Service with Heart
Serve Him with all your heart. (Devarim 11:13)
Service that is in the heart, which is prayer. (Rashi)
Hashem’s Thoughts
Tefilah is one of the three foundations on which the world stands. It is the soul of our avodas Hashem and our connection to Him. Let’s focus on a few important points regarding Tefilah that have practical ramifications.
Hashem tells us, through Yeshaya Hanavi, an important principle:
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways, said Hashem. As the heavens are high above the earth, so are My ways high above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts.”
This pasuk sounds pretty straightforward, but it is actually telling us a really big chiddush and a new way of looking at things.
What’s the big chiddush here?
The human being was created in the image of G-d. He therefore contains within him a lot of good qualities. Let’s talk about some qualities that people naturally have.
Every person naturally respects truth and shuns falsehood. Even a thoroughly evil person, even a lowlife who hardly ever said anything true all his life, if he is walking down the street and someone asks him where such-and-such a street is, and he knows where it is, he probably will not point in the opposite direction. Even a lowly person such as himself knows that it isn’t nice to do that.
Even if he constantly lies, that’s only when he has a reason to do so. For instance, he thinks he stands to gain some money by not telling the truth. But to just lie to someone in the street for no reason at all is not a human trait. Human beings were created in the image of G-d and they naturally respect the truth.
Another natural trait ingrained in people is acting kindly to others. I don’t think there is anywhere in the world where someone who falls down in the street will just be left there to die. People will pick him up and call an ambulance or take him to a hospital. This is a natural thing for human beings to do.
Common sense, the ability to reason things out, is another natural trait that Hashem endowed human beings with. However, our common sense is sometimes one of our biggest problems, because we don’t always realize that we need to check the Shulchan Aruch see what the Torah says is the correct thing to do.
When the issue at hand is the kind of thing you would look up in the Mishnah Berurah, like how exactly to put on tefillin, we know that we need to learn the Halachah and follow it. But when it is a financial matter pertaining to Choshen Mishpat, this is where people tend to rely on their own powers of reasoning, and they assume that the Halachah is what their logic tells them it should be. It is not always the case.
However, the civil court often rules the same as beis din. How is this possible? Where did the lawmakers get it from? The answer is that Hashem endowed human beings with common sense, with the faculty of logic and reasoning, and it often leads people to the correct conclusion.
This is why Hakadosh Baruch Hu needs to come and warn us: Although you find beauty, greatness and moral integrity within yourselves, you need to know that this innate sense of moral integrity is quite limited. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” What naturally seems right and true to you might well be the opposite of My way of thinking. And if so, it is the opposite of the truth.
This is an awesomely important fact we need to know. And it affects a lot of areas in life.
Small is Great
We all appreciate greatness and feel the opposite about smallness. When we see someone tall, smart, rich, handsome, with any desirable quality, we are impressed. Whereas when we see someone short, poor, stupid and ugly, we don’t exactly hold him in high regard.
Let’s say we see a man in his early thirties, dressed in a tailored suit and a well-pressed shirt, holding an expensive briefcase. He looks respectable. He inspires confidence. That’s the kind of person that people want to put their money in his hands. But if we see an unkempt man with a ragged appearance hobbling along, we are going to think twice before we place our trust in him.
Each one of us has a natural tendency to want his friends to be great and well-respected people. If a person has a friend who is a leading doctor, a very wealthy man or a famous scholar, he considers it a compliment. This is a natural quality. If I am the friend of the great so-and-so, it reflects positively on me. I am connected to greatness.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu has exactly the opposite trait. Who are His “friends,” so to speak?
“This is who I look to: the impoverished and the broken of spirit.”
The poorest and lowest people are the closest to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It is the way of Hakadosh Baruch Hu that when He sees someone suffering and beset by troubles, He is there with him. And not just to help him. This is Hashem’s place.
When the mother of the Chafetz Chayim passed away, the Chevra Kadisha was deliberating where to bury her. I don’t need to tell you what an outstanding woman the mother of the Chafetz Chayim was.
In that period there was a woman in Rodin, the town of the Chafetz Chayim, a woman who was a very great tzadekes. She was devoted to the doing of chesed both through her deeds and with her money and possessions. She was very wealthy and generously supported the poor people of the area. As regards her deeds, she would go to help every woman who gave birth. If a woman was experiencing some kind of trouble, she would immediately come to her aid. She was an exceptional baalas chesed, a very great woman. She passed away a few months earlier and was buried in the local cemetery.
The Chevra Kadisha came to the Chafetz Chayim and told him that they decided to honor his mother with the merit of being buried next to this great tzadekes.
The Chafetz Chayim answered that this woman was indeed a great tzedakes, and an impeccable personality, but after all, she was wealthy.
What did she do with her wealth? She poured it into tzedakah and maasim tovim. She did only good things with it.
But no. The Chafetz Chayim would not hear of it. That’s not where his mother will be buried. Hakadosh Baruch Hu dwells by “the impoverished and the broken of spirit.”
This is a significant example of “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.”
The Poor Prayer
What does all this have to do with Tefilah?
There is an interesting halachah stated in the Gemara. There were orphans, without father or mother, and a patron, an apotropos, was appointed to manage the money that was collected for them. One day the patron was seen walking around dressed in fine clothing, and people complained that the clothing was purchased from the money of the orphans.
The case came to R. Nachman, the famous dayyan in the times of the Gemara.
R. Nachman ruled that the patron was within his rights to purchase fine clothing from the orphans’ funds. He is allowed to do what is necessary in order for him to have a respectable appearance in people’s eyes. This is so people will listen to him, so he will command respect. When he walks into the office of a businessman to make a deal with the orphans’ money, they will take him seriously and cut a deal with him.
When you go to a doctor or another personality, and you want to make sure you will get proper service and full attention, you put on a fresh shirt and dress respectably. A person with a dignified and respectable appearance is naturally treated differently. He won’t be ignored.
It doesn’t work that way with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Who does He listen to? Definitely not to someone who dresses up.
So to who? To a tzaddik?
There are three people about whom “tefilah” is written. One is Moshe, one is David, and one is the poor man.
“A tefilah of Moshe, the man of G-d.” This is a tefilah the likes of which is not found with another person.
“A tefilah of David.” This is a tefilah the likes of which is not found with another king.
“A tefilah of a poor person.”
Of these three, which is the most important of all? The “tefilah of a poor person.” This tefilah precedes Moshe’s, it precedes David’s and it precedes all the other prayers in the world. Why? Because the poor person is brokenhearted, and it is written “Hashem is close to the broken of heart.” Hakadosh Baruch Hu listens to his words and hears them. When the poor person prays, his tefilah opens all the windows of the firmament.
The prayer of David Hamelech is the greatest tefilah that a king could pray. The king is the soul of the Jewish people, and among all the kings, there is no tefilah more beautiful than that of David, who was called “the sweet singer of Yisrael.”
The prayer of Moshe Rabbeinu is also the most beautiful tefilah a human being could pray. Chazal say that when Moshe Rabbeinu prayed to be allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael, and Hashem did not wish to grant his request, Hashem told the angels to go as fast as they can to close the gates of Heaven before Moshe’s prayer comes in. His prayer was like Hashem’s ineffable Name. It was like a sword that slashes through all the firmaments to reach the Kisei Hakavod. That’s how powerful Moshe’s tefilah was.
But the tefilah above all others is “A tefilah of a poor person.” David prays, Moshe prays, and Hashem says, so to speak: Put all the tefilos of the tzaddikim on the side. There is a poor person with a broken heart who is davening right now, and I want to hear his tefilah. That’s what interests Me.
This is hard for us to understand. Moshe and David get sidelined just because a poor person is davening? Does that make sense?
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.”
The most powerful tefilah of all is not when you stand there with greatness and importance and even tzidkus and ask for what you deserve. With Hashem it works exactly the opposite. The smallest person is the greatest.
