Of what use is prayer? I know this sounds cynical, but it is a heartfelt question. I look around the world I live in and see Jews and Muslims fighting, Catholics and Protestants fighting, children starving, and suffering and deprivation. I think of the Holocaust where millions of Jews died who I assume were praying. It seems almost hypocritical to pray a prayer of thanksgiving for G_d’s wonderful world we live in, and it seems almost futile to pray to G_d for help and deliverance. Why do we pray?
Your question is a very deep one and one that entails much study. Why is prayer valuable in a world of pain and suffering? Why do we need to call to G-d and praise a G-d who would allow for there to be so much pain in the world? These questions cannot be answered alone. They need to be answered within a framework of study.
A person first must analyze what prayer is. Next, a person needs to inquire about the meaning and power of prayer. Finally, the inquirer must internalize the concept of a Higher Being that runs the world in a loving, merciful way because even though we look at what happens and we say that it is all “bad” the Creator creates in a way that is all good. We look at death as bad. The Creator creates and takes back those who are ready to be taken back. We look at destruction as a negative thing. The Creator wants us to question why things happen in this world and what part we can play to change the course of history. You see, the “bad” in the world is never “bad.” It is all “good.” It all depends on the outlook you have on life. This is really what all of these questions boil down to. Are you a positive person or a negative person? We have a phrase in Hebrew, “Ivdu es Hashem b’simcha,” which means, “Serve G-d with happiness.”
When something happens that we do not understand it is like a child not understanding when a parent punishes him. While the child is sad at that moment, he ultimately needs the influence of the parent to teach him right from wrong. The child hardly ever understands why the parents decide what they decide. Later in life, children see that their parents did those things because they loved them. Of course, I am speaking about parents who are normal, loving parents.
G-d is a loving, caring, merciful G-d. If we look at life and examine the thousands of blessings that we have in our lives, if we wake up in the morning and literally smell the flowers, breathe the air, be thankful for the miracles of everyday life, then we realize that yes, there are things in this world that we do not understand. But through learning about G-d’s ways, developing our knowledge base of spirituality, and growing through life we will hopefully come to the point where we can see those “evil” occurrences as opportunities for growth.
I will give you one final example. On 9/11 I was working in New York. I held a vigil that night for my congregants, who wanted to get together and pray for those who were missing. We did. My message that night was not to seek revenge. My message was that we need to look into ourselves and find out why this happened. Imagine it! Imagine a world where whenever something “bad” happened, the entire world would not look at others, but we would look internally and try to find the small, minute details of our character faults and fix them. The messages would be drastically different. That is how we handle crisis. We look internally and pray that we can get closer to knowing G-d’s ways by improving ourselves first. Those responsible for 9/11 needed to be punished and they continue to be, thank G-d. But, first and foremost, we need to look at ourselves to analyze how we can become better people.
Rabbi Gershon Litt