LearnNoah7Laws-5/
How to Pray like Moses and Abraham?
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Rabbi Zvi Aviner
Noahidesevencommandments.com
1) I implored Hashem… saying
2) My Lord AaDoNai
3) YHVH/ELOHiM
Y H V H
E L H M
ELHM
YHVH
ELHM
YHVH
ADNI
How could we ensure that our prayer is heard in Heavens?
Moses, in Deu. 3: 23, shows us how.
He prayed to Hashem to let him cross the Jordan River into the Land of Israel,
though he had been told by Hashem that he would not merit entering the Land.
Yet he never gave up and kept praying, hoping to change the HC old decree.
By this, he showed us that we too could pray to Hashem to change the HC decision about us.
Moses prayer was partially answered,
And the key to his success, the Rabbis said,
is the way he approached Hashem.
He said –
1) I implored Hashem at that time saying
2) My Lord (Master) AaDoNai
3) YHVH/ELOHiM
Here Moses describes three mental steps he took
To have his prayer weight enough to impact the HC
1 I deplored Hashem at that time –
At first, a person may pour out his heart, in any tongue or any fashion .
Rashi counts ten such fashions –
A person may beg, scream, sigh, cry, meditate silently or with words.
Since the person is in need and in pains, Hashem would listen to his petition.
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But who says that Hashem would change the reality for him?
Why would anyone expect that Hashem would change the
natural course of evets just because we’ve asked for it?
Thus, a lay person would think that laying out his petition
is all it takes to have God intervene in nature in his behalf.
But righteous people who know better
Understand that another ingredient
should be added
To have Hashem change our reality.
What indeed would a person add to his prayer?
Would he mention to God the good deeds
he has ever done for Him?
would he mention the million dollars he has donated to charity
or to the cancer institute?
Or should he pledge to do the good deeds in the future,
Such as an oath to accomplish something for Hashem?
( Jacob did that, when he woke up from his ladder dream.)
But Moses did none of the above.
He could have mentioned his life- long dedication
And service to Hashem and Israel,
But instead, he says in humbleness,
AaDoNai, My Lord, better translation as
My Master, My Owner.
By this he follows Abraham (Genesis 15: 2)
who also faced an unbreachable reality
which he wished to change.
He was praying to Hashem to have a son,
though he was at that time 100 y and Sarah was 90.
His harsh reality precluded having a son by a natural way.
And yet he prayed, addressing Hashem as
AaDoNai, my Owner. Implying –
Hashem, I am your slave, you are my master and owner
by virtue of making me, as you the Owner of the world,
I therefore lay out my prayer while declaring
That I would accept your verdict whatever it is,
with no grudge, with no bad feeling,
even if you’ve rejected it completely.
(idol worshippers thrown away their idols in that case)
That stage of the mind and heart, says Sefat Emeth,
The understanding and the feeling that we stand in prayer
before AaDoNai,
should not be a lip service but rather a true feeling
that is not easily achieved
A person should work hard on himself to reach that level of humility.
A person should think about the greatness of Hashem as the CREATOR,
should think Who am I to ask anything from the CREATOR?
Why should I be disappointed if my prayer is not answered the way I wish?
Many people would think that arriving at this level of mind,
Accepting AaDoNai verdict with humility
is enough to have our prayer ascend and be heard in Heavens.
But righteous people who understand better, like Abraham and Moses,
Know that the only one who could change reality in our favor
Is the Merciful Attribute, YHVH.
We need to address Her –
But where is She?
We don’t see Her or Her fingerprint in Nature and in the world
How would we approach Her?
For that, Moses added a third ingredient to his prayer
Which shows us where is Hashem (in the HC)
So that we could address our prayer to Her in a proper way.
After mentioning total submission to AaDoNai,
Moses says YHVH/ELHM, a rare and weird combination of the Attributes
Where they occupy the same spot in the text.
Usually each Attribute appears in the Torah alone,
YHVH alone, and ELHM alone.
In Eden, they appear Side by side as YHVH ELHM
As two cherubs standing close to each other
Toughing each other Wing against Wing.
But here, in Moses words as well in Abraham’s words before him,
The two Attributes appear at once, one Attribute behind the other.
Hiis lips say ELHM, the harsh JUDGE who runs Nature,
Yet his eyes and the written text. show the name of YHVH
As if standing behind ELHM.
By this Moses is saying
I know that ELHM runs our unbreachable reality,
I am aware that His Judgment is truthful and just,
And yet I also see a glim of YHVH looming behind,
Hidden behind ELHM as the Sun hidden behind a cloud.
If we increase Hashem’s love for us,
She would overcome ELHM and intervene
in nature in our behalf
Moses therefore continues saying
And you shall love YHVH
with all your heart and all your soul and all your might,
meaning a person should say to Hashem that
I would continue loving you, Hashem,
but even when very bad things happen to
Not only would I accept with submission
Your verdict, good or bad, since you are my AaDoNai
But I would also continue loving you even when
Very bad things happen to me.
This way, Moses says, giving Her our unconditional love,
Would stir Her up to respond to our prayer with Unconditional Love.
This would stir her up to override ELHM,
step forwards – so to speak – from behind ELHM to stand in front oof ELHM
Taking control over nature in our behalf, fulfilling our prayer
As Rashi explains Moses’ words
You have shown me your mighty hands –
Your power overriding the decree of ELHM
ELHM
YHVH
Y H V H
E L H M
We are all considered righteous people
When we follow our Prayer Book – the Siddur
Which is built on those principles.
First, we recite psalms that depict
Hahsem’s greatness as a CREATOR,
making us feel that we stand before our AaDoNai,
in submission and humility.
We would therefore accept Hashem’s verdicts as they are,
with no grunge or bad feelings.
Then we move in the Siddur to read the Sham,
where Moses orders us to Love Hashem
even when very bad things happen to us,
even when our prayer seems to remain unanswered,
even when the opposite events hit us hard.
We would not cease from loving Hashem
Even when it seems that all that we hope for, is lost.
Only then, after reciting the shema
we move in our siddur to stand up in the Amidah prayer
praying first for Israel’s redemption and the coming of the Messiah
and only then adding in humbleness our own individual petition,
to ascend to Heavens among the prayer for Israel and the world.
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