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Summary
This article
is about "Prayer as Two-Way Communication" that we as the returning
remnant of Israel in the "latter days" can use in order to receive
instructions and Guidance on our individual and collective journeys of
return to the God of Israel. As such, it makes the point that some Shaar-Israel articles contain references received in prayer. It also gives some pointers on what to do and what to expect as we
practice this type of prayer.
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Prayer as Two-Way Communication
“When Thou said, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will
I seek.”— Psalm 27: 8
“Would G-d that all the L-rd’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put
his Spirit upon them.”
—
Numbers 11:29
The Mishkan / Tabernacle was called "the tent of meeting," because
there the two-way communication between Moses, the representative of the
congregation of Israel and God’s Guiding Presence officially took place, “And
there I will meet with you and I will speak with you from above the ark covering
from between the two cheruvim.” (Ex. 25:22). The communication did take
place elsewhere also, wherever the Ruach HaKodesh / God’s holy Spirit inspired
those on whom it rested. As with the examples of Eldad and Bedad, it was Moses’
wish that all of God’s people would be lead by the Ruach HaKodesh, (Num.
11:25-29). God spoke with Moses in a unique “face to face” manner.
We do not exactly know how that transpired; we are told that it was a unique
“face to face,” communication (Ex. 33:11, Num. 12:8, Deut. 34:10). We also know
that it was in a conversation format, as between two individuals. From
these examples we know that prayer can be and often should be conducted as a
conversation, speaking, listening and responding, in order to seek intimate
communing with God. It is a mode of praying where we are actively “seeking God’s
face” and expect and answer then and there. This kind of prayer is never a
rote repetition of a text, but a focused exchange on words we say and words we
receive, listening to the answer that can sometimes manifest in our minds as
“the still small voice," (I Kings 19:12). Most importantly we respond as
we are moved by the evoked feelings in our hearts. In a way, every prayer
should be a mindful and dedicated attempt to “seek God’s face” for this purpose
of communion, (Psalm 27:7-8). Shaar-Israel
fosters the seeking the God of Israel that He may communicate with us. We
hope that the proliferation of this type of “face to face” communication will
build the virtual "Mishkan of Prayers" by all
Israel. This sanctuary of prayers, to which we all can contribute, can
serve as the "tent of meeting" for communication between the faithful
remnant of Israel and the God of Israel in the latter days. We do need to
build the "Mishkan of Prayers" that we may have the spirit of prophecy restored
to us. We need this 'Tent of meeting" for we are traversing in
unprecedented times and space. As He lead Israel out of Egypt and through
the wilderness, we will need His Guidance through answers to prayers to guide us
anew homeward through the wilderness of isms, concepts, theologies, and
philosophies of the nations, (Num. 33:14, 16, 17).
As Joshua and Caleb, we will need the Guidance of His holy Spirit to endure
inspired through the wilderness journey and to bring back a good report from
God's promises to those who will follow us, (Num. 14:24,
38).
Better than we possibly can imagine, God knows fully what we are and how our
conscious and subconscious processes operate:
“O Lord thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest
my sitting down and my rising up, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou
hast measured my going and my lying down, and thou art acquainted with all my
ways. For no word is yet on my tongue and lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all.”
— Psalm 139:1-4
God can tell us the very words that exactly express our soul’s intent and
message before we even try to formulate our utterances. The only way David could
have known that was to have experienced G-d reflecting and communicating His
desires to David, letting David know that He was tracking with him during his
prayers. To this end in the Morning Service Orthodox Jews pray,
“O
Lord save us; may the King answer us before we call.”
David expected
to hear from God the very day he made a request, often in the morning, after his
initial prayers of the day, (Psalm 143:8). We know
this, because He does answer sometimes before we formulate our words.
These "answers" often have the unique signature of being very distinct from our
own thoughts. Though they are inaudible to our physical ears, we clearly are
aware of them as swiftly coming from outside of our selves into our minds.
Sometimes, we see the references written out before our mind's eyes. God
may answer us at any time, but often his answers come during morning prayers,
when we are charged up with joyous feelings that motivate us to give thanks to
God for having awakened us for another day of life and its blessings. Later in
the morning prayers we are given the concept to pray:
“From your presence dismiss us not empty handed.” Sometimes God may
tell us at the end of our prayer, the summary of our prayer with a Biblical
reference, which better expresses with a few words in a totally all-encompassing
way what we have said with many words. Such immediate summaries of what
God has heard us say are incredible affirmations that our prayers are heard then
and there.
God communicates with us in ways that we are most apt to hear and need to hear.
These words can come from Biblical references. An example of this type of Divine
communication is recorded about the sages Rabbi Abbaya and Rabbi Rava, who
received Biblical verses as answers to their prayers. This demonstrates the
principle that all answers from God must be consistent with His written Word.
Often these references come from the Psalms, which encompass the depth and
breadth of human experience. Psalm 119 with sections assigned to each letter of
the Hebrew alphabet is especially laid out to be answers to human prayers.
As with the Biblical patriarchs, G-d sometimes communicates in dreams, where God
bypasses the filtering and resistance of our conscious minds (II Chron. 7:12).
For some His answers may come in many other ways,
visions during prayer, or through amazing "synchronous events" that occur
together, having independent unlikely causalities. Wikipedia describes
these events as
"Synchronicity
is the
experience of two
or more
events that are
causally unrelated
occurring together in a
meaningful
manner. To count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur
together by chance." An example of this maybe a dream feature that upon
waking one immediately sees in a headline, or overhears in a conversation
between two strangers, or sees in an advertisement on the side of a moving bus.
The Divinely sent message may come to us in words that strike
unusually us as we study his Word, words that may cause us to weep deeply, in
words, thoughts or sudden realizations and enlightenments that suddenly and
abruptly come into our minds as we meditate on His Word.
These types of answers, as well as received page numbers in
prayer books, the Tanach and Bible-related books are also possible pointers to
answers. We know this to be so, for some have received page numbers in Bibles,
prayer books, and books related to queries asked. All these forms are
genuine if they have one thing in common: being consistent with His written
revelation, the Tanach, i.e. Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, (Isa. 8:20).
A unique feature of these communiques is that God’s answers are always on
target, exact and totally consistent with his written Word. It has been
observed that when God answers our prayers concerning weighty matters, it is
always at least two times and often from two different sources that we will hear
or see the answer. This is consistent with the Torah, where in the mouth of two
or three witnesses was a life and death matter decided in ancient Israel. In the
Tanach we often find important matters mentioned twice. The principle of
receiving the same information from at least two different sources to verify a
truth, has not changed. If we doubt, or do not want to heed the answer, He
often answers the third time. It has also been observed that pleas concerning
repentance, spiritual dilemmas and directions tend to be swiftly answered, for
it is the most important Biblical agenda we need to comply with. This is because
the whole Tanach’s directive can be summed up in
Psalm
90:3: “Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest
return / repent ye children of men/Adam.”
Through these types of communication a special closeness is available to all
seekers of the God of Israel now and more to come is on the horizon. They are
already in the realm of possibility for all of us now in the "latter days."
Through communion / yechidut a special closeness is especially bound to be
achieved now when the gates of repentance are being opened to the House of
Joseph:
“Then shall you call upon me, and you
shall go and pray to me, and I will hearken to you. And you shall seek me and
find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will allow
myself to be found by you, says the Lord: and I will restore you from captivity,
and I will gather you from all the nations…”
— Jer.
29:13-14
God promises that during the Great Shabbat, the Messianic Age to come, before we
even speak, He will answer. This closeness is absolutely and especially
necessary for those who wish to serve in the "first contingent to arise form the
Valley of Dry bones." We can have that close relationship with God in
the-here-and-now if we ask for it and seek it earnestly.
"And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will
answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." — Isa. 65:24
We are commanded to look to our father Abraham, our mother Sarah and to the Rock
(God) whence we were hewn, (Isa.51:12). At the time of Abraham’s ultimate test,
(the Akedah / binding of Isaac), God our Eternal Rock, has provided for Abraham
the sacrifice, the ram caught in a bush, (Gen. 22:13). Abraham brought
Isaac, his own commanded sacrifice, and God has also prepared his own sacrifice
for Abraham to use. Our prayers are to be like that. We are not only to use our
own words to express concepts written in the prophecies that God taught us from
His Word, but also are to listen to God’s reciprocation and use words received
from Him on the spot as we pray. This principle is reinforced in the
Talmud: “And the sons of Aaron shall place fire on the altar, (Lev. 1:7). This
verse shows that even though fire would descend from heaven, it is still a
mitzvah to bring ordinary fire, (Bavli, Tractate Yoma, 21b). It shows us
that the essence of “face to face prayer” consists of talking, listening and
responding.
The words we say, and the words we receive, through study or prayer, are to be
pondered, contemplated and turned over in one’s mind. They are to be
concentrated on in the context we give them and receive them. Rabbi Yaakov ben
Asher, (c.1340?, Tur, Orach Chaim 98), gives us a description of the “meditative
focusing” we ought to do on the words we use in our conversation with God:
“.. you should concentrate on the words that issue from your mouth and
should think about G-d’s presence being there… Pay attention and banish any
distracting thoughts, so that your mind shall be solely on prayer… This was the
practice of the pious and of the enthusiastic; they would linger and concentrate
on their prayer until they transcended their physical awareness, and they would
be overwhelmed by a spirit of lucidity, and they would come close to prophecy….”
This type of “contemplation / hitbonenut” during the
study of God’s Word, before and during prayer, gives us the intellectual
knowledge and the deep feelings-mediated understanding through which we fuse
with God’s revelation. During such times we achieve that "yechidut /
spiritual communion" that we need to prepare us for further inspiration and
guidance by God’s holy Spirit.
God’s Torah teaches us that the offerings were to follow specific God-given
patterns and protocols. In the same vein, God as our teacher provides and puts
the very words, i.e. the calves for sacrifices we are to use in our minds and in
our mouths. We are to listen to and use those words for they have healing powers
in our subconscious minds, to return us to the God of Israel. He tells us:
“I create the fruit of the lips;
Peace, peace be unto him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the
Lord, and I will heal him,” —
Isa.57:19
When God gives us the words to use with which to talk to Him,
it is a healing experience. They are exactly what we need. It heals us
individually and collectively where we as a lot, most need them — to heal us
from our 2700-year-old estrangement from Him. He is calling all Israel to
healing; those who are far from Him and those who think they are near. Ask
Him to answer you concerning personal repentance and spiritual direction. Be
willing to hear and heed God's calling and correction. Ask Him to show you where
and of what you need to repent. Listen, He will answer you swiftly.
A caveat and an important pointer:
This article is not a primer on a flippant approach to prayer and expecting God
to answer us about trivial, insignificant and mundane matters on which we are to
exercise our human reasoning and efforts. Neither is it advocating a
superstitious “magical” disposition and looking for omens and signs in
everything. Rather, it advocates soul-felt persistence in prayer about
weighty matters and restoration to communication with God for the sake of
guidance for the returning / repentance of the Ten Tribes and all Israel.
This article is not a primer on how to pray in general. There are many good
books on prayer and the Siddur/ prayer book of Yehudah. Rather it points out the
kind of prayer the returning Israelites need to engage in order to receive
instruction and directions on how to get out of the ingrained patterns of our
corporate and individual sins and mindsets, (Hos. 4:17). To this effect, Yached
Levavenu strongly urges readers to pray, i.e. talk to God, not just at
regular times, but most importantly whenever they are prompted by feelings that
arise from what they read, study, meditate / contemplate on, and when they are
“emotionally moved and prompted by inner urges of one’s spirit” (Psalm
27). These "feelings" are indicators of relationship that are being made,
achieved or are already there. These times of emotional movement in one’s
inner being are the best times to communicate with God, since then we experience
the promptings of our subconscious minds, God’s Inspiration and the outpourings
of our responding souls, (Psalm 30).
“Righteousness is thine O Lord and confusion is ours. How
can we complain? What can we say? What can we urge? How can we justify
ourselves? Let us search and examine our ways and return to thee, for thy right
hand is stretched out to receive those who repent.”
— Tachanun Prayer in the Siddur
In all situations, especially for us returnees, who
may be perplexed as to what to do, or when we think we know what to do, it is
best to pray the prayer of Yehoshaphat:
“We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.” — II
Chron. 20:12
May we hear from the Lord as Yahaziel:
"Then upon Yahaziel, son of
Zechariah..... came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation."
— (II Chron 12:14)
Suggestions for what to do:
TALK to God and "Sh'ma
Israel!"
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Shaar Israel collects these received answers and
instructions from it
readers and features them in articles when appropriate. We use the two letters:
PR,[private
revelation], and printing them in
ORANGE to designate a reference, dream or vision, received
as a "private revelation"
by one of our readers and members.
If you receive such a PR and deem it useful for others to
read, please submit it to Shaar Israel using the
Prayer and PR Research Form.