Chazal[1] teach us that if one prays
immediately after saying Kri’as Shma, his prayer is accepted. Why is this?
Why is it important to pray immediately following Kri’as Shma? The answer, the Sfas Emes teaches, requires a
deeper understanding of both Kri’as Shma and prayer.
A simple understanding of the sequence of Kri’as Shma
followed by prayer is this. Kri’as Shma
is a declaration that God is One and that He gives existence and life to
all. Prayer is calling out to God. Our prayers are meaningful to the extent that
we believe our declaration. Significantly,
the pasuk upon which this Chazal is based ends with the words from this week’s
parsha, “...
בְּכָל־קָרְאֵנוּ אֵלָיו/… whenever we call to Him.” (Devarim
4:7) Prayer is meaningful to the
extent that we are calling to God.
The Sfas Emes, however, elucidates a deeper aspect to the
connection between Kri’as Shma and prayer.
The Sfas Emes teaches us that prayer follows the declaration of Kri’as
Shma because to the extent that God is revealed, our prayers are accepted. Certainly Kri’as Sh’ma is an acknowledgement that
God is with us. However, what is the
connection between this acknowledgement and our prayers being accepted? To understand this, our concept of prayer
needs to change.
Generally, we think of prayer as requests that we make of
God. We ask God for things that we
believe are good for us. The ultimate
good, of course, is God Himself. When
God gives us something that is good, in essence He is revealing Himself to us. Everything that we receive is essentially a
revelation. Taking this idea to extreme,
if He revealed Himself to us completely, we would have no need for further
prayer. Regardless of our specific
request, then, what we are generally asking for when we pray is God’s
revelation.
God gave us the ability to effect His revelation by calling
out to Him, declaring that we believe He is here but hidden and asking Him to
reveal Himself. The ultimate goal of
prayer is God’s revelation. Thus, God’s revelation and the acceptance of
our prayers is one and the same thing.
As the Sfas Emes teaches us, to the extent that God is revealed, our
prayers are accepted. First we
acknowledge God’s presence with the declaration of Kri’as Sh’ma. Then we ask for His revelation by praying to
Him.
In addition to saying Kri’as Shma, Chazal required us to precede
prayer with a mention of the redemption from Egypt. Recalling the redemption is another way of
reminding ourselves that God is hidden within everything, even the darkest
exile. The
definition of redemption, the Sfas Emes teaches us, is revelation. If redemption is revelation, then exile is
concealment. God is in the exile with
us. He gives existence to the exile as
well.
There can be no better segue to prayer which, as we’ve said,
is essentially a request that God reveal Himself to us, than to remind
ourselves that God is here and hidden and can therefore reveal Himself to us.
This week’s parsha contains the Ten Commandments. This is the second time the Ten Commandments
appear in the Torah. They first appear
in parshas Yisro.[2] There are several differences between the two
versions of the Ten Commandments. We
find one difference in the mitzvah of Shabbos.
In parshas Yisro the Torah tells us that the reason for the mitzvah of Shabbos
is because God rested on the seventh day of the Creation.[3] By keeping Shabbos we give testimony that God
created the world and that he is the cause of its continued existence.
In this week’s parsha the mitzvah of Shabbos contains no
mention whatsoever of the Creation.
Instead, the Torah tells us that by keeping Shabbos we remember the
Exodus.[4] We were slaves in Egypt and God delivered us from bondage. What is the connection between Shabbos and
the Exodus?
According to the concept that exile is God’s concealment and redemption is His revelation, the answer is clear. Both the Exodus and Shabbos are testimony
that everything is from God. For this
reason, we say in kiddush on Friday night that Shabbos is a remembrance for the
Exodus.
May we merit approaching prayer as it was meant to be
approached, as a plea for God’s revelation. Amen.
