Listen to our prayer

A child lies very sick in an intensive care unit, Heaven forfend. The child utters a prayer, a heartfelt sincere plea to the Almighty, for a speedy recovery. Two people hear the prayer. One says Amen, may it happen soon. The other says, forget it, it won’t happen.

Why would the second person say this?

I remember reading a letter that the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote to someone. The person asked some questions about religion. As I remember it, the Rebbe wrote that there are two kinds of questioners. One kind really wants to know the answer. The other questioner doesn’t want to know, and the only reason he’s asking, is because religion bothers his desire to live a free lifestyle. Religion makes him feel guilty. So how does he deal with it? By trying to ridicule religion, asking questions to try to show how the religion is wrong and not true.

The Rebbe wrote, that if the questioner is the second type, then there is no point in answering. Because he doesn’t want to know an answer. But the Rebbe wrote that, in this case, he is giving the letter writer the benefit of the doubt, that perhaps he is the first type of questioner, so he is replying to his question.

I think that, nowadays, with all the miracles we are seeing, that even those who ridicule religion in order to maintain a guilt-free free lifestyle, they are now seeing and realizing that there is a miraculous awakening happening. So on the one hand, the guilt feelings are probably more intense. But on the other hand, I suspect that the deniers themselves are awakening, seeing how life is not as usual, seeing how nations are aiding Israel, seeing how Israel is firm in its decision, despite world opinion, to wipe out evil, seeing how Jews in Israel and worldwide seemed to be hopelessly divided, and now are strongly united, seeing how soldiers are asking for religious items, strong in their determination to defend Jewish lives.

So it’s not business as usual. It’s a time of awakening. A time when even if we have doubts, nevertheless when we hear someone praying for the complete Redemption, a time of healing and eternal happiness for our nation, we can have the presence of mind and the empathy to say, that we hope this wish materializes very soon.