The Chasam Sofer zt”l (quoted in Sefer Tefillah L’Moshe) answers that we sometimes are unworthy of receiving Hashem’s goodness due to our sins. However, through the power of tefillah, we can have our sins forgiven and we can receive an abundance of His kindness. Therefore, it is clear why tefillah is necessary.
Concentrating as Much as Possible:
On this topic, the Peleh Yoetz (Sefer Bais Tefillah) writes: “It is true that our sins obstruct us from receiving His goodness. The great enemy, the yeitzer hara, as well as the lack of purity and abundance of impurity we face in the lands of the gentiles and the harshness of the exile of our bodies and spirits, affects us to the extent that we almost cannot be blamed for this. We are unable to concentrate in order to serve our Creator properly.
“However, we are still obligated to strengthen ourselves as much as possible every day to concentrate as much as we can on our tefillos and brachos, so that we have kavanah at least on half or part of them, or even on one word.
“Every word and even every letter adds up to a large amount. One of Hashem’s chasadim, as revealed by our teachers (Emek Hamelech, Shaar 17, 11) is that if you concentrate today on one bracha and tomorrow on another, it all adds up until it becomes a complete tefillah and it then ascends and is accepted as a crown for the King of Kings.”
The Main Intention:
The Peleh Yoetz continues: “Whenever one allows his heart to be empty and not to concentrate on his tefillah with fear, love and joy, his heart is ashamed. It is as if he was denied entry to the King’s palace. It is like the guards outside the palace caught him and struck him mighty blows, then cast him in chains and pushed him in and from the depths of the heart, it cries out, ‘Please save me, my master the King!’
“When this happens, one should strengthen himself to concentrate. One should consider himself like a pauper standing before the powerful King. He should shamefully approach Him and speak humbly, with self-annulment, asking for mercy. This is because self-annulment is the main way to daven and is more effective than all kavanos and yichudim. This was revealed to us by our teachers and stated by Dovid Hamelech (Tehillim 51:19): ‘Hashem does not despise a broken and crushed heart.’”
A Moshol About Tefillah:
He adds a moshol of a mighty and wise king who was knowledgeable in all areas of wisdom, including how to prepare the finest foods.
One day, his ministers and advisors each presented him with their best culinary dishes. Each one brought one delectable dish that they had specially prepared for the king. Amongst them was a poor man who also wanted to honor the king with the most delicious food; however, he could not afford anything fancy.
Since he greatly desired to present the king with the best dish he possibly could give him, he came up with an idea. He purchased some wheat and ground it up very finely. He then washed it very well and placed it in a clean plate. He brought it to the king and tearfully told him, “Your majesty, I wanted to present you with the best food in the world but I simply can’t afford it. But I did my best and brought you the best thing I could. Please accept this pure flour that I made for you and use it to make heavenly dishes. And when you eat it, consider it as if I made those dishes for you.”
When the king saw the man’s pure intentions and how he did all he could for him, he was filled with love for him. He took the flour and made delicious food out of it and he considered it as if the poor man gave him that food. Therefore, he rewarded him handsomely.
So too, if we do our best to present Hashem with the best tefillos we can, He will take those words and turn them into the holiest prayers and He will consider it as if said them.
Davening for Proper Tefillos:
If one doesn’t know how to have kavanah at all, at the very least he should say the words clearly, enunciating each letter, and he should have in mind that he trying his best to serve Hashem through tefillah. The Peleh Yoetz writes that such a person should say, “Just as you, Hashem, are extremely exalted, I am extremely lowly. But You allow me to approach you and offer my gift to You. It is my sincere desire that You accept my humble gift. If I knew how to have kavanah, I would use all my energy to have the proper thoughts while praying to You, but I simply cannot do that.
Therefore, I will present my gift as it is and I beseech You to accept it and shape it into the proper form, and consider it as if I had proper kavanah.”
When Hashem hears this and sees that the individual is, in fact, trying his best and is annulling himself to Him, He will accept the tefillah and consider it to be perfect. This is as Chazal say (Menachos 13A): “Both one who does a lot and one who does a little”, because he doesn’t know how to do a lot, is accepted by Hashem, as long as his intentions are l’sheim shomayim.
The “Aleph Bais” That Broke Through the Heavens:
He goes on to relate a story of a man who was pained by the fact that he did not know how to daven. On Yom Kippur, he said the letters of the aleph, bais again and again, and he then begged Hashem to put them in the right order. It was revealed from Shomayim to a tzadik that this tefillah was more valued than all other tefillos said that day.
A Segulah to be Saved From Bad Thoughts:
The Peleh Yoetz concludes by writing that there are certain segulos that protect a person from having foreign thoughts during davening. The best segulah for this is to daven from a siddur and not to look up or to close one’s eyes while he prays.
The True Worry is Not Knowing How to Pray:
A chasid once told Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk zy”a that he was very nervous because he was unable to support his growing family. The Rebbe told him, “Just daven to Hashem!”
The chasid replied, “But I don’t know how to daven.”
“If so,” the Rebbe said, “you really should be nervous. The fact that you don’t know how to daven is something to really worry about.”
The Tefillah of the Shamash:
The Riyatz of Lubavitch zy”a (Sefer Hasichos) relates that one of the most distinguished chasidim of the Maharash of Lubavitch zy”a was an expert in all Sifrei Chasidus. The Maharash once told this chasid, “You should watch Rav Yaakov Leib the Shamash when he davens. One tefillah of his is worth more than all your knowledge.”
It is said that Rav Yaakov Leib would cry copiously while reciting Selichos. When asked why he was crying, he said, “I’m not crying! I am washing away the dirt that has accumulated throughout the year.”
Reaching a Verdict Through the Power of Tefillah:
Two businessmen once came to Rav Meshulim Igra zy”a and asked him to settle a monetary dispute between them. Rav Meshulim heard their claims and told them that the matter was very complicated and he couldn’t issue an immediate ruling. He said that he first had to look into the applicable halachos and he would tell them his verdict in a couple of days.
The businessmen were impatient. They said they couldn’t wait that long and they would go elsewhere. On the way out, they agreed that they had wasted their time traveling from their city to see this rabbi, as they could have gone to their local Rov instead.
When they got back home, they went to their local Rov and presented their shailoh. He heard them out and then went into his study to check his sefarim. After a few minutes, he came out and gave them a clear answer that was acceptable to both of them.
They now believed that their Rov must be a great Posek and they told everyone they knew how learned and wise he was. They said that he was even greater than the famous Rav Meshulim Igra, as he could answer a shailoh in a few minutes, whereas Rav Igra said he needed a few days for the same question.
Some time later, the two businessmen again found themselves in Rav Igra’s town and they returned to Rav Meshulim’s home to see if he had an answer for their shailoh. When they asked if he remembered their question, he said that he did and he gave an identical answer to what their Rov had said. They then told him about the brilliance of their Rov and how he had come up with this answer in a few minutes.
Rav Meshulim was amazed to hear and he decided that he must travel to meet this brilliant Rov. When he met the Rov, he asked him how he was able to come up with the correct answer to such a complicated question so quickly. The Rov answered, “When two of my congregants come to me with a shailoh and I don’t know what to answer them, I go into my room and cry out to Hashem. I beg Him to enlighten me to know the correct answer so that it shouldn’t look like a Rov is ignorant, which would be a Chilul Hashem. And Hashem hears my tefillah and grants me the answer.”
When Rav Meshulim heard this, he said, “I also could daven and cry but I prefer to reach an answer through my own exertion in Torah.”
The Power of Tefillah:
Sefer Chut Hameshulash relates that when Rav Shlomo Eiger zt”l served as Rov of Warsaw, a wealthy man once approached him and said that his wife, Rivkah bas Sarah, was very sick and needed a yeshua. He said that if Rav Shlomo would write a letter to his father, Rav Akiva Eiger zy”a, and ask him to daven for her, he would show his gratitude by purchasing winter coats for 200 poor yeshiva students. Rav Shlomo replied that he usually did not like to bother his father with things like this but if it meant that 200 poor bochurim would be provided with warm clothing, he would do it.
However, Rav Shlomo got busy with other matters and forgot about the request. When the man returned to ask if he had heard back from his father, he remembered that he had failed to send the letter, and he wrote one immediately and sent it off. However, since a long time had gone by since the man told him his wife’s name, he made a mistake and wrote to his father to daven for “Sarah bas Rivkah”. He soon received a reply from Rav Akiva, in which he wrote: “I davened for Sarah bas Rivkah but I was not answered. Perhaps there is a mistake with the name.”
Rav Shlomo realized that he must have erred. He asked the husband and found out the right name. He then wrote back to his father with the correct name. In his next letter, Rav Akiva wrote: “I davened for Rivkah bas Sarah and I was answered.”
And the woman had a full recovery.
Transforming Sadness to Joy:
Sefer Imrei Noam explains the pasuk of “va’eschonon el Hashem ba’ais hahu laymor” by citing the Gemara (Taanis 26B) that says: “When Av starts, we decrease our joy.” This means that these are days of sadness, but when they pass, we begin our days of joy and banish sorrow. This is done through the power of tefillah, as is seen from the verse (Eicha 3:44): “You have enveloped Yourself in a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.” This means that during the days of mourning, a cloud obstructs our prayers from ascending, but when the days of joy commence, the cloud is removed and our tefillos are accepted. And these tefillos transform the sadness into joy.
This is seen from the fact that the word “va’eschonon”, which has both the same gematriah as the word “tefillah” and as the words “atzav simcha” (sadness and joy), which is a hint that through tefillah, sadness can be transformed to joy.
Thus, we read this Parshah after Tisha B’Av to symbolize that we are beginning an auspicious time of year when our tefillos can get through the clouds of sadness and create great joy and light.
With this in mind, he explains the words “nachamu nachamu ami” (be comforted, be comforted, My nation). Our comfort is that the clouds and darkness dissipate and light appears. The first letters of the words “nachamu nachamu ami” spell the word “anan” (cloud), while the word “ami” can be an acronym for “atzav yhiye moser”, which means “sadness will become light.” (The word “moser” can mean “light”, as in Koheles 2:13: “K’yisron ha’ohr min hachoshech.”) Additionally, the gematriah of the words “nachamu nachamu ami” is the same as that of “choshech” (darkness), which is a hint that our comfort is the banishment of darkness.
