Just Him and You

When the young Yishmael was in the desert dying of thirst, the Torah tells us that Hashem heard his voice: “וישמע אלקים את קול הנער” — “And Hashem heard the voice of the lad.” The Kozker Rebbe points out that we are not told that the lad actually cried out, so what does the verse mean when it says that Hashem heard his voice?

The answer, explains the Kotzker Rebbe, teaches us an important lesson about the essence of prayer. Sometimes a person cries on the inside and no one hears his cry except the Ribono Shel Olam. Rav Nachman of Breslov wrote about an incident in which someone approached him for advice about how to daven. The questioner wanted to know how loud he needs to cry when davening to Hashem in order for his tefillah to be effective. Rav Nachman looked straight into the eyes of the questioner and replied, “It needs to be loud enough for only Hashem to hear.”

The story is told of a man who came to the home of Rav Shimshon Pincus zt”l, the Rav of Ofakim, Israel. With tears of desperation, the man begged him for a berachah to be blessed with a child. The man and his wife had been childless for many years and was hopeful that the Rav‘s blessing would sooth his pain and bring him the salvation he and his wife so desperately longed for. To his surprise, however, Rav Pincus asked him to return to his home at 12 o’clock that night. Although the man was a little taken aback, he went home, and he returned much later as he was told.

The Rav invited him to join him in his car, and he proceeded to drive out to the desert adjacent to the town of Ofakim. Rav Pincus then opened his car door and instructed the young man to get out. He turned to him with a heart full of compassion and said, “Pour out your heart out in tefillah to Hashem, as only He can help you. I will be back shortly to fetch you.” With those words he drove off, leaving the man in the pitch black dark of midnight, all alone, with nothing visible except the glistening stars above. The silence was eerie, but with a heavy sigh and broken heart he started to sob and weep like he had never cried before. He understood well what the Rav had meant, and he utilized the opportunity as he stood in solitude to daven and beg Hashem for help. 

A half-hour later the Rosh Yeshiva returned to fetch him. The man’s face was drenched with tears and his swollen eyes divulged what he had spent the last half-hour doing. A short while later, he and his wife were blessed miraculously with their first child.

We must realize that if we want our tefillot to be heard, we need to daven in a way that only Hashem can hear us. We have to approach Him with the understanding that Hashem is the only address worth turning to and the only Power that can provide us with our needs.