BS’D
As is written in Tehillim (109:4) “…and I am Tefillah”; tefillah should be at the core of our entire being. Awareness of Hashem’s presence becomes real when we communicate with Him through tefillah. Communication through tefillah strengthens our recognition that we cannot do anything in life without Him. On the surface it may appear that we don’t need to talk to Hashem since we are intimately connected, yet every successful relationship is built on continuous communication.
As we pray we should feel we are ‘face to face’ with Hashem. As written in Sefer Shemot, “Wherever I will (allow you) to mention My name, I will come to you and bless you.” Just the mention of Hashem’s name sharpens awareness of His presence. Therefore we don’t need to talk loudly when we pray, since He is very near. We should talk to Him about our most intimate thoughts and concerns; even the most trivial. In fact the more it appears to be insignificant, the more we instill emuna in Hashem’s Divine Providence over every detail in life.
When we speak to Hashem softly from our heart, the words melt on the flesh of our heart; a mitzvah which boosts our emuna in a special way. However we cannot find a serene place within to talk to Hashem unless we are whole in our relationship with Him. Feelings of anger or emotionally feeling mistreated significantly diminishes our desire to talk with Hashem.
In order to better understand why we feel separated we need to go back to the sin of Adam Harishon; to get a clearer picture on why he was banished from Gan Eden. Principally speaking, after he transgressed he could not handle living with Hashem’s intense connection. For his own benefit he needed to remain distant and slowly rebuild his pathway back to a close relationship once again.
This is the essence of tefillah. A corrective journey we sculpt for ourselves to return to Gan Eden; to feel closeness to Hashem.
