David HaMelech said in Tehillim, “???? ?????” – prayer was constantly on his lips to the point where he called himself a tefila . We as well should train ourselves to make small tefilot to Hashem throughout our day. Anytime we need anything, we should say, “Please Hashem, give that to me.” “Please Hashem, help me, save me.” Rav Bunim of Peshischa said he has great advice for a person who never wants to be lacking and always wants to be connected to Hashem, “Accustom yourself to pray all the time; ask Hashem for everything, even your littlest needs. Don’t think you have to be in shul with tallit and tefillin to pray. Rather, wherever you are, at home or in the marketplace, make requests from Hashem and He will fulfill them, and you will live your days together with Him. A woman told me that her friend, who’s expecting a child, had a doctor’s appointment in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago. She was feeling very weak, so her plan was to take a city bus, from near her house in Borough Park, to the train station so she wouldn’t have to walk at all. After waiting by the bus stop for a few minutes, she found out the next bus was not due to arrive for almost an hour. To wait for it would for sure cause her to miss her appointment. If she would walk many blocks to the train station she would just be a little late to the appointment, but she just didn’t have the strength to do it. She stood there on the corner and whispered a short tefila to Hashem asking Him to please get her to the train station without her having to walk. Within a minute, a yellow school bus (from a Satmar Mosed) pulled up right beside her and the driver called out, “Lady, would you like to hop on?” She got dropped off within a block of the train station and she felt so close to Hashem, seeing Him answer her small tefila so quickly. Rabbi Yechiel Spero told a story about an older Rabbi who had a small shul in the Catskill Mountains. The membership of his shul had dwindled over the past years, due to all the new bungalow colonies sprouting everywhere. All of the congregants left were called old-timers, and they knew the shul would not last too much longer. They had a lot of money in their account from collecting membership dues regularly over the years, their overhead was low and they had not done renovations in decades. They wanted to use the money to make one final project and one member came up with the idea of buying a Sefer Torah, an everlasting gift that would outlive the congregants and eventually be used in a place that it would be needed. Everyone was excited about it and, within a few months, they found just the right one. But there was one small problem, what would a Hachnasat Sefer Torah dedication look like in their shul, with just a small group of people all past their prime? To solve the problem, at least partially, they decided to schedule the event for Shabbat. It wasn’t ideal, but at least there would be people in attendance. They put up signs and posters, but when the day finally came, the Rabbi was disheartened to see that they didn’t even have a minyan of people show up when prayers were starting. The tenth finally arrived and they began the tefila. The Rabbi whispered a short tefila to Hashem saying, “Please enable us to make one final Kiddush Hashem in the shul. Please let us have people to give honor to the Torah.” Right after the Amida, before the Torah came out, more than 20 people walked in to the shul, all at the same time. What were they doing coming so late? In their summer bungalow colony, the Ba’al Koreh , the one reading the Torah, wasn’t sure if he had found a mistake in it. No one there was sure either, so they decided to go hear the Torah reading in the closest shul to them, which was this one. The Rabbi was overjoyed with the influx of people, just in the nick of time, and they were able to give kavod to the new Sefer Torah that day. Prayer is wondrous. It is available to be used every moment of the day. If we take advantage of it, we’ll be connected to Hashem all the time, and we’ll bring more blessing into our lives.
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