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Jewish Thinking

Why Do I Feel that G-d Is Not Listening to My Prayers?

Published on Sunday May 2nd, 2021

Many Jews experience the feeling mentioned in this title. They pray and yet they feel that G-d is not listening to their prayers and that in fact, nothing has changed and sometimes the situation has even worsened.

Here is another question related to this topic. In the holy books, it is written that G-d created the world because He wanted to do good to His creatures; in that case, how is it possible that so many people suffer so much? What is the point? Why does G-d inflict such suffering on mankind?

This theme is very deep. It is possible to write numerous books without giving a completely satisfactory answer. This question touches on the roots of Jewish Emunah, which is why it is important not to dismiss it. Let us try to clarify this as much as possible, albeit briefly and in a condensed manner.

First of all, we must know that Hashem loves us deeply and only wants our good. However, we do not always know what is good for us, and thus, very often, we want things that are actually harmful to us.

We must know another fact; we are only on the way to the main stage of life. Many people make the mistake of thinking that this world is the essence of life and that the future world is only a place where the "worn-out" souls, that have left this world, are stored.

This is a big mistake. This world is just a corridor and a path to the future world. Here we accumulate "provisions" and prepare the place in which we will reside in the future world. If a man fails a lot and does evil things, he prepares himself a place in hell, G-d forbid. On the other hand, an individual who accumulates a large number of Mitzvot and good deeds is preparing for the future world of luxurious palaces, with excellent living conditions, which will offer him spiritual pleasures that we cannot even imagine.

But G-d loves us so much, and He is filled with compassion, thus when He sees that we are preparing ourselves tribulations in the future world, He sends us some trials in this world to expiate our sins. If we return to Him wholeheartedly, we will reduce the weight of our mistakes and perhaps we will eliminate them completely, depending on the level of our regret and the intensity of our commitment to no longer committing the same fault.

Our Sages also teach us something else. Sometimes, G-d also tests Tzaddikim to increase their reward in the World to Come, as evidenced by the verse: "Because he whom he loves, G-d chastens him, as a father does to his son who is dear to him."

Do you now understand why our Heavenly Father does not always fulfill our requests in our prayers? It does not come from a negative feeling about us. Rather it is because He knows precisely what is good and beneficial for us, just as a father in real life does not always give his children all they ask for, because he knows what is good for his child. Every father knows that sometimes you have to avoid giving the children what they ask, because it is not beneficial for them, and sometimes they have to have a little pain to be vaccinated, and so on. G-d behaves the same way with us.

If there were no one in the Heavenly heights, there could not be such a wonderful and complex world, a world of billions of details acting in an extraordinary harmony and in such exceptional order. Having Emunah in our Creator and Ruler of the world is a simple and flawless matter for anyone who is not seeking to escape the truth.

The Torah-Box Team - © Torah-Box

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