This is the second part of my 4 part "A Real Look at Prayer" series. The first part was not titled this way, but was about how simply saying we will pray for someone is not enough. We need to help that person physically.
In this post, we will look at what prayer IS.
From the time I was about 12 or 13, I could remember my mother and pastor telling us to pray. I read it in the bible that we are to pray to God. That is what he gave to us so we are able to communicate with him. It wasnt until recently that I understood what prayer REALLY was...
To understand the meaning of prayer, we need to look at the Old Testament. The word translated "prayer" comes from the word "tefilah". It comes from the verb pallel, which means "to judge". The reflexive verb "lehitpallel" meaning to pray also means "to judge oneself".
"Thus, the time of prayer is the time of self-judgment and self-evaluation. When a person addresses himself to G‑d and prays for His blessings, he must inevitably search his heart and examine himself whether he measures up to the standards of daily conduct which G‑d had prescribed for man to follow. If he is not one who fools himself, he will be filled with humility, realizing that he hardly merits the blessings and favors for which he is asking. This is why we stress in our prayers G‑d's infinite goodness and mercies, and pray to G‑d to grant us our heart's desires not because we merit them, but even though we do not deserve them. This is also why our prayers, on week-days, contain a confession of sins which we may have committed knowingly or unknowingly. We pray for G‑d's forgiveness, and resolve to better ourselves. Prayers help us to lead a better life in every respect, by living more fully the way of the Torah and Mitzvoth which G‑d commanded us."
"On a still higher level, prayer becomes avodah, "service." The Torah commands us "to serve G‑d with our hearts,"8 and our Sages say: "What kind of service is 'service of the heart?'—it is prayer."'9 In this sense, prayer is meant to purify our hearts and our nature.
The plain meaning of avodah is "work." We work with a raw material and convert it into a refined and finished product. In the process, we remove the impurities, or roughness, of the raw material, whether it be a piece of wood or a rough diamond, and make it into a thing of usefulness or beauty. The tanner, for example, takes raw hide and by various processes converts it into a fine leather. The parchment on which a Sefer-Torah is written, or a Mezuzah, or Tefillin, is made of the hide of a kosher animal. So is raw wool full of grease and other impurities, but through various stages of "work" it is made into a fine wool, from which we can make not only fine woolens for our clothes, but also a Tallith, or Tzitzith."
(chabad.org)
So prayer becomes reflection on ourselves and confessing our problems and shortcomings. We acknowledge our issues, and "work" to make our lives reflect the Messiah. Then we help others to overcome their issues because we want to see them enter the kingdom.
Once we reflect, and humble ourselves, we come to a place of peace. We see things differently and want to become agents of change in our societies. No matter who lives in the community we live in, we need to see him/her as we were once. Someone in need of a life changing experience. Someone important.
If we really love our neighbors as ourselves, we will do what we can to help them with the same things we need. Food, water, clothing, shelter, and whatever else.
Thank you for reading this post, and if it helped you, please upvote, and let me know in the comments.
:D
(azquotes.com)