Winning the War

The State of Israel has been once again at war. In recent weeks, more than 1,400 rockets have been lobbed at innocent civilians. Many have been intercepted by the Iron Dome system; many have fallen in and around residential neighborhoods. Sirens have even been heard in places that until now were silent, like Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, and Jerusalem and its environs. Six innocent lives (plus an unborn 8 month old baby) have been snuffed out, plus many injured, hundreds in shock, and thousands who live with panic and fear as siren after siren wails – Hashem should speedily avenge the blood that has been spilled, and our eyes should see it!
 
No one knows how long the ceasefire will last…
 
Everyone wants to know: What can we do? Rabbi Shalom Arush, he should live and be well, gave us an answer: Tehillim neged Tilim – Psalms against rockets (the Hebrew is much more catchy). Let’s explain:
 
R' Arush explained that the Evil Inclination is directly responsible for the fact that prayer is so overlooked among many religious people. People look for all types of segulas, inyonim, etc. etc. He said "I don't have any for you! You don't need them! PRAY!" Every prayer creates a vessel. Do you know how many vessels are just in the Shemonei Esrei alone? Why rush? Say every word slowly, with intention. He actually started repeating the prayers himself during the lesson, displaying exactly how one is to say the words:Refaeinu, pause. Hashem, pause. Just like that. Slowly. He said you can even repeat the words, as many times as you want – just not the blessing itself.
 
Praying with intention, slowly, using the prayers prescribed in the siddur are very powerful. Even more powerful is hitbodedut – personal prayer. Rabbi Arush quoted Rebbe Nachman, saying that when a person speaks to Hashem in his own words, Hashem stops everything He is doing (so to speak) to listen to that person. Personal prayer directly negates harsh judgments on the Jewish people – because Hashem is listening to YOU right now.
 
Hence, Rabbi Arush has started a 24 hour hitbodedut chain for the men of the Yeshiva, so not one minute goes by that someone isn’t speaking to Hashem, day and night. In fact, before World War II, a group of Breslevers did the exact same thing. At some point, they were rounded up and dispersed, hence stopping the constant hitbodedut cycle. That day, WWII started.
 
Perhaps this might seem hard to believe. After all, why would Hashem stop to listen to little me? Are my words really that powerful? The answer is an emphatic YES!!! Hashem loves YOU. Hashem treasures every word you speak to Him. Hashem WANTS to give us everything – just like we want to give everything to our children. We don’t need to convince him – we just need to ask. In fact, the Hebrew word for “word” and “thing” (devar) is the exact same. A word IS a thing. It is a vessel, and all those words, and all those prayers, come together to form a chain that can literally stop a gun from firing, and stop a missile in its tracks!
 
The Evil Inclination has indeed convinced us that prayer isn’t really all that powerful. The reality, however, is that the Evil Inclination is a interminable liar! It’s simply not true. If you still struggle to really feel that your prayer is powerful, then ask Hashem to enable you to believe in the power of your prayer as a free gift. Yes – we have to pray for prayer! We must also ask Hashem to give us the words to speak to Him in prayer. If you struggle with the words, just speak the truth in your heart, simply and with truth, even if you don’t feel any emotion. The truth of your words will slowly enter your heart, enabling you to pray with intensity.
 
Finally, Rabbi Arush stressed that most of our prayer should be that all of the Jewish people should have the knowledge and understanding to start speaking to Hashem. Hence, we pray that Hashem enable us to truly pray, along with all the Jewish people. Moshe Rebeinu did the exact same thing – he was in the desert for 60 years before he came back at Hashem's behest to redeem Israel from Egypt. What did he do that whole time? Personal prayer! Rabbi Arush explains even further: He prayed that the Jewish people would start praying. Prayer itself was in exile. Hakol Kol Yaakov – the voice is the voice of Jacob. The Jewish people's strongest power is the power of prayer! Moshe knew that the Jewish people needed to pray in order to be redeemed. Finally, the Torah says that the Jewish people called out to Hashem in prayer. And what happened next? Hashem went to Moshe and said "I hear their cry! Go redeem them!"
 
As it was with the first redemption, so it will be with the final redemption. Again, prayer is in exile. Again, we must not only start praying – we must pray that all of Israel joins us. Then, Hashem will again hear our prayers and redeem us, speedily and in our days, with tremendous mercy, AMEN!