BS’D
Today’s daily dose of emuna is dedicated to the refuah shleimah of Rav Shlomo ben Elisheva Chana. May Hashem shower him with a complete healing b’riut hanefesh v’briut haguf among all of Klal Yisrael who are sick and suffering b’karov, b’rachamim, Amen.
Fifth principle of Emuna according to the Rambam ztk’l:
There is no power besides G-d whom it is fitting to serve.
This is a most fundamental principle. Hashem has made it possible to communicate with Him through tefillah. He hears us, cares about us and even ‘lowers Himself’ so that He may attend to even the smallest of creatures.
Incorrectly we may feel that due to Hashem’s greatness He does not have any contact with this lowly world. Yet on the contrary it is because of His greatness that He is able to bridge the gap between heaven and earth and connect with us. In fact this was one of the falsehoods that lead to idolatry; the belief that mankind needs an intermediary in order to relate to Hashem. This clearly goes against a chief principle of emuna that Hashem hears us, understands us and feels our pain. We can thus safely conclude there is nothing too small or inconsequential that Hashem does not care about.
It is through tefillah that we acknowledge that ‘Someone’ is listening to us and personally takes interest in what we have to say. This serves to increase our emuna as the ego is faced with its sense of smallness and recognizes Hashem’s greatness. It is our avodah, the foundation of our service and task in life, when we acknowledge Who we are speaking to, ‘A great and mighty G-d.’ Standing before Hashem and relating to Him is the most intimate mitzvah we are involved in since as we perform it we become an essential part of the mitzvah itself.
Tefillah is one of the most vital parts of our avodat Hashem. It refers not only to the prescribed prayers of the siddur but to the everyday intimate conversations filled with gratitude and longing that we should be having with Hashem. Acknowledging how kind and caring Hashem is, sensing His infinite love and guiding hand is the avodah of tefillah and what essentially is called kavannah in tefillah.
Tefillah in its simplest form is the proclamation that there is no power beside Hashem.
