Praying for a Good Year:

To Pray we Need to Believe in Ourselves.

@Rabbi DovBer Pinson

In the time of the Great Flood, Noach/Noah was told in advance to build an Ark and that a flood would occur, and yet he did not pray for his generation to be saved.

Unlike Avraham and Moshe, says the Zohar, who did pray for the people of their generation, Noach did not. Why not? Noach, we are told, was a “small believer.” Not that he was a “small believer” in G-d and that a great flood will occur, rather he was a “small believer” in his own self. He had such little faith in his potential and the power of his prayers to make any difference so he did not pray. To pray we need to both believe in ourselves, and believe that our prayers can truly effect change. Humility is integral to prayer, the feeling of “I am empty, Hashem please fill me”. Yet, if you are too humble, our humility may keep us away from prayer. You may reason: “How can little old ‘me’ make any difference? Can I really effect change in the world? Can I really stimulate the Divine presence to be more revealed in this world?” "Can I truly draw down blessings?" At times we need to feel like a servant pleading with his master, and at times we need to feel like children asking from their parents. There is a time for everything. All and all, when we pray we need to believe in ourselves and believe that our prayers can have a dramatic effect for the good. “Blessings attach themselves to the blessed, but blessings do no attached themselves to the cursed”. The mere act of feeling blessed and worthy, if not for our actions than for the purity of soul that resides within each and everyone, brings down blessings to our lives and to all those we are praying for.... Shana Tovah: שנה טובה May You All be Blessed with a Beautiful, Happy, Healthy & Sweet New Year

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