A shrieking siren heralds the approach of an ambulance.
Passersby stop in their tracks to watch the speeding vehicle
with its flashing red lights and wailing siren. Everyone
tries to catch a glimpse inside the opaque windows and guess
if the patient within has just had a heart attack or is the
victim of a traffic accident. Perhaps it's a child who has
swallowed some object or someone injured in a work accident.
The ambulance disappears at the next intersection, guesses
fade away and everyone continues his merry, or less merry,
way.
The Jewish heart cannot help but ask: Why, instead of this
infantile and ineffectual curiosity, does there not surface a
genuine Jewish emotion that prompts the spectator to express
a heartfelt prayer: Please, Hashem, send a complete
recovery to the injured person, amongst all the sick of our
people! People's curiosity cannot help the occupant of
the ambulance in the least, whereas a prayer on his behalf is
a very concrete form of aid which we can extend. And indeed,
the success of the medical assistance which the patient will
receive in the emergency ward is dependent upon prayer.
As we move through the city, we occasionally pass by a
hospital, a tall building with many rooms on its many floors.
We cast an indifferent glance at it and the well-groomed
lawns around it, and the thread of our thoughts is not
disturbed for even a moment by the sight. Let us ask
ourselves, then: What would we see if we were to peek into
each of the hundreds of windows in this building? Most of the
rooms beyond are occupied by various people undergoing
different degrees of pain and suffering. Here, one is
awaiting an operation and there is a postoperative patient
whose doctors cannot pinpoint his condition. Yet another
patient is waiting hopelessly for a surcease of all suffering
from his terminal disease.
Were we able to somehow measure human suffering, we would
weigh tons of aches and pains, hopes and disappointments,
both of the patient himself and of the close relatives who
visit him and are there for moral and physical support. But
we flit blithely, obliviously, past the hospital, and the
feeling of brotherly empathy lies dormant in us and does not
arouse us to at least mouth a brief prayer on behalf of the
sufferers.
We hear a news report about a terrorist bomb that exploded
somewhere in the country without casualties. Sometimes, this
claims the lives of the villainous perpetrators. Why, at the
sound of such tidings, do we not burst into a fervent prayer
of thanksgiving and praise to Hashem? One sentence of
acknowledgement, to say the least, at having been spared?
We hear of plots and schemes to harm Jews in various
countries throughout the world, of antisemitic slogans and
swastikas plastered across walls, violation of Jewish
cemeteries, of incendiary bombs thrown at synagogues, and we
are filled with wrath at the antisemitic hooligans who will
not rest as long as there are Jews on the face of the earth.
Why shouldn't we, on the spot, offer up a short prayer for
the welfare of our brethren Jews wherever they be, that
Hashem have mercy upon them and rescue them from their
enemies and save them from those who seek to do them harm?
A critical, decisive meeting is scheduled on some important
issue, economic or political, with far-reaching ramifications
for a great deal of people, for the good or otherwise.
Everyone is well aware of the myopic view of those involved
in making the vital decisions which may seem so logical at
inception, but can turn out to be so detrimental, even in the
short run. Many of the participants may be evil people who
are cleverly able to mask their nefarious intentions through
slick talk and logical arguments which are, nevertheless,
dripping with hate and venom and a desire for vengeance. They
may be hiding their own wicked self interests or party
interests.
How much ahavas Yisroel, love of righteousness and
faith in Hashem could we express by simply uttering a sincere
prayer: Please, Hashem, Who grants wisdom to mankind, Who
holds in His hand the hearts of kings and ministers —
plant in those advisors and ministers a will to favor us, to
make decisions that are kind and beneficial to us, that are
righteous and just. Foil the counsel of the wicked enemies
lest they harm the righteous, for the sake of the House of
Israel, in the merit of our saintly forefathers.
A Jew disappears somewhere on the face of the globe, or falls
captive into the hands of some wicked enemy who refuses to
even offer a hint of his whereabouts. Everyone avidly wishes
to know what has befallen him, to ascertain that he is still
alive and what his chances are for returning home safe and
sound. Such a situation provides reams of material for
newspapers and news commentators who fill columns upon pages
with their guesses and theories about who, what and where.
Talk, talk, talk. Perhapses, conjectures, analyses and other
verbal acrobatics based on their fertile imaginations. And
the readers hungrily devour their empty ramblings which do
not satisfy the readers' appetite for concrete information,
or their simple curiosity for some resolution, but merely
futilely feed their desire to do something about the matter,
to contribute something substantial to solve the pressing
situation.
Instead of drinking this salt water which cannot quench the
thirst but only intensifies it, how much better would it be
if we took a book of Tehillim into our hands and
prayed to the One Who has all the information, Who possess
the power to change things for the better!
Prayer is a powerful tool, it is active intervention. It is a
direct appeal to the very One Who has the power to consider
the one who is asking and to comply with his request. The
various ploys and plans and actions that people take are only
possibly effective and sometimes even counterproductive.
Prayer, on the other hand, cannot harm, has no limitations,
is accessible to all, at all times and in all situations and
conditions. Nothing external can stymie it, nor can it cause
a stumbling block through any of its repercussions.
No mayor or other decisive governing official can remain
indifferent to a flood of letters, faxes, phone calls of
thousands of citizens who present a certain request.
Similarly, Yeshayohu advises, in the Name of Hashem, to the
mourners of Zion, "Be you not silent..." Do not rest or cease
your efforts until He open the gates of heaven to your
manifold prayers. He will answer them and will reestablish
Jerusalem and will make it the praise of the land.
A stream of prayers from many people is not merely a
combination of many private requests but is an exponentially-
compounded, powerful petition. Can you make a reckoning of
the impact of many prayers accompanying an ambulance with a
patient to the emergency ward as it passes through the
streets of Jerusalem or Bnei Brak?
Hashem chose us from all the nations. He is our G-d, and He
promised us that He will always be receptive to those who
call unto Him, to all those Who seek Him truly. We have a
tremendous ancestral merit to our credit accrued over the
many generations from thousands of years, from our
forefathers who served Him truly and spread His Name with
love. Every word of entreaty and prayer of their sons is
granted a hearing, is considered, and taken into account, if
not immediately, then certainly for long-range effect.
Even when it seems to us that our prayers are rejected or
ignored, this is not the case. There are two vital results
that flow from prayer, in any and every case, without
exception. The first: the one who prays has fortified in his
heart a love for his fellow Jews and deepened its natural
roots within his being, for he is standing before Hashem and
pouring out his heart — not for himself but for his
fellow brother.
Second, he has bonded more closely with his heavenly Father,
with the G-d of Israel and its Savior. He has become closer
to Him and expressed his faith that Hashem is A-mighty and in
His hands alone lies the absolute power to help. He has
strengthened his own emunoh. And for these two reasons
alone, he has become elevated and exalted, and has improved
his chances of having his prayers heard and fulfilled.
There is no day without its many opportunities for taking a
break for a moment from our hectic activities to focus our
thoughts and pray:
Acheinu kol Beis Yisroel — Our brethren, the
House of Israel, who are subjected to trouble and captivity,
who are twixt the sea and the shore — may Hashem have
mercy upon them and succor them from straits to
expansiveness, from darkness to light and from bondage to
redemption, now, speedily and in our time.
Omen!
