The principle that no other being but God is worthy of being addressed in prayer implies the belief that God can fulfil our petitions. We believe in the efficacy of prayer. It is true that when we communicate our wishes to the Most Holy, our just Lord and our loving Father, we are eo ipso reminded to examine our desires, whether they contain anything unholy, anything unjust or ignoble. Prayer to God has therefore the salutary effect of purifying, refining, and ennobling our heart. It banishes evil thoughts, and thus saves us much pain and sorrow. This effect may have been designed by the Creator, and it may be for this purpose that He has endowed us with a natural impulse to pray, and has taught us to pray in His Holy Word. But this cannot [[184]]be the direct object of prayer. The immediate effect sought to be obtained by this act is the fulfilment of our wishes. Every such fulfilment implies a miracle, a deviation from the regular course of nature. We are not in the habit of praying for things which we expect as the sure result of the natural laws; we may praise and admire nature in its workings, but we shall never ask nature for the fulfilment of our desires. Only those things which we believe to be dependent solely on the free decision of the Supreme Being can form the substance of our petitions; and since we believe that everything, the regular working of the natural laws not excepted, depends on the Will of God, we include in the objects of prayer whatever concerns the well-being of individual man and society at large.
There have been thinkers that formed such an idea of God that they were compelled to deny Him every direct influence on human affairs. Some thought it incompatible with the notion of God’s Unity and Immutability that He should be moved by man’s prayer to do something which otherwise He would not have done. Again, others believe that the laws of nature—whether given by God or not—are so permanent that they never change under any circumstances. Prayer has therefore been explained to be of a purely subjective character, and to effect only the above-mentioned improvement of man’s heart. But could we really pray to God to grant us the one thing or the other if we were convinced that He cannot grant us anything, but must allow nature to take its course? Can a prayer offered in such a frame of mind be called a “prayer without lips of deceit”? In opposition to such theories our teachers purposely introduced into the daily prayer here and there a reminder of the true theory in words like the following: המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית “Who repeateth anew every day regularly the work of the Creation.” He is constantly יוצר אור, בורא חשך, מחיה המתים; [[185]]He constantly “formeth light,” “createth darkness,” “giveth life to the dead,” &c.; they have expressed our gratitude to God על נסים שבכל יום עמנו ועל נפלאתיך וטובתיך שבכל עת “for His miracles which in our behalf He performs every day, and for His wonders and kindnesses shown at all times.”
“This idea of God’s real and active rule in the universe is the basis of prayer. It is not only the belief in the truth of the Biblical account of miracles that enables us to pray to our Father, but the conviction that wonders and miracles are constantly wrought by Him. In the Talmud and in the Midrash man’s earning his daily bread (פרנסה) is declared to be a miracle by no means inferior to the miracles wrought for the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt.—‘Is need greatest, is God nearest,’ is a well-known saying, the truth of which many have experienced in the course of their life. Those who have been dangerously ill, and after having found that man, with all his science and resources, was incapable of affording relief, gradually recover their former health; those who have shared with others a common danger, and while their companions, under exactly the same circumstances, perished, were themselves saved; those who, having exhausted every means conceivable to them of obtaining a livelihood, at length find a new path of subsistence opened to them: all these have experienced the Divine help and His nearness in their distress; they have learnt to recognise the miraculous power of Providence. But it is not only in such extraordinary events that the finger of God is seen; to him who has eyes to see they appear daily and hourly. We are exposed to many dangers, the existence of which we frequently only learn when we are safe; we escape them by a miracle.”[19]
The Immutability of God and of His decrees is frequently [[186]]insisted upon in Scripture. “I, the Lord, I change not” (Mal. iii. 6). “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent” (Num. xxiii. 19). “The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent” (1 Sam. xv. 29). “And he hath established them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree, and it shall not pass away” (Ps. cxlviii. 6).—This immutability, however, does not interfere with the free-will of man and its consequences. The teaching of the Bible is beautifully expressed in the well-known sentence: תשובה תפלה וצדקה מעבירין את רע הגזרה “Repentance, prayer, and good deeds remove the evil of the divine decree” (Musaf of Rosh ha-shanah); whatever a man has forfeited by evil deeds, he may recover by prayer and improved conduct. This lesson is taught in the Bible on every page, and is illustrated by the history of Israel. For this reason the prophets were sent to the people of Israel to exhort them, and to show them how they could, by means of repentance, ward off the impending catastrophe. To non-Israelites the same mercy was extended, as is shown by the history of the mission of the prophet Jonah.—Mishnah Aboth (iv. 13) therefore declares, “Repentance and good deeds are like a shield against punishment,” תשובה ומעשים טובים כתריס בפני הפרענות.
The seeming incongruity of the two principles, God’s immutability and man’s hope for mercy and pardon from God, has to some extent occupied the attention of our ancient teachers. “If our condition for a whole year is determined in advance, what is the good of our daily prayers and our supplication for God’s help in times of trouble?” Such is the question asked in the Babylonian Talmud, Rosh ha-shanah (16a), and the answer is given, יפה צעקה קודם גזרה ואחר גזרה “Prayer is of good effect both before the decree and afterwards.” It is always in the power and in [[187]]the will of the Almighty to accede to our petitions and to fulfil our wishes. The question has since been repeated frequently, but no better solution has as yet been supplied.
Abraham, who was the first teacher of monotheism, has also been made by tradition the father of prayer. In the Biblical account he is the first who uttered a prayer; a prayer in the true sense of the word, not for himself, but for his fellow-men. The words of Cain, גדול עוני מנשא “My punishment is greater than I can bear,” have not the character of prayer, nor can the “calling by the name of God” in the age of Enosh be considered with certainty as an expression of prayer. Tradition relates, therefore, that before Abraham there was no one that called God by the name אדון “Lord.” Abraham was the first who recognised God as Lord of man, in whose hand his fate lies,—the condition sine quâ non of prayer. From Abraham onwards prayer remained the chief refuge in danger, and the best, solace and relief in time of trouble.
Whilst, however, insisting on the belief in the efficacy of prayer, our Sages teach us that it would be wrong to expect that every petition uttered before God must be granted. We pray to the Almighty, being convinced that it is in His power to grant what we pray for; but we must trust in the wisdom and mercy of God, that the rejection of our petition is also for our good. “He is near to all those who call on him, to all those that call on him in truth,” who continue to trust in Him and His goodness even when their wishes are not fulfilled. It would be almost equal to superstition to believe that any words, however earnest and devout, uttered by us will infallibly have the desired effect. The Mishnah (Aboth ii. 13) therefore teaches: אל תעש תפלתך קבע אלא רחמים ותחנונים “Do not make thy prayer a fixed claim or demand, which must be fulfilled, but a supplication for mercy, which may or may not be granted.” [[188]]The belief that the prayer will undoubtedly be fulfilled is denounced in the Talmud as עיון תפלה “Looking out with certainty for the effect of the prayer.”[20] Since the principal object of prayer is the granting of our petitions, prayer will be superfluous when no wants will any longer be felt, לעתיד לבוא התפלות בטלות “In future prayers will be discontinued;” only תפלת תודה אינה בטלה לעולם “The prayer of thanksgiving will never be discontinued.” “In the enjoyment of the purest blessings our feelings of gratitude will never die out” (Yalkut on Ps. lvi.).
Rabbi Joseph Albo, in the book Ikkarim, says (IV. xvi.): “Although Prayer is not one of the principles of our Torah, it is intimately connected with the belief in Providence, and every one who believes in Providence ought to believe in the efficacy of prayer. For he who does not pray to God in time of trouble either does not believe in Divine Providence, or if he does believe, he doubts whether God is able to supply his wants; in both cases man is an unbeliever. It is also possible that a person who believes in Divine Providence and in God’s Omnipotence doubts whether he deserves that his prayer should be granted—a feeling of humility which ought indeed to fill the heart of every person—but this idea must not prevent him altogether from praying to God concerning his wants. If he does not pray from this reason, he may believe in God’s justice, but he does not believe in His mercy and kindness. It is also contrary to the teaching of the Bible. ‘Not relying on our righteousness do we offer our supplication before you, but on your great mercy!’ For the benefits bestowed by God on His creatures are acts of love, not of recompense.… Man receives benefits, whether he is entitled to them or not, because prayer gives him a qualification which he does not possess by nature, and enables [[189]]him to receive such good things as could not be obtained from any other being or through any other means.…
“There are some who doubt the efficacy of prayer; they argue thus: We must assume that a certain good thing has been either decreed or not decreed in favour of a certain person: if it has been decided, prayer is not wanted; and if it has not been decided, how can prayer effect a change in the Will of God, who is unchangeable? Neither righteousness in action, nor prayer, is of any avail in procuring any good thing that has not been ordained, or in escaping any evil that has been decreed. This is also the argument of Job in chap. xxi. But the answer to these arguments is this: Whatever may have been decreed, certain conditions must be fulfilled before the decree is executed. If a good harvest is decreed to a certain person, he must plough and sow before he can secure such a harvest; if punishment is decreed against him, the punishment is not inflicted in the absence of continued and repeated sinning. The history of King Ahab shows that the evil decreed against any sinner takes no effect if the sinner repents and is turned into another man. The change that takes place in man himself is the direct effect of prayer and righteousness; it prepares and qualifies him for receiving benefits and protection from evil. Our Sages say therefore: Prayer has its good effect both before and after the Divine decree. The Immutability of God is not less consistent with Efficacy of Prayer than it is with His knowledge of things which are possible, and may happen or may not happen. God and His knowledge being unchangeable, everything must be certain and nothing merely possible. And yet we are convinced of the existence of these things, and believe at the same time in the Immutability of God’s knowledge. In the same manner we are convinced of the Efficacy of Prayer without doubting the Immutability of God’s Will.” [[190]]
On Revelation, p. 46.