, ומלפניך מלכינו ריקם אל תשיבנו  - “And before You, our King, empty-handed do not return us.” We ask Hashem that even if our entire request is not answered, that we should at least not walk away totally empty-handed.

There is a deeper meaning of this prayer, though, as we will explain.

Tefillah: Recognizing Hashem

Tefillah is called “standing in front of the King”. Hashem is the ultimate Reality, and He is not bound to the rules of the physical dimension; He is above all place and time. He is constant, and when one concentrates on this thought and removes the layers covering over his heart, he feels the deeper reality. That is what it means to “stand in front of the King” – it is a natural ability in the soul to feel Hashem’s Presence.[1]

However, because we live on This World, which is materialistic and temporary, Tefillah is therefore Chayei Shaah (“temporary life”) to us [whereas Torah learning is called “Chayei Olam”, eternal life]. The depth behind Chayei Shaah is that when we daven, it is to the time to feel the absolute reality, which is Hashem.

Tefillah: Speaking With Hashem

Another aspect in tefillah is the fact that tefillah utilizes our power of speech. Tefillah is not just about recognizing Hashem as we stand in front of Him; it is to talk to Him. The Mesillas Yesharim writes that when we daven, we are literally speaking with Hashem, as real as can be.

It’s possible that a person is standing in front of Hashem in prayer, but he is quiet and doesn’t speak to Him. He feels the reality of Hashem, but he is missing the relationship part, because He is not speaking with Him.

So these are the two parts of tefillah – recognizing the reality of Hashem, and speaking with Hashem – as if He is in actually in front of us, as the Mesillas Yesharim says.  Tefillah is the time when we stand in front of Hashem and speak to Him, but we need to speak to Him through the recognition that He is really in front of us.

Tefillah: Our Requests

There is also a third aspect in tefillah: what we speak about.

Chazal state (in Berachos 34a) that the first three blessings of Shemoneh Esrei are about shevach (praise) to Hashem, the middle twelve blessings are requests, and the last three blessings are to give gratitude to Hashem over what we have received.

These three parts of Shemoneh Esrei are parallel to the three aspects of Tefillah:

First we need to realize that we are standing in front of Hashem, and this is the prerequisite to Shemoneh Esrei. When it comes to speaking with Hashem, there are three parts – the first three blessings are about shevach (praise to Hashem), the middle twelve blessings are about requests, and the final three blessings are hodaah (gratitude).

In the current blessing of Shemoneh Esrei which we are discussing, which is Shema Koleinu, we are at the end of the twelve requests. We requested daas, teshuvah, etc. and we end with the request of Shema Koleinu. And we ask Hashem here not to be left empty-handed – in other words, whatever we asked for until now, even if we aren’t answered fully, we ask Hashem that we at least be somewhat answered and not walk away empty-handed.

“Prayer Accomplishes Half”

Even more so, Chazal say that “prayer accomplishes half” (tefillah oiseh mechtzah). When we recite the 13 middos of rachamim (attributes of mercy), Chazal say that they are never turned away empty-handed; there, we have a guarantee. But when it comes to our personal tefillos as well, we also find this concept, that we are always somewhat answered: “prayer accomplishes half”.

The simple understanding of this is that when we ask Hashem for 100 dollars, even if we don’t get 100 dollars, we will still get 50 dollars.

But the depth of this Chazal is much more than that, as we will see.

Tefillah Is A Temporary Inspiration

In our requests, we ask for things such as health and livelihood. Our first request is in the fourth blessing of Shemoneh Esrei, Attah Choinen, when ask for daas, true understanding. It is not by coincidence that the first request in Shemoneh Esrei we ask for is for daas. It shows us that our main request in Shemoneh Esrei, the essence of all our tefillos, is to ask Hashem for daas. From there we go on to ask for health and livelihood and all else that we need, but the essence of our prayers is to ask for daas. From that understanding, we continue into the rest of our requests.

The root of all requests begins with daas. What kind of daas do we refer to? It is not just an intellectual kind of daas (knowing in our minds that Hashem exists), but a daas of the heart; when the daas of the mind gets internalized in our heart (and we feel very clearly how Hashem exists).

Tefillah is called Chayei Shaah because it is the time to reveal Hashem during this time, as we said before. But it is also called Chayei Shaah because our requests begin with asking for daas, which is referring to daas of the heart, as Tefillah is called the “avodah of the heart”. When the daas in our minds become settled upon our heart, it becomes a deeper awareness - daas of the heart. [Daas of the mind is to clearly know that Hashem exists. Daas of the heart is a deeper awareness: when one feels this knowledge as very real. Our avodah is always to internalize more and more into our hearts the daas that we know in our minds].

When a person speaks in Shemoneh Esrei and he is concentrating correctly, his mind is affecting his heart, and sometimes even more, until even his actions are affected and improved. But after a person davens, the tefillah is no longer here, and that is why Tefillah is called Chayei Shaah, because it is all a temporary inspiration.

Tefillah begins with requesting daas, which begins in our mind and is meant to be settled in our heart, and this can improve a person during Shemoneh Esrei, when his prayers are uttered correctly and with concentration and awareness. But what happens after Shemoneh Esrei is over? The daas that one acquired during Shemoneh Esrei leaves the person, and he is left with some mark of it of course, but for the most part, the great awareness of Hashem he felt during Shemoneh Esrei has gone.

That is why tefillah is called chayei shaah – all the great understandings that he reached in his mind and heart during Shemoneh Esrei goes away afterwards.

In the times of the Gemara, the pious tzaddikim would wait for an hour after they davened, so that they could hold onto some of their inspiration. This shows us that a person needs to be able to walk away with some mark left on him from Shemoneh Esrei, even if he can’t hold onto all of it.

This shows us a very big difference between learning Torah and Tefillah. Learning Torah, when one understands it, stays with the person as long as he has understood it. It needs siyata d’shamaya of course in order to remember it, but once a person understands his learning, it is retained in him. But when it comes to tefillah, the effects of tefillah are only temporary. Torah is called Chayei Olam (eternal life), while Tefillah is called Chayei Shaah (temporary life). Tefillah is a time when one’s heart feels inspired, but it is temporary, and although it leaves some mark on the person after he has davened, the main effects of the Tefillah go away.

Tefillah: Realizing That We Are A Mekabel (Receiver) From Hashem

If so, what does Tefillah do for a person?

The answer lays in the understanding of what Chazal mean when they said “Prayer accomplishes half.”

Whenever a person asks for something from Hashem, whether it is for something physical or spiritual, it consists of two parts: firstly, one recognizes that he needs to receive from Hashem, and secondly, one acquires shefa (spiritual sustenance) from Hashem. In every request that a person davens for, whatever it is for, there is always one common denominator between every tefillah a person davens: he keeps realizing that he needs to receive from Hashem. He develops the power of becoming a mekabel (receiver)[2], to realize that he needs to receive from Hashem.

“Prayer accomplishes half” therefore means that the person’s ability to accept and receive from Hashem is what gets him halfway to getting answered. A person develops into a mekabel through the many requests he davens to Hashem. And the other side of the coin is that he ultimately receives the shefa from Hashem, that nothing depends on any of his own efforts.

When we ask Hashem to accept our tefillos and that we not walk away empty-handed, this means that since “prayer accomplishes half”, we are doing our part; it does not mean that our prayers cause us to be definitely answered. It doesn’t mean that our actual prayers do half the job. Rather, it means something totally different than this.

The deep understanding of the concept of “Prayer accomplishes half” means as Reb Chatzkel Levenstein zt”l would always say, that our main task on this world is to develop emunah in Hashem, and that one of the main ways to acquire emunah is through davening Shemoneh Esrei.

This is a whole different perspective to have towards tefillah!

Emunah means that we believe in Hashem and that He runs the world. Tefillah is based on palpable recognition of Hashem. It is not just intellectual knowledge about Hashem. Tefillah is the time when we need to concentrate on trying to feel how we are literally in front of Hashem – to palpably feel our emunah. During the rest of the day we can know about our emunah, but we don’t feel it; during Shemoneh Esrei, we have the opportunity to work on feeling that knowledge.

Standing in front of the King is therefore not just a halacha that you have to have in mind that you’re in front of Hashem – it’s a way for you to actualize your emunah and feel it palpably. During Shemoneh Esrei, you need to feel your emunah in Hashem, that He is real, as real as can be, as the Mesillas Yesharim says.

Shemoneh Esrei: Focusing On What I Need – Or On Ingraining Emunah?

When one absorbs this, that standing in front of the King in Shemoneh Esrei is really about ingraining emunah into ourselves, to feel His existence simply, even more so, one can have an even deeper understanding towards tefillah.

We began Shemoneh Esrei by praising Hashem, which is to ingrain emunah in ourselves, that Hashem runs the world. Then we come into the twelve middle blessings of Shemoneh Esrei, which are our requests. These are not just requests we ask of Hashem to get what we want. Our requests in Shemoneh Esrei are meant to continue our emunah that we began ingraining ourselves with at the beginning of Shemoneh Esrei.

When we ask Hashem in Shemoneh Esrei that we be assisted in receiving daas, doing repentance, in being forgiven, in meriting the redemption, in getting healed, in receiving livelihood, etc. – all of these requests are also meant to ingrain in ourselves emunah, that all the shefa which we can receive is solely dependent on Hashem alone. So our tefillos show us how much we need to realize that it’s all up to Hashem if we will get answered or not.

When a person has an immature perspective towards tefillah, he thinks that tefillah is a time to ask Hashem for anything he wants. This is better than nothing of course; but it is not the true and deep perspective towards tefillah.

The truthful perspective towards tefillah, the one which our Sages wanted us to view tefillah with and enacted Shemoneh Esrei with, is that tefillah is the time to realize and ingrain ourselves the emunah in Hashem that we are entirely dependent on Him for all our needs.

This is the depth of becoming a “mekabel”. Becoming a mekabel doesn’t mean that we develop in ourselves a power to take from Hashem and ask Him for more, more, and more. Becoming a mekabel means to realize how much we are dependent on Hashem, for He is the only Giver, and we are the receivers.

When a person has a superficial perspective towards tefillah, he views tefillah as a way to get what he wants from Hashem. But the inner perspective towards tefillah is to realize that it is the time in which we ingrain emunah in ourselves, to realize that we stand in front of Him and that He is our sole provider.

We daven three times every day – we need three times a day of ingraining emunah in ourselves! This has to become our perspective towards tefillah.

If one doesn’t have this perspective, all of his requests in Shemoneh Esrei are about his body. He is standing in front of Hashem, and what is he thinking about? He is thinking about every last detail that has to do with his physical and materialistic needs! He takes this opportunity to reach emunah and instead uses it to think about 2000 different things that his body wants, and that’s all he asks Hashem about! Of course, it’s wonderful that he believes that Hashem can help him and answer him. But he is thinking the whole time about his body and missing the whole point of Shemoneh Esrei.

Daven For Your Needs, On Condition That You Are Trying To Ingrain Emunah In Yourself

When one absorbs this perspective about tefillah, he will have a whole different and deeper attitude towards tefillah. He will view tefillah as a time to ingrain emunah in himself.

We can realize well that in our current state, we are not souls living in Gan Eden, for we are on This World and have a physical body that conceals us from having the spiritual perspective; thus, we need to constantly work on ingraining emunah in ourselves. We can keep ingraining in ourselves, until it penetrates to the lowest layers of the soul, and thus we should indeed daven for all our requests, even the smallest things. But it should not be solely to get our needs. It should be because we want to keep ingraining in ourselves that we need Hashem for everything, because we need to keep ingraining emunah in ourselves for every last detail in our life that we need. That is the way we should view our requests.

So it’s not enough to simply be aware that we need to daven to Hashem or else we don’t get answered; that is true, but it is not yet the depth of Tefillah. It is to recognize that Hashem is constant and fills everything, therefore, by asking Hashem to give us all our needs, that is how we come to this recognition.

Learning Torah is the spiritual light that enables shefa to come to the world – even to the tiniest detail; but tefillah is what can extend that shefa. Tefillah is about revealing emunah in every detail that fills our life.

How To Use “Shelo Lishmah” and “Lishmah” In Your Requests In Shemoneh Esrei

The shelo lishmah aspect in our soul asks for things because it simply wants to receive what it is missing. But the lishmah aspect in our soul is what we can use in our davening to ask for our requests so that we can ingrain emunah in ourselves.

Lishmah is not just about accepting when our prayers aren’t answered. Lishmah is about how much we ingrain emunah in ourselves, how much we feel that we are in front of Him and speaking to Him. We need to ask for things, but as we are asking for things, we need to use our lishmah aspect and ask ourselves how much we are succeeding in ingraining emunah in ourselves.

After Davening: Making A Self-Accounting Towards Your Tefillos

This is the real self-accounting to make after we daven: how much we succeeded in ingraining emunah in ourselves as we davened.

The blessing of “Shema Koleinu” in Shemoneh Esrei is thus the time to clarify to ourselves about what are requests are all about: Are we asking for things simply because we need all these things, or are we making requests because we are trying to ingrain in ourselves the emunah of how much we need Hashem for every last detail?

For example, when we asked for daas, was it simply because we wanted more understanding, or because “prayer accomplishes half” and therefore we asked Hashem for all these things because we were trying to ingrain in ourselves more belief in Hashem?

The more a person absorbs this in his heart, when he davens and requests things from Hashem, after he davens he can make a self-accounting about how he davens: 1) How much did I feel Hashem as a reality while I davened? 2) How much did I realize that I was actually talking to Him? 3) And how much did I succeed in ingraining emunah in myself that Hashem is the only One who can give me everything, from my biggest and all the way down to the tiniest details?

In Conclusion

It is upon this understanding that we should make our request here in this blessing of Shema Koleinu, ומלפניך מלכינו ריקם אל תשיבנו – that we ask Hashem not to be turned away empty-handed, that even in the tiniest needs we ask for should be received, but that it should be clear to us that although this is shelo lishmah, we need to be aware of our point of lishmah in our soul, which wants to become close to Hashem.