If you will oppress him, and he will cry out to Me, I will hear his cry. (Shemos 22:22)
There is a very important principle of Tefilah to learn from this pasuk.
When a person is in trouble, for instance, he urgently needs a sum of money, what does he do? He might run from one person to another, go to get berachos from tzaddikim, and also daven and beg of Hashem to help him.
Or let’s say a family member is sick. He does all the hishtadlus, he goes to the doctor, he does medical tests, he picks up prescription medicine from the pharmacy, and he also davens fervently to Hashem as part of his hishtadlus.
This approach is like a pauper knocking on doors around town. He seeks assistance from many different sources. Among them, he also beseeches a particular householder for help, who, in such a case, is obligated to give him only a modest donation because he is just one donor among many.
The same halachah applies in Tefilah. When a person does many different types of hishtadlus, and among them, he also prays and beseeches Hashem for help, he is granted a “modest donation.” Hashem will give him a little siyata d’Shmaya, in accordance with the requirements of Halachah:
It is forbidden to turn away the pauper empty-handed if he asks for help. However, it is sufficient to give him a dried fig, as it says, “The impoverished man should not come back humiliated.”
There is no obligation to give him more than a small amount, because he has other sources of help, and can manage on his own.
This idea is not hard to understand. Let’s say a very poor man comes and asks for a large sum, and the donor sends him away with a small amount. What was the donor thinking to himself? “He will manage; he will get by without me. He is not going to die of starvation.”
And what does the stingy man think to himself when he slams the door on the pauper? He doesn’t think, “Let him die of starvation, I don’t care.” He rather thinks, “Why does he have to come to me? Let him go to someone else!” But if he would know for a fact that the pauper has no one else in the world to turn to, he would have to be exceptionally cruel to close the door on him.
So it is when we turn to Hashem. If a person figuratively throws himself down on the ground before Him, begging Him to have mercy on him because he has no one else to turn to, and if Hashem doesn’t have mercy on him, he will never get out of trouble, Hashem will immediately show mercy on him and grant him what he needs.
This is the form of Tefilah called nipul, figuratively throwing oneself down on the ground before Hashem in utter self-negation, with the attitude that Hashem and only Hashem can help, and besides Him, there is no one and nothing that can help. This is like Esther Hamalkah who threw herself down on the ground before the king, because he is the king and no one else can annul the decree other than him.
Simply speaking, this was also the way that Choni Hame’agel prayed. He drew a circle around himself and stood inside it, and said, “Ribono shel Olam, I swear by Your great Name that I am not moving from here until You have mercy on Your children.”
He made it absolutely clear that he is not like a pauper knocking on every door in town; he has only Hashem to turn to. So Hashem showed him mercy.
The Commentators explain, along these lines, why Hashem especially hears the cry of orphans and widows. They cry out only to Hashem because they have no one else to turn to. So Hashem hears them and answers them.
This can explain why the pasuk repeats the word “cry out” and says קַעְצִק יֹעָצ. Usually, a person doesn’t cry out twice, because after he cries out to Hashem once and Hashem still doesn’t help him, he goes and looks for another way to solve his problems. But orphans and widows don’t have anyone else to turn to, so they cry out and then cry out again, and Hashem answers them.
It is the same with anyone who makes himself like the orphans and widows, as it says: אבי ואמי עזבוני וה' יאספני – “My father and mother abandoned me, but Hashem will take me in.” This expresses the cry of someone who has no one to turn to other than Hashem. He doesn’t cry out and then go looking for other solutions, he rather cries out and then cries out again. Hashem will surely answer his prayer.
