Strengthen Your Spirituality: Does Praying for Spiritual Growth Help?

In the morning prayer, we frequently request spiritual matters: "Please make Your Torah sweet in our mouths" – we ask for the sweetness of Torah, and further in the blessing, we request success in our Torah study and that of our descendants. In the morning blessings, we pray "May it be Your will... that You accustom us to Your Torah, keep us attached to Your commandments, and do not lead us into sin, transgression, or trial, and let the evil inclination not overpower us." All these are prayers for our spirituality. Similarly, in the blessing of 'Ahavah Rabba' we ask, "Place understanding in our hearts to comprehend, discern, listen, learn, and teach, to observe, practice, and fulfill all the words of Your Torah with love. Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah, and let our hearts cling to Your commandments, and unify our hearts to love and fear Your name."

But what's the point of all these requests if our Sages have already said, "Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven" (Talmud Bavli, Berachot 33b)? From this saying of our Sages, we understand that all physical matters are under Hashem's control, but in spiritual matters, Hashem has given us free choice to decide. An individual's fear of Heaven is not reliant on Hashem at all. So if a person has free choice – to choose Torah and commandments or to follow the evil inclination, how does praying to Hashem and asking to fulfill commandments and grow in Torah and spirituality help? Hashem has entrusted the full decision in our hands, hasn't He?

Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva and president of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah, answered this question in one of his talks. He said, "Commentators explain that it is possible to receive siyata dishmaya (heavenly assistance) from above, which is an aspect of 'arousing from above' where heaven provides a person with an awakening of strengthening." I heard from my mentor and teacher Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, of blessed memory, an example of this - if a person is waiting somewhere, and today in waiting rooms there are books like those of ethics and Torah teachings, and he opens a book that was there, and it opens to a page with something that awakens him, and had he not opened that book, he would not have been awakened - then from above, it was opened for him exactly on the page containing something that awakens him according to his nature. This is it'aruta de-le'ela (awakening from above), where heaven gave him an awakening! And for this, one needs merits, and with merits, one attains siyata dishmaya.

"And our Sages have already said (Berachot 50a) 'Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it' - with matters of Torah. Meaning, in Torah matters Hashem assures 'request as much as you can, and I will give.' It is also known from Rabbi Yisrael Salanter who said that tried and tested prayer for spirituality helps and gives siyata dishmaya. It is also mentioned in the 'Sefer Chasidim' (sign 131), that if a person asks for something that is a praise to the Creator, such as for Torah study or something else that is Hashem's will, and pours out his soul in prayer – Hashem hears his prayer, even if he has no good deeds.

Can one suffice with the spiritual requests found in the prayer book? The Rabbi answers that although these requests are made in the established prayer texts, there is not always heartfelt intention in this prayer, and therefore it is important also to pray outside the fixed prayer for siyata dishmaya in spirituality, and through heartfelt prayer, one merits divine assistance. The Rabbi cites the words of the 'Chafetz Chaim' regarding this in 'Likutei Amarim' (chapter 10): "A person should not be satisfied with praying the Shemoneh Esrei three times every day but many times a day one should pour out prayers and requests privately. Because the three prayers have already become rote for him, he does not pay much attention to them, unlike when a person contemplates alone and examines his own state and situation, then he will pour out his heart like water before Hashem, and the prayer will then come with profound intention and a broken heart and humble spirit. Such a prayer certainly does not return empty."

In the Talmud (Niddah 70b) the question is asked about what merit allows a person to attain the wisdom of the Torah, and the answer is to persist in learning, to which it is objected: many persisted and did not succeed. The answer is "let them pray for mercy from the One to whom wisdom belongs," and Rashi explains further, "it depends on mercy."

"Certainly prayer is needed, and without prayer, success does not occur at all, because he does not ask. And if someone does not ask - why should he receive?" the Rabbi explains that through prayer one merits heavenly assistance, but additional to that, study with wise people and friends is also needed, for through study with wise people, one acquires knowledge, and through study with a peer, one achieves a better understanding of the study.

The Rabbi concludes "The general rule is that for everything siyata dishmaya is needed, and for siyata dishmaya one needs merits. With merits, one attains spirituality, and without merits, it is not attainable. May it be the will of Hashem that heaven grants us all the siyata dishmaya to have the merits needed for success in spirituality."