Please

I recently found myself in a difficult situation, where I needed to Daven for something that seemed so much bigger and more important than myself. I didn’t know where to start. I couldn’t just say words that were familiar, because the feeling of this enormous force seemed greater than any words I could say. I started to literally feel a loss for words.

So I’m thinking of how this even came to be, that I could fathom that Hakadosh Baruch Hu needed any power from me to go up against this Big Thing.

What if it was possible to go up against giants with the smallest of weapons.

So I asked many of you what you thought was the simplest form of Davening. The responses were, saying “thank you”, seeing oneself at their highest self, a sigh, seeing/feeling Hashem’s embrace, one word, or even one letter.

These beautiful suggestions helped me to reach my own Kol Demama Daka, which was, “please”. It’s the answer to the question of “what do you say?”. People of all ages know this, it means the same thing to everyone.

I, and I asked some of you, to say these small prayers for a short time to see what would happen.

In those few days, I tried to right-size what I was facing. To realize that no matter how big anything I could ever have to deal with, was small in comparison to Hashem’s power. It’s a simple sentence, but such a difficult thing to really, really live by.

And in my struggle to really believe this, I came face to face with my Yetzer Harah. In the flesh.

I pulled up to get gas and the person at the opposite pump, a very nice looking gentleman, got out of his car (you don’t do that in Jersey..)  and stood next to his car. He was covered from his hands to his neck in tattoos and was wearing a t-shirt that very clearly said “Keep praying – no one is listening”. He turned to me and said “hello, how’re doing?” (Because, obviously, I was STARING) paid the attendant, got back into his car, and drove away.

I don’t even think I need to say anything else here.

 

Absolutely love this