Here’s the first email that greeted me this morning:
Mrs. Rachel Weinstein –
Hi, Hello. Please, take me off your sending e-mail list.
I thought it was a simple prayer request…
I want you to know that I donated to an orphanage in Jerusalem, Israel a couple of years back…I never got my blessing at all. Instead, I got years of emptiness. Like, I said, No blessings.
Wow.
Don’t get me wrong: I know what it’s like to beseech heaven with heartfelt prayers, back them up with a good deed, and then anticipate the most subtle sign that they are being answered. Until then, all one can do is wait and wait and wait some more.
But everyone’s got their breaking point. Few things are more depleting than pouring your innermost hopes and desires into heaven and waiting years for a response.
I’d say that’s a valid reason to lose faith.
But as you can imagine, that email got me thinking: Perhaps our ‘unanswered prayers’ have less to do with the flaws of heaven than our perception of how it processes our requests.
Truth is, if you pray at all then you’re way ahead of most people. We’re immersed in a society that promotes the mentality of ‘kochi v’otzem yadi’ – ‘(I accomplish via) MY strength and the might of MY hands.’ How easy it is to think we have created, we have invented, we have discovered. Our strength is our own; G-d is focused on the big things, like making sure it rains and that the planets don’t drop out of orbit. Even the reference to G-d on our currency has evolved into a statement of the worship of the currency itself.
So where DO we place our trust? Especially when we’ve lost our faith in others?
(They say a child’s relationship with G-d is tailored after her relationship with her parents. I imagine a girl at our Home in Netanya, anxious to trust in a mother and father who only delivered neglect and abuse. I wonder how she could ever trust again.)
Where do we go when our prayers were answered with a “No”? Or not answered at all?
But our teachings tell us that there is no such thing as unanswered prayers. They simply don’t exist. Each request, each anguished tear is collected into a pool and answered in some way at some time. Yes, it could take months or even years to fully understand the heavenly response. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t yet come.
This video has captivated thousands around the world, stimulating renewed faith that instead of suffering being in vain, it is being invested in a bright and brilliant future for our people.
In just a few days, on Sunday, July 29th, we will observe Tisha B’Av, the 9th day in the month of Av and the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is the culmination of a three-week period historically known as a time of tragedy, not only for the Jewish people but also the entire world. (The Spanish Inquisition, the First World War and events that were the catalyst for the Second World War began during this time.) We will weep as we recall the most injurious events in Jewish history, the destruction of Jerusalem’s First and Second Temple, which occurred on that day.
We will reflect on our world, bereft of the sacred Temple that channeled holiness and the bounty of countless blessings for both Jews and non-Jews alike. We will express the heaviness in our hearts with fasting and tears, by removing our shoes and sitting low.
For 2,000 years, Jews have mourned the magnitude of this loss and fervently prayed that each person’s potential will create a world that can possess this sacred venue once again.
2,000 years of mourning that loss, of dreaming that dream. 2000 years and the Temple is not yet rebuilt.
2,000 years of an unanswered prayer. Yet every day, in every hour, Jews around the world keep piercing the innermost depths of heaven with their heartfelt requests. They continue a chain of immutable faith that has survived the Crusades, Inquisitions, pogroms, and the Holocaust.
2,000 years…..that’s just about as patient as one can get.
(I imagine a disadvantaged girl who comes to our Home, having experienced a Holocaust of her own. A nurturing staff rebuilds her faith in herself and the world around her. She draws on the spirit of survival inherent in her soul, a deep-rooted faith that is the essence of her people.)
Ask someone who cannot see……how grateful we should be to witness the vibrant colors in a sunset. Ask someone who 
cannot hear……what he would give to be able to enjoy a melody. Ask someone who cannot walk……what it would mean to feel the grains of sand slip through his toes as he runs on a beach. Seek out others who believe in you more than you believe in yourself, or the person who greets you with a smile, or the child whose embrace sometimes leaves you breathless.
Think of the disadvantaged girls who have no one to care for them, the ones who are now laughing in a summer camp because you opened your heart to give them the most meaningful summer possible. Imagine how your thoughtfulness can create a world so special that it can embrace the reality of a new Temple.
Consider these moments and you know: Your prayers have been answered.
Rachel Weinstein
Director of Development
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10 comments
Maurice Cohen says:
July 31, 2012 at 9:27 am (UTC -4 )
Yours is a way to find happiness. I’m sure you have found it. There is not a person in the world who has not the same aim as you. But there is no two peoples d’accord sur la manière d’atteindre ce but. My view is this to make it short:
There are people whose aim in this world is to make other people happy. It would be an excellent short cut to go and find them instead of loosing time.
You can easily find them: they never say no,
In fact this is exactly what in happening ! All people in the world are constantly looking for these particular blessed people. Sometime they found them just next door, and sometime a bit further down the street..
people are strange. Their life is stranger.
I’ve just learned that Dean Martin who passed away is a Jew. And there is a jewish school in San Diego who produce geniuses in physics. A small boy has just obtained a big prize from Google.
All you have to do is to look for interesting information.And the interesting people..
Sometimes early mornings are beautiful. Sometimes the whole of the day is.
I hope you’ll have a big success in your job.
Rachel Weinstein says:
July 31, 2012 at 11:32 am (UTC -4 )
So nice to find you here, Maurice!
What I have found, both from the response to this blog and my encounters with people in general, is that consciously or unconsciously, we all seem to be searching for a common goal: a purpose to suffering and reassurance that our search for meaning will not be in vain. I have discovered that searching within ourselves to see what we can bring to the world brings far more serenity than seeking it from external sources or other people. It’s not what the world holds for us but rather, what we bring to it that is the source for our true happiness and contentment.
As your own Charles de Gaulle is quoted as saying: “We may go to the moon, but that’s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.”
But of course, I believe he said it in French
Thanks for being our partner and always encouraging us in our work for our precious girls at the Home.
Rachel
John Lewis says:
July 27, 2012 at 12:20 pm (UTC -4 )
Thank you, Ms Rachel, for your wonderful insight on such a difficult topic.
The problem of pain (suffering, loneliness, illness, etc.) is one that the human mind struggles to understand in light of theological beliefs, specifically answering the question: why is this happening to me? Many books have been written on this topic, as well as man sermons given. However, the best reflection is given to us by G-d in the book of Job. Although difficult to comprehend on first reading, I encourage everyone to read and contemplate on the messages within Job many, many times. It is truly a divinely inspired book for the human mind.
For me, in the end I always try my best to turn the focus from the temporary to the eternal. There is a reason we are not blessed with a specific thing in our lives and/or cursed with some type of pain. We may never know the answer in this lifetime and we must embrace that fact as difficult as it may be. We cannot turn our disappointment and anger towards G-d because He has blessed our lives in countless ways already. This is not an easy answer and many may reject it, but how dare we question G-d? We marvel at His creation and praise at His omnipotence.
Thank you for this post, Ms Rachel. This is a topic that will always be part of our fallen society despite the joyful times in life; we will have times of pain. I will share your beautiful response with my colleagues to help others in our area who are in times of dispair. G-d bless you all & be safe.
Rachel Weinstein says:
July 30, 2012 at 2:23 pm (UTC -4 )
John,
What a beautiful post.
The responses here as well as the emails I’ve received in response to the blog post reiterate the universal themes that you presented above. So many of us struggle with these ideas, sometimes forgetting that it takes work to remain inspired. As you mentioned, this task is easier when we keep our vision focused on the eternal and share our own discoveries with others.
Thanks for sharing your inspiration.
Rachel
Sheena says:
July 26, 2012 at 6:08 pm (UTC -4 )
This is so beautiful Rachel!
I got teary eyed reading this post, what a beautiful way to look at that email.
And of course I have a country song (Unanswered Prayers by Garth Brooks) that the post made me think of…
[Chorus]
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
Rachel Weinstein says:
July 30, 2012 at 2:25 pm (UTC -4 )
Thanks, Sheena! Perfect lyrics – I could just hear the twang……
Ken Sacks says:
July 26, 2012 at 4:52 pm (UTC -4 )
Thanks to people like Rachel and other loyal Hebrews of Israel we are reminded of our frailties in G-d’s eyes. His expectations of us must be far greater than ours of Him. So, our prayers are but wishes…”His will be done” and we must say “Praise G-d the merciful Judge”.
Rachel Weinstein says:
July 30, 2012 at 2:28 pm (UTC -4 )
Thanks, Ken, for the encouraging thought that G-d believes in us even more than we could ever know. When we think we’ve reached a potential, it’s always a sweet discovery to learn how much more there is to accomplish. It’s astonishing to consider, no?
Angelika Maeser Lemieux says:
July 26, 2012 at 4:37 pm (UTC -4 )
It was a beautiful letter and video; I posted it on my facebook.
Rachel Weinstein says:
July 30, 2012 at 2:30 pm (UTC -4 )
Angelika,
Our goal here at Lev LaLev is that the shattered hearts of our orphaned girls enter the compassionate hearts of others. That is clearly what has happened here. You never know what can happen when you share something this meaningful with others. Thanks for your efforts in making this world a better place.
Rachel