Anyone whose feelings have been properly honed looks at others who are struggling and says: “I will feel their pain, I will daven for their challenges—for whose pain is this if not the pain of the Shechinah....” The Sfas Emes teaches us here that this struggle for kedushah is the essence of the galus haShechinah. It’s not some peripheral phenomenon that happens to exist. Klal Yisrael is one entity, and we all need redemption from this galus. And when Yidden become pure and holy, they’ll be worthy of entering and accessing places that are pure and holy, and thus they make a place for the Shechinah and the Beis HaMikdash.
We must daven for those who struggle so mightily, and we cannot underestimate the power and the potency of our tefillos in this regard. For siyata diShmaya is a tremendous aspect of our success in the battle for our kedushah. Klal Yisrael needs so much tefillah, and the resulting siyata diShmaya goes so far in sparing a Yid from these struggles. Tzaddikim would say that there are Malachim who sweep the streets before a Yid goes outside so that he doesn’t encounter forbidden sights. Each and every day, there are Yidden who merit siyata diShmaya and are spared from struggles in miraculous ways.
Empathizing with the Ribbono shel Olam
In this way—by davening and pleading with Hashem to help Yidden in their kedushah struggles— a Yid shoulders the burden of the Ribbono shel Olam, so to speak. A Yid always has a place to the direct his pain. We tend to think that when we’re in pain, we have one of two options: either to distract ourselves from the pain (or go into denial), or to enter a mode of ידי ועוצם כחי, to work our way out of the problem on our own. But for a Yid, there’s a third way, the true way: to direct our pain to the Tehillim, to soak it through with our prayers.
This person says, I will daven for my children, for my teenagers and their struggles. And we must not forget to daven for the Shechinah. It is so very Yiddish, and so very pure, when we include the pain of the Shechinah in our davening—for the pain of Yidden in their struggles is the pain of the Shechinah. Furthermore, when we understand how much the Ribbono shel Olam suffers, as it were, from our spiritual suffering, we will be awakened to daven for His pain too.
