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The men of Alexander asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben If a person feels that his Garden of Eden is beginning to break
Chanania: “What should a person do in order to grow down, he should immediately understand that he lacks knowledge.
wise?” As I sing in my classes: “Either faith or Gehennom.” With faith,
a person lives in the Garden of Eden, because he knows that
He told them: “He should engage in much Torah everything that occurs in his life is for his benefit, that there is no evil
learning and reduce his business affairs.” and that everything is for the good, whereas without faith a person
lives in Gehennom. If a person’s Garden of Eden is weakened, that
They said: “Many did so, yet this did not help them. means that his faith is weakened. He must perfect it, and he must
Instead, he should seek compassion from the One ask Hashem for the knowledge that he lacks. Every day, a person
Who possesses compassion. As the verse states: undergoes constrictions and needs—these inspire him to draw down
the knowledge that he needs for that day. And the rectification and
‘Hashem will give wisdom from His mouth, knowledge healing for all of his constrictions and needs consists of engaging at
and understanding’ (Proverbs 2:6).”… length in the blessing of “He Who graciously grants knowledge.”
What does this teach us? That one without the other Thus, a person can solve all of the problems in his life
will not be enough. with the help of the blessing, “He Who graciously grants
knowledge”!
In other words, the Gemara states unequivocally that if a person
does not ask Hashem for His compassion, then reducing his “May It Be Willingly Accepted”
involvement in business and engaging in much Torah learning will
not help him grow wise! And Rashi states: “If a person is forgetting
his learning, he should engage at length in ‘He Who graciously In His compassion, the Holy One, blessed be He, hears and
grants knowledge!’” (Avodah Zarah 8a). From this, we see that a answers a person’s prayers according to both his words and his
person cannot rely on reading from the siddur three times a day intentions. Therefore, we conclude the Shemoneh Esrei with the
and thinking that in so doing he has fulfilled his obligation of asking verse, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
Hashem for compassion, because the Gemara states that “many did heart be willingly accepted by You, Hashem, my Rock and my
so, and it did not help them.” The Gemara is talking about people Redeemer” (Psalms 19:15). First, we ask Him to accept the “words
who prayed three times a day, who recited the blessing on the of my mouth”—the words that we have spoken with our mouths.
Torah and so forth. As the Gemara says on a number of occasions, And then we ask him to accept “the meditation of my heart before
“Are we dealing with wicked people? No!” Rather, it is discussing You,” the thoughts of the heart that accompany every word. These
good people, people who keep the Torah and the mitzvot. But latter are revealed to Hashem because every deep feeling and
even a great amount of learning will not help them, because in every intention is heard in heaven like the actual words of
order to succeed in Torah a person must invest longer periods of prayer and beseeching, since the feeling and intentions are
time in asking for Hashem’s compassion rather than in focusing on the essence, the inner being and the life of the prayer.
any other intentions and requests—as was shown in the enlightening Every time you repeat the words with new, deep feeling, Hashem
example of the Chazon Ish, who reached his attainments in the considers that a different request. Therefore, when you engage in
merit of reciting at length the blessing of “He Who graciously grants the work of the will in the Shemoneh Esrei during the blessing of
knowledge.”
“He Who graciously grants knowledge,” you build thousands of
