When Hashem Accepts Our Thoughts as Prayer: Some Thoughts About Prayer Based on the Torah of the Maharal and the Mabit

When Hashem Accepts Our Thoughts as Prayer: Some Thoughts About Prayer Based on the Torah of the Maharal and the Mabit

By Eliakim Willner

Eliakim Willner is author of “Nesivos Olam – Nesiv HaTorah: An Appreciation of Torah Study”, a translation with commentary of a work by the Maharal of Prague, published by Artscroll/Mesorah. This article is adapted from his forthcoming continuation of the Nesivos Olam series, “Nesivos Olam – Nesiv HaAvodah: The Philosophy and Practice of Prayer”.

A Heartfelt Appeal to Hashem

In the devotional poem (piyut), “Merubim Tzorchei Amcha” written by Rabbeinu Yosef ben Rav Yitzchok of Orleans and recited at the end of the N’eila service of Yom Kippur we say, “The needs of Your people are many, but their mental focus is diminished, they cannot express their deficits and desires, please understand our thoughts before we call out, Oh great, mighty and awesome G-d”.

A Question Based on The Maharal’s Principle Requiring Prayer Articulation

The prayer request in this piyut to have our thoughts “read” and presumably our wants satisfied before we articulate them seems to run counter to the Maharal’s principle that speech is an integral and critical element of prayer. In Nesivos Olam, Nesiv HaAvodah 2, the Maharal writes as follows:

“Man’s uniqueness [among the living creatures that inhabit the world] is identified with his power of speech. He is not distinguished in any other way. If a person does not verbalize his needs in prayer he has not identified himself as an appropriate “address” to which the prayer fulfillment may be sent. In order to qualify as a “recipient” he has to articulate his desire to have his needs fulfilled. Thus a person must speak out his desire to have his needs fulfilled. If he does so he is asking as a human with a need [and this makes him eligible to have his prayer responded to.]

“A person is not primed to have his needs addressed by the Creator until he expresses his needs specifically as the needs of a human. Only then does he qualify to be made whole by the Creator. Therefore we must pray to Hashem, the Creator, verbally. Only then, as men asking as men, are we able to have our needs fulfilled by the Creator – since, only then, are we men who are lacking.

“This is why we must express ourselves verbally when we pray. Speaking identifies us as humans. A person who prays mentally [and without verbalizing] has failed to present his needs as a human.”

Based on this Maharal it seems inappropriate for us to ask Hashem to “…please understand our thoughts before we call out”.

Hashem’s Promise to the Navi Yeshayahu

The difficulty is compounded by the fact that a prophetic verse in Yeshayahu 65:24 seems to bear out the validity of the piyut’s approach to prayer: “And it will be that before they have even called, I will respond; while they are yet speaking, I will acquiesce”. The piyut, it would appear, merely has us beseech Hashem for this prophecy to be fulfilled on our behalf. How, though, can we reconcile this with the Maharal’s principle?

The Mabit Explains the Posuk in Yeshayahu

Perhaps we can resolve the apparent conflict through the words of the Mabit (Rav Moshe ben Yosef di Trani, 1505-1585) in Bais Elokim, Shaar HaTefillah 13. The Mabit is discussing this verse in Yeshayahu. He explains that prayer consists of two components. We begin with words of conciliation and praise to Hashem. This is the “calling” that the verse initially refers to (“And it will be that before they have even called, I will respond…”). Only after “calling” to Him do we begin our entreaties – which the verse refers to as “speaking" (“While they are yet speaking, I will acquiesce”). The verse is teaching us that when we are close enough to Hashem, and worthy enough, Hashem will, as it were, respond with, “I am here!” before we even begin “calling”. When it comes to our entreaties, Hashem will acquiesce “while we are yet speaking”.

Notice the difference between Hashem’s reaction in the first and in the second part of the verse. Once we reach the “requests” portion of our prayer we need to have actually started speaking before Hashem grants our requests, even though, when we began the “calling” part of the prayer, He is present even before we began speaking. This bears out the Maharal’s principle that prayer requests must be articulated before they can be granted. Why, though, do we not have to completely articulate the prayer before it is answered? After all, as the Maharal writes that we must not only speak out our entreaties to Hashem when we pray, we must also articulate our prayer requests precisely in order for them to be effective.

A Partial Articulation is Ineffective

In Gur Aryeh, Bamidbar 22:11, with respect to the wording of Bil’am’s request of Hashem for permission to curse Yisroel, the Maharal writes, “Do not think that Hashem will act on the basis of His knowledge of a person’s intent when he makes a request. Rather, Hashem responds only on the basis of what a person actually says”. Similarly, in Bamidbar 23:7 Bil’am attempts to curse Yisroel using their names “Yisroel” and “Yaakov”, to assure, the Maharal writes, that his words are as precise as possible, since Bil’am understood that imprecision could render his prayer ineffective.

Why, then, is the verse in Yeshayahu telling us that our prayers will be effective even before we finish saying them?

The Exception to the Articulation Rule

The answer may be that, as the Maharal points out in Nesiv HaAvodah, “A completely righteous person  is the exception to this rule. Since he is governed completely by his intellect Hashem responds to him even if he calls to Hashem mentally and without verbalizing”.

Perhaps, then, the verse in Yeshayahu is referring to a time when Yisroel are on a very high level of righteousness, albeit not on a level of complete righteousness. On that level, the requirement to articulate prayer is not waived, but it is attenuated. We must still exercise our power of speech when praying, as the Maharal explains. But we do not have to fully exercise our power of speech by completing our prayer; because of our righteousness, Hashem is ready to respond just after we begin speaking, before we have finished expressing our requests.

Reconciliation of the Piyut with the Maharal’s Principle

We return to the piyut, “Merubim Tzorchei Amcha”, in which we ask Hashem to, “understand our thoughts before we call out”. We asked, does not the Maharal say that prayer must be articulated? Yes! But we recite this piyut at the holiest point of the holiest day of the year – at the end of the Yom Kippur N’eila service, when we are purged of sin, distant from the material and comparable to the angels in holiness. At this point we are as close as is possible in this world to a state of righteousness.

The author of the piyut therefore has us ask, in effect, “Hashem, please apply the verse in Yeshayahu to us! We may not be totally righteous, but we have spent the day in prayer. We are not ‘finished’; we cannot possibly express all the myriad things we depend on You for (‘The needs of Your people are many’). Please consider us righteous enough to fulfill not only our expressed requests, but even, per your promise in Yeshayahu, those that we have left unexpressed!”

As the Navi Yeshayahu said, “Please understand our thoughts before we call out, Oh great, mighty and awesome G-d!”

May Hashem accept all our tefillos, spoken and unspoken, l’tova.