The greatest question we have relates to Hashem’s answering our tefillos.
Very often we hear talk along these lines: I daven so much, I’ve already davened for a shidduch thousands of times, for bountiful parnassah, for an appropriate apartment...tens of thousands of times I made my request and...I’m still making it. Why am I not being answered?
Some compare this phenomenon to what we often see on our cell phones. There are calls that were answered and calls that were unanswered. If I received what I asked for, then my call was answered, and if not, then it is considered an unanswered call.
Dear brothers, for Hakadosh Baruch Hu there is no such thing as an unanswered call! We say three times each day, “...for You listen to the tefillah of every person’s mouth.” Hakadosh Baruch Hu answers every call.
There are times that we receive what we asked for, and there are times when Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells us: My dear son, your voice is so sweet to Me, and I want you to daven to Me again; as the passuk states, “Let Me hear you voice, for your voice is pleasant” (Shir Hashirim 2:14).
Therefore, we learn (Berachos 32b): Rabi Chama bar Chanina said: If a man sees that he davened and was not answered, he should daven again. For if you see that your request was not fulfilled, that is a sign that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to hear you again. As it says in the Midrash, “Why were the matriarchs barren? It was because Hakadosh Baruch Hu desired to hear their words; as it says, ‘For your voice is pleasant and your appearance is beautiful’ (Shir Hashirim 2:14).”
And what happens when we see that the decree was carried out, and it seems that our tefillos did not help? Where did all those tefillos go?
The Degel Machaneh Ephraim shared an important principle in the name of his ancestor, the holy Baal Shem Tov (haftarah of Ki Seitzei): Every tefillah is answered. If you didn’t see with your physical eyes that your tefillah was accepted, that is a sign that it did something in a place that you cannot see with your physical eyes. “All tefillos affect something in the Upper Worlds, and sometimes at the ends of the earth, awesome things that are of supreme importance are achieved through [the prayer], and people think that their tefillos were not answered, and therefore they make light of them.... The tefillos that you think were ignored are in fact doing great things beyond your physical vision.”
Every tefillah is accepted; if you asked for something and did not receive it, daven again. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is waiting to hear your sweet voice. You don’t know how much you’re benefitting yourself, your family, and the world.
Gut Shabbat
Pinchas Shefer
