It is stated in the Medrash (Rabbah 2:11):
“Rav Chanina bar Papa asked Rav Shmuel bar Nachman: The verse states (Tehillim 69:14): ‘And for me, may my prayer to You, Hashem, be in an acceptable time.’ What is the meaning of this? (It seems from this pasuk that tefillos are not accepted at all times, only in ‘acceptable times’.)
“He said to him: The gates of tefillah are sometimes open and sometimes closed.
“Rav Anan said: The gates of tefillah are never closed, as is stated (Devarim 4:7): ‘Like Hashem your G-d is close at all times when we call to Him.’ ‘Calling’ refers to tefillah, as is stated (Yeshaya 65:24): ‘It will be before you call that I will answer.’
“Rav Chiya bar Rava said: It is written (Tehillim 27:14): ‘Hope to Hashem. Strengthen and fortify your heart and hope to Hashem.’ Pray and pray some more and there will come a time when what you want will be given to you.”
We see that there are different views amongst Chazal regarding when tefillos are answered. Some say that the gates of prayer are sometimes closed, while others say that they never close. Each brings proof to their opinion from a pasuk. If so, we may ask how all of the pesukim can be understood according to any of the opinions. In one pasuk it says that there is an “acceptable time” to daven, while in the other it says that Hashem is close to us whenever we call to Him. How can this seeming contradiction be answered?
The Dubno Magid zt”l (Sefer Mishlei Yaakov) explains with a moshol:
A wealthy man paid the local doctor a hefty salary to come to his home every morning to examine the health of his family members and to treat any member of the household who was suffering from any ailment. The rest of the town’s residents were not so wealthy, so they only called in the doctor to make a house call when a family member was unwell, and they would pay him a one-time fee for the visit.
Since the doctor knew that the regular people paid him by the visit, he would take his time healing their sick. He wouldn’t give the best medicine right away. Rather, he would do other treatments first so that he would need to come a few times and receive a few payments. However, since the wealthy man paid him to come every day, he had nothing to gain by drawing out his treatments of his family, so he would heal his sick family member as quickly as possible.
The nimshol is that if a person believes that he can succeed through his own efforts and abilities, he won’t turn to Hashem unless he has to. He will only daven if he sees no way of helping himself. He first relies on himself and only turns to Hashem as a last resort.
Hashem doesn’t answer such a person’s prayers right away because He knows that if he gave the person what he needed immediately, He wouldn’t hear from him again. Therefore, He takes His time helping him so that He will daven for many days. Tzadikim, however, daven to Hashem every day. They rely on Him for everything and will daven to Him for whatever they need. Therefore, He has no reason not to answer them immediately.
Similarly, Dovid Hamelech says (Tehillim 86:3): “Have compassion on me, Hashem, because I call out to You all day.” Dovid seems to be saying that Hashem should have mercy upon him because he davens to Him all day. Sefer Arvei Nachal (Parshas Va’eirah) explains with a moshol of a child who wants his father to give him something. If the child constantly asks for what he wants, his father won’t be able to refuse him because he knows that he will have no peace until he grants the child his wish. But if the child asks once or twice, the father might push him off because he knows that he eventually will forget about it.
If the child is smart and doesn’t want to have to ask his father many times before he realizes that he is serious, he will say, “You should know that I really want this and I’m not going to stop asking until you give it me. You might as well agree now or you’ll have to hear me bothering you about it over and over again.”
This is what Dovid was saying, “Hashem, I will call out to You all day. So, You might as well have compassion on me now or I’ll just keep asking you until you give in.”
This explains all of the pesukim. Everything depends on how much the person davens. If a person davens constantly, his prayer will be answered immediately, whenever he prays. However, if a person only davens when he wants something, the gates of prayer will not always be open to him.
