PRAYING FROM A PLACE OF NEED

Creative Family Service, Yom Kippur 5767
October 1, 2006

by Rabbi Sim Glaser

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Tomorrow we will co something in the creative service here that we have never before done. We’ll won’t finish the service – no Aleinu and Kaddish, which is proper, because technically, Yom Kippur is a full day, including, if you are of age, a full day of fasting.

At the beginning of the day we have strength, but as the day continues our strength diminishes and our prayers, in a sense, become more fervent. Stronger. We’re needier than we were at the start of the day. Praying from a place of need is a very important thing to do.

Neilah, the closing of the gates, is a potent prayer time, not only because your stomach is empty and you’re dying to eat something, and many of you will have been in Temple all day, but because it is in many ways a desperate moment. Neilah teaches us this important lesson that we should never be afraid to pray from a place of need.

Here are some Biblical examples:

Adam prayed for security when the sun went down on his first day on earth and he didn’t know what was going on.

Jacob prayed from a place of need the night before he was going to meet his big brother whom he knew was very angry with him.

Abraham’s servant Eliezer prayed with great hope that he might find just the perfect mate for Isaac (and if you chant the word and he prayed in the Torah it is supposed to sound like this….vayomer…) (lots of singing for one word) he really meant business!

Rachel prayed and wept to God that she be blessed with children because that was her great need at that moment in her life.

We are scared to pray for what we need, because we are worried God won’t answer us. You may say, I’ve prayed from a place of great need before, but my prayers have not been answered. True, there is never a guarantee that we will get what we ask for.
But prayer is not necessarily supposed to give us what we desire, it is supposed to link us to ourselves and to the God who sustains us in time of trial. It is supposed to make us stronger, and inspire us and people who are watching us pray to be hopeful when they are in need.

One of my favorite stories is of a little girl who has a lot of faith in God and finds a lot of comfort in prayer. One day she meets her friend on the corner and the friend has a new bicycle. Her friend says to her, Well, if you want a bike so much why not pray to your God? OK I will! She says. The next day they meet again, and the little girl still has no bicycle. So what happened? Didn’t your God answer your prayer? Asked her friend. Yes he did, said the other little girl, he said “no”.

The beautiful part of that story is that we are inspired by the little girl’s fortitude. Her insistence that it is ok to ask God for things even if you aren’t sure you’ll get them. You know she is a powerful little girl to be able to pray from a place of need, to not have her prayer answered, but to know she can still go there.

Rabbi Zimmerman told me the story of man who comes to the Rebbe one Friday afternoon in their Russian village and says: Rebbe, I must ask you for a prayer to keep my son out of the Tsar’s army. They are conscripting soldiers on Monday and I don’t want him to go. The rabbi replies: “I can’t do it now, too close to Shabbat. I have to prepare. Also, we don’t ask for such things on the Sabbath.” Saturday morning the man returns and asks again. The Rebbe responded: “Now is not a good time, I have to get the Torah scrolls ready, there is much to do.” “Alright,” said the man, I will come back after the Sabbath.”
Saturday night, after Havdalah, he returned and asked again. The Rebbe said: “I really have no time for such requests.” And so the man left.
The Rebbe’s disciples asked their teacher: what was that about?? How could you deny him this?
Rebbe responded: he was a spy for the czar. How’d you know? Asked his disciples.
“He wasn’t desperate enough” said the Rebbe. You could tell he didn’t mean it. He was not beseeching me from a place of need.

Then, of course there is the famous Bible story of the two women once came before the wise King Solomon, both claiming that the baby one is holding was hers.
“She stole the baby from me!” said one, and the other said “no she is lying” so Solomon said: OK, we’ll give half of the baby to both of you.
“Fine with me”, said the one woman, and the other sobbed a heartfelt cry and declared to the King: “no, give her the child if she wants it so badly. But please not harm the baby.”
It was then that King Solomon knew who the true mother was. In her desperation she had cried out from that place of great need.

Did this story ever really happen? Maybe not, but the story has has been told for well over 2000 years.

El na refah na la is the shortest most quickly answered prayer in the Torah. Why? Moses was at a weak moment in his life. His family was arguing, he was losing his temper. When his sister Miriam broke out in a terrible rash he simply said: “Please God, heal her please.” Yes, he said please twice.
It was a desperate moment. He was praying from a place of need.
The Torah says Miriam was cured instantly, but you know, it hardly matters whether that happened or not. What is important is that all of Israel saw Moses praying with all his heart and they knew that that was an ok thing to do.

It is great to have other people see you pray in a time of need, because it lets them know that this is an ok thing to do.

Jacob prayed that night, and brothers and sisters have been reconciling ever since. Abraham’s servant has given many people the hope that they will find the special person they are looking for in their life. To this day women visit Rachel’s tomb at Derech Beit lechem, outside Jerusalem that they will be blessed with children, and it gives them hope. And you know what else it did? It started a tradition of our going to the graves of our loved ones we’ve lost and allows us to pray and to talk to them there. Do we know they hear us? No, we don’t know. Can it make us and others feel better and inspire us to live our lives better? Absolutely.

So tomorrow, try doing Yom Kippur all day – you don’t need to fast if you aren’t an adult, but whether you do or not, when the great gates close, at Neilah upstairs or wherever you find yourself, locate that place within you that needs something very badly, and try a prayer.

See what happens.