Why You Must Speak to God: The Power of Prayer and Pouring Out Your Heart

On the topic of prayer, Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pincus shares the following parable:

A man, whose father was a renowned cardiologist, fell seriously ill with a heart condition and lay in critical condition at home. A friend came to visit and asked, “How is it that your father, such an expert in this very illness, hasn’t come to treat you?” The man replied, “My father doesn’t have prophetic powers. I haven’t told him I’m sick yet…”

The same is true with prayer. It is written, “Hashem, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication” (Psalms 130:2). The Torah tells us that God listens with “ears,” not through prophecy. If we don’t tell Him what hurts us, He, so to speak, does not “know.”

Rabbi Pincus concludes: “Understand deeply, how literal Divine Providence is. A voice cries out from Heaven and says: ‘Why don’t you tell Me what hurts you? I will come to help you immediately.’” (Shearim B'Tefillah, p. 29)

During prayer, we should feel like a daughter clinging to her mother. We should express all our pain, worries, fears, and difficulties, because Hashem hears every word. The more we open up and include Him in every detail of our lives, the closer we grow and the more we arouse His mercy.

A doctor once took the night shift at a hospital. Along with the ward, he was given the phone number of the on-call physician — a backup doctor who wasn’t on-site but could be summoned if needed. That night was especially difficult. He ran breathlessly from patient to patient, doing his best. But suddenly, a patient went into respiratory failure, and the doctor didn’t reach him in time. The patient died and the family sued.

In court, the doctor said, “I did everything I could! The ward was overcrowded, and I was overwhelmed.”
The judge responded, “Fine, but why didn’t you call the on-call doctor? Why didn’t you ask for help?”

Similarly, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin explains the verse, “He tells man what his speech was” (Amos 4:13) as referring to prayer. Even a light conversation — meaning even the lightest prayer — is revealed at the time of judgment. Rabbi Chaim says that in the next world, a person is shown what their prayer could have accomplished, and is asked: “Where were you? You had the power to change everything with prayer!”

The regret will be immense: Why didn’t I ask God for help? Why didn’t I open my heart to Him, when He was just waiting to help me?

If we pray with sincerity, God will grant our requests. As the Jerusalem Talmud (Ta’anit 15b) says: “Reish Lakish said: If you arrange your prayer, don’t constrict your mouth, rather, open it wide and I will fill it.” If we pray properly by laying out all our troubles and pouring our heart out to God, we should not hold back. We can confidently “open wide,” and He will fill our mouths with good.