Prayer Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:00 - Intro
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe from TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Prayer Podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Alright, welcome back everybody to the brand new Prayer Podcast. Today we're going to do another introduction to prayer Now. We talked last week about the importance, we spoke about many different areas of prayer last week, but I think this week we're going to focus a little bit on putting it into perspective.

00:29
Putting prayer into perspective, one of the biggest challenges that people have. And I got a text message yesterday from a listener saying you know, it's just so difficult for me to imagine that I am talking to God, me, I'm talking to God, me, god, like what's going on over here. So I want to just clarify this with a story. This young man comes into a bank and he says to the banker he says I need an enormous sum of money and I need it now. So the banker laughs and the banker says you know, it's very nice that you need this large sum of money, but the way things work is not like that. You know, we have to fill out some documents and some paperwork and we have to do some background check on you and know that we can trust you, etc. Etc. And you know, in a couple of days he says no, no, no, I need this now. Now the banker's, like you know, laughing and we're all saying here it's not the way things work. Right, you want a mortgage for your house. It's going to take a few weeks or months. You know, it takes some time, it doesn't happen overnight.

01:45
He's very frustrated. He pulls out his phone, dials some numbers and he talks to someone and he gives the phone to the teller and the teller is listening. He gives him back his phone, he says, okay, I'll have it few momentarily and he gives him his money. Now, who was on that phone? On the phone was his father, this young man's father who owns the bank.

02:18
See, see, sometimes we think that it's just impossible. Nobody gets alone so fast. Well, it depends your relationship with the owner. You see, our father is God, creator of heaven and earth. Everyone tells you oh, that's impossible. Really, let me put my father on the phone. You see, the rules that are created by man don't apply to God, the creator of heaven and earth. That's not the way it works. So how do we get into a world, into an existence where we feel that we're talking to God? We said last week. You can talk to God anytime, any place, in any way. Talk to Hashem Doesn't have to be specific words. You need to talk with your own mouth, directly to God, knowing you're talking to the owner, to the boss. So how do we do that? So how fortunate I am that I was studying with my study partner this week and we came upon the perfect teaching from Ramchal.

03:48
Ramchal wrote the incredible book of Nisilat Yisha'im Way of the Upright, otherwise translated as Path of the Just, and he talks about understanding the power of the performance of a mitzvah and putting it into the right perspective. And which mitzvah does he choose to focus on? Prayer? Listen to this. A person must be in mind, while praying or performing a mitzvah, that he is praying or performing that act in the presence of the King of all kings. You're standing right in front of him, in the presence of the King of all kings. It is about this that the Tana, the great Tanaic sajr-beluzzer, exhorted his disciples when he was deathly ill, where he said and when you pray, know before whom you are praying. Okay, so a person, when he prays, you have to know in front of whom you are praying.

04:58
So what's the problem now? How in the world. Am I supposed to know who I'm praying in front of? I've never seen God. I never walked into a room. You know, it's like you go traveling. You go to all of these amusement parks. You pay a certain amount. You go into a room and you see the tallest person in the world, the shortest person in the world. You pay. You know what do I need to pay to see God? Where do I go to like pay and I'll go behind the curtains and I'll see God. Where do I go to see God? You see, the problem is like this If you were able to just walk into the room and see God, you would never have any doubts anymore. Your belief would be 100% firm because you know 100% there's a God. So that's that would pose a big problem, because you'd go crazy too. You'd be like I know there's a God and I know that he's going to hold me accountable and I know that if I don't produce, I'm in trouble.

05:59
On the other hand, when we don't know that there's a God 100%, we can work on our identifying of Hashem. That means, when you don't see God sitting on a chair in his office, you have a balance of choice. You have what we call free will. You have the ability to work on seeing God through all the hints that he puts around you, or you can decide no. The easier path is for me just to say that I'm an atheist or whatever and not believing God. But that option is in front of every person, which is exactly where God wants us to be To have the option of knowing God and seeing God through His world, through His creation, through our lives, through every single interaction that we have. We can open up our eyes and see.

07:02
I didn't recognize at the moment that Hashem was performing this, but Hashem did. Now, looking back, I see it Just as a side note. We know that Moses was having a conversation with God and talking to Hashem saying I want to see your face. Now what does it mean? Hashem doesn't have a face. Hashem doesn't have eyes and nose and mouth and, like, catch a cold. You know, have sniffles Hashem. That doesn't work. That's not how Hashem operates. So what does it mean that Moses is saying I want to see your face? God says, no, you can only see my back, but you can't see my front. What? God doesn't have a back, just like he doesn't have a front. Sages explained something so beautiful the front means the future, the back means the past.

08:01
Moshe was saying help me understand the future. I want to see the future. I want to see how things play out, because it doesn't make sense to me. You did this and you did that, you did this. How does this play out? How does this seem right? We know everything Hashem does, hashem is just and Hashem is right. But I can't understand it. So what does Hashem say? You can't see the future, but you know how you could see me.

08:33
Look at the past. If you look at the past, you'll see that I always put everything together. Everything was perfect. Look at your past. You're all very young, but if you look at your past few years, you'll see hey, you know what? What I was worried about? I had nothing to worry about. Everything worked out. It worked out even better than I had hoped, every single time.

08:59
So why are we so obsessed of knowing the future? We're so obsessed about knowing the future? Why? Because we want to feel in control. Hashem says one second, one second. Who's in control? Me or you? Who's in control? The idea here is that what we need to do is put ourselves into a situation where you know to infuse ourselves with that emuna. Look back. Look back at all the times that you were worried. Oh my goodness, how am I going to get that passport on time? It's impossible. Oh my goodness, we're going to miss the flight. Oh, we're going to this. That don't happen. Everything that we were worried about. Look at the worries, at the stress, at the anxiety you had last week and see if it all worked out. Not nine out of 10. Ten out of 10 times worked out better than you expected. Why? Because there's a God pulling the strings. We're the puppets moving our hands and we're like I want to be in control.

10:04
Prayer, prayer. The first step in prayer is recognizing that God is the puppet master. When someone says something that is aggravating or that is painful to you, it's a Shem-San-Ni-Gyo message through that person. That person is the representative that God sent to give you this insight. You know, in a way, when we talk about talking in front of a Shem, so we ask like, but I don't know how to do that. You know, it reminds me of a story.

10:49
There's this young man who went. He had a lifelong dream to become a scuba diver. So finally, one day he decides that's it. Today's the day, I'm going to become a scuba diver. So he goes to scuba diving school and they start teaching him the theory. They teach him you know the breathing methods. They teach him you know what's going to happen and you know, they give him all the gear and he's all pumped up and excited about this whole new adventure of life. He's always been wanting to be a scuba diver. Finally they go out Today's the day. They go out and they're going to all practice with everything they've learned. And guys start jumping off and getting into the water.

11:38
You hear this individual says I can't jump in. What do you? Can't jump in? You know, I understand, it's first time, a little exciting, but you know it's fine, you can jump in, get in. He says no, no, I can't jump in. He says what do you mean? You can't jump in, jump in, just get in the water already. He says I don't know how to swim.

12:02
You see, the problem is is we're talking about talking to Hashem, but what's if we don't know what Hashem is? What's if we don't have means? I say talk to God, talk to God, talk to God, but I don't know what God is. You're telling me to talk to God, but I don't know who he is. First base is understanding and building our relationship with God. How do we do that? Take a listen While praying, you are actually standing before the Creator, blessed is His name, and you are communicating with Him, even though man's eyes do not see him. We don't see God, even though man's eyes do not see him.

12:58
Now realize that this is the most difficult thing to visualize in one's heart with an accurate picture. You're having a difficult time understanding God. First, you have to believe in God, and we talked about this many, many times previously in our other podcast, in the Jewish inspiration podcast, in the partial review podcast I mean every podcast we talk about belief in knowledge of Hashem. If a person doesn't have knowledge of Hashem, there's no way you can pray. What you could do is you can pray Hashem. I want to see you clearly. Hashem, help me, I believe perhaps you're out there, maybe, perhaps you can pray for Amunah.

13:46
But when we are praying, we have to understand that it's the most difficult thing for one to visualize God with an accurate picture. Because what is God? What is God? What are we imagining? We're talking in front of God. Who is that thing? What are we? You understand? What do we do? Is God a cloud? Is God a throne? Is God a king? Is God a tree? What do we understand we're putting? We're standing there every day, three times a day, and we're praying. What image are we visualizing of God? This is what the Ramchal is saying.

14:35
It's the most difficult thing to visualize in one's heart with an accurate picture, being that the physical senses do not assist in this endeavor at all. Nevertheless, despite this difficulty, one who is of sound intellect, with a little bit of contemplation and focus, can etch into his heart the truth of the matter. How would he praise? He comes before Hashem and literally communicates with God directly, and before Him he beseeches and from Him he implores and he blessed is His name in turn listens to Him and pays attention to His every word, in the same way that a person speaks to his friend and his friend pays attention and listens to him. So imagine you're talking to your friend and you're talking to them. We acknowledge, yeah, I hear you, and you talk back and I acknowledge and I hear you. That's the way God is sitting there, listening to our every word.

15:49
Now imagine now it's election season. Election season, what happens? Election season. I'll tell you what happens. Come out and you have microphones. You have all the microphones by this podium, all the microphones, and it comes and it says Walby for president right 2024. And you know all the pomp and all of the excitement and the balloons and the flags and everything. I come out there, all the cameras, everything is ready NBC, abc, cnn, cbs, everything, everyone is ready and everyone is putting their cameras, listening to every single sound. Come out there and say my dear friends, america's in trouble and therefore I'm the greatest candidate running.

16:41
We do the whole spiel. Every word is counted, every word reading from that teleprompter so carefully Reviewed. How many times? Why? Because we're talking to a few cameras and to some microphones. Imagine that every time you pray, god is there with all the cameras, with all the microphones. God doesn't need the cameras or the microphones, but imagine that. Just put that image out and now you're coming and saying Hashem s'fatai, tiftach Hashem. Open my lips, wufi agitil ha-secha, and my mouth will utter your praises Life, action.

17:30
God is listening to every word. Oh, you need help with that. God's taking care of everything, listening to every word. God is not a person and God is not an object. God is Creator of heaven and earth. And God thinks it's so important who you are that God Himself listens to each of our prayers. What's in Torah he says? Vehuyiz barach shmau. And God Himself, ma'zin lo'u makshivli dvar, listens to Him and pays attention to His words. God doesn't say I'm gonna have, I'll have my people speak to your people. You know what I'm saying, how incredible this is that God Himself listens to our entire prayer. It's, it's astonishing.

18:30
And who are we? We're a simple man, simple people. Me, just a guy from Myerland. You know what do I me? You think God cares about what I have to say? You think God cares about my opinion? You think God cares about my little small things? Remember, I've brought this example before? But it's because one of the participants of class God, doesn't care about my son's literally game. Yes, he does. God cares about every single thing going on in your life and God will help you and handle everything for you. But if God will handle it, why do I need to pray? Because he has. It's a very important question. We know God will take care of everything, even if I don't pray. So why do I need to pray?

19:25
Prayer is the connector that builds the relationship between us and God. Without praying. Without praying, we don't have a relationship. It's an unbelievable thing. Prayer means I'm investing in my relationship with God. Prayer doesn't make you religious. Prayer doesn't make you. You know Well, I'm not Orthodox, right that you know.

19:56
I've heard people say that is like come on. Prayer means I want to invest in my relationship with God. That's what prayer means. You don't have to be a rabbi to pray. Every single person on planet earth should pray to God, talk to God, say God, I want to be close to you. This is what King David says. King David says there's nothing I want more than being close to you. That's the only thing I want. See, he prayed for it, hashem, I want to be close to you, hashem, I'm facing challenges. I need some of your guidance. Protect me, heal me, guide me, because it's all about the relationship with God. So prayer is not about saying a whole bunch of words, and that's why the Talmud says a zoo, he avodisha.

21:05
Believe what is the work of the heart? So it's feeler. That's prayer, because you need a heart to have a relationship, you need a heart. You cannot have a relationship with no heart. This is the key. The key to our growth In our relationship with God is by talking to God, you talk to God, you develop your relationship. And that leads us to what we said last week, that when we pray, every word needs to be counted like a coin, just like you count money one dollar, two dollar, three dollar, four dollar you count each one. So to when we pray, we're talking to creative heaven and earth, we're investing in our relationship with God. That's not something that we should take lightly.

22:06
Now I want to add something to this. There was a rabbi came to visit town a few years ago and it's about ten years ago and he gave a lecture and I was stunned by what he said. I Ran over to him after and I said I need to have the source for this. I'll tell you what he said in a minute. It's the most incredible thing. He said what is the purpose of our life? The entire purpose, everything. What's the bottom line purpose of everything in our life? One thing Giving thanks to Hashem, okay and his.

22:49
What he said was Was that Adam and Eve? In what way did they fail and why were they punished? Because they lacked proper gratitude. They took it for granted. Here we are in the garden, we do, we have everything you can possibly imagine and Anything you can imagine Any food you wanted, any game you wanted any Clothes you wanted that. None of it. They didn't need any of it. They had everything that had the closeness to Hashem, that everything Except for one thing Proper gratitude and appreciation for what they had. God says now get out of the Garden of Eden, start being thankful for what you have, and then you'll live in a life of Garden of Eden.

23:42
And he said our entire prayer is about giving thanks to Hashem. Think about it. He's right. Our entire prayer is about giving thanks to Hashem, thank you. Thank you for opening my eyes. That means that we need to live a life where we don't take one thing for granted. Not one thing for granted. We need every single thing we have in our life we need to say thank you for. So you ask for wisdom. Thank you, hashem, for giving me some intellect. You're the one who gives right. If you look at the Amida, if you look at the prayer book, everything is about giving praise to Hashem, thank you. And the more we say thank you, the more our connection grows with God.

24:46
You cannot be arrogant and pray. It doesn't work unless you're just mumbling words. It's impossible to be arrogant and pray. Why? Because when you truly pray, you realize I do nothing. Hashem does everything. Whatever I do have is only from Hashem. Who am I to be high and mighty about myself, being so smart, being so wealthy, being so talented? What are you talking about? Who gives it to you? We pray for it. We ask Hashem. Hashem, please give me wisdom, give me insight. Hashem, please forgive me, give me redemption, give me health and healing, give me prosperity. We ask for it. Hashem is the one who gives it. You can't pray if you're arrogant, because part of being arrogant is you think everything is me. Part of prayer is recognizing nothing is me. Everything is from Hashem. Hashem, the essence, the essence of prayer is recognizing that everything is from Hashem and I thank you for it.

26:01
If you look at the end of the Amida, how do we close off the end of the Amida? We talk about the temple service, but then Thanksgiving, we give thanks and we thank Hashem for everything. Thank you On the Shmosei, nob, kudaslach, van Liseche, shabchoyim Imanu, our souls that are our souls, that are protected by you and entrusted to you daily, and the miracles that you perform with us every single day and the wonders. That's how the Amida ends. It ends with thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Endlessly, because when I realize that everything is from Hashem now, it's a different relationship. It's a different relationship.

27:05
It parallels, if you think about it, a child. What's the, what's the casualty of a child Is that a child, when they're born, doesn't have the intellect to realize what's really going on here. So the child is born, the child needs a mother. How they're going to feed? They need their mother to feed them. So they feed from their mother and they're dependent only on their mother. Their entire existence is on their mother. They have no mother. Very difficult, it's really, it's unbelievable.

27:56
But then the child grows, becomes a little bit more independent, more independent, more independent. Then they become a teenager and then they're the king of the universe. My parents are so dumb they don't get it. They don't understand. The child starts rebelling. Who do they think they are? Just a few years ago your life was dependent on me, your life was dependent on me, and suddenly you're so high and mighty about yourself.

28:28
Sometimes we get some sense. But sometimes people live the rest of their lives with that attitude, not realizing that they are dependent on their mother. We can live our lives not realizing that we are dependent on the Almighty. If you look at me, look at my bank account, I don't need anybody, I control things, I pay my way through anything, not realizing that with one flick of a switch God doesn't need to flick any switches, by the way, but with one will of a shem, the heart stops beating.

29:09
What do you do then? What do you do when the lungs collapse and you have no oxygen? What do you do when your eyes just shut off? Does it happen? No, because Hashem loves us and he continues to bestow his kindness upon us every single second of the day. And that's why we give thanks, because we realize you know what.

29:39
Coming to think of it, why should my eyes continue to see? Only one reason because Hashem loves me and he gives me the ability to continue to see. Oh, let me say a prayer for that, and then we have in our morning blessings. Thank you, hashem. Thank you Hashem P'okeach Yivrim, who gives sight to the blind. We're considered blind, by the way, but Hashem gives us the ability to see. You see a blind person telling me you know we're the same, but Hashem gave me the ability to see in my blindness. It's an unbelievable gift that every single day, we should feel the yearning, the desire, the I can't wait to say thank you, hashem. I love my life. I can't live it and think like it's me who did it, hashem, this is you who has given this to me and I'm forever grateful.

30:50
So, my dear friends, let's go ahead and take a step in our prayer Recognize. We're standing in front of God, creator of heaven and earth, who wants our prayers, who counts our prayers, who sits there and listens to our every word. As Ramchal Vihir says explicitly, god listens to him, to the person who's praying and pays attention to his every word. God listens even if you're not in synagogue. God listens even if you're not wearing a prayer shawl. God listens wherever you are. Talk to Hashem, because Hashem loves to hear from us. The more we talk to Hashem, the more we'll build our relationship with Hashem. Hashem should bless us all that our prayers should always be accepted and always bring us to a connection of being closer to Hashem through it. Amen, and thank you so much.