The Prowess of Prayer

Prayer is a person’s best weapon. It is also the best receptacle for Divine abundance of every shape and form, material and spiritual. As such, we must always reinforce our prayers and our power of prayer, both from a qualitative and quantitative standpoint.

Rebbe Nachman says that a person’s main weapon is prayer (Likutei Moharan I:2). He fights all his battles with prayer and thus conquers the evil inclination and anything else that stands in his way of serving Hashem. So, if a person wants to merit true holiness and proximity with Hashem, he must pray profusely.

A young man from a very religious family came to me and confided that despite his magnificent Torah education and his continued studies in Kollel, he commits serious transgressions and is ashamed and depressed about the life he leads under the false facade. I told him that he is like a soldier in the war with no weapon. We all know what such a soldier’s fate would be…

A person who doesn’t pray is defenseless against the evil inclination. All types of enemies subdue him on a daily basis – sometimes anger gets the best of him, and more than often, despair and depression attack him. With no arsenal of prayer, he’s defenseless. No wonder he’s getting beat up right and left! How can he take a stand against the enemy? He’s so vulnerable!

I told the young man that his teachers taught him the skills of learning Gemara, but they didn’t teach him how to pray. By way of prayer, we seek Hashem’s help; without it, a person is in big trouble, for as the Gemara says, he can’t overcome the evil inclination on his own. But in all fairness, it’s not their fault, because their teachers didn’t teach them how to pray! They can’t pass on something that they don’t have. Then, I directed him to my books and CDs about prayer so that he too would be armed. Afterwards, the young man began a brand new life.

All of our teshuva and all of our free choice is none other than prayer. Without prayer, a person doesn’t have free choice at all. He can’t fight a single spiritual battle nor can he rid himself of lust and bad habits, particularly sexual lust. Rebbe Natan writes that prayer is the main form of teshuva for blemished personal holiness, for by way of prayer, one attains emuna, and blemished emuna leads to blemished personal holiness. Therefore, by strengthening emuna, one rectifies personal holiness and merits complete teshuva (see Likutei Halachot, Nida, ch. 2).

Rebbe Chanin says in the Gemara, tractate Berachot 32, that anyone who prays extensively will ultimately have his prayers answered. This is a spiritual law and it’s in our favor, so why not take advantage of it? Why aren’t people devoting more time and energy to prayer?

We say thrice daily in the Shmona Esrei prayer, “Because You hear our prayers…blessed are You, Hashem, Who hears our prayers!” If this weren’t 100% true, our sages would have never codified such a blessing using Hashem’s Holy Name.

A person who invests time and effort to prayer will surely see major salvations. Instead of waiting for hours in a medical clinic, slow down while saying the Refaenu blessing in the Shmona Esrei, and ask Hashem to heal you. You will merit an abundance of good health. Pray innocently and request like a pauper who is looking for a handout. Prayers with complaining and a sense of entitlement are not desirable at all for obvious reasons.

Rebbe Nachman says in Likutei Moharan I:50 that a person with personal holiness has a stronger prowess of prayer. And, as we’ve learned, the more a person has emuna, the more he can pray. In our personal prayers, we should seek Hashem’s assistance in rectifying personal holiness and in attaining emuna. As such, our power of prayer will constantly become mightier.