Continuing from our previous lesson, various Rabbis are quoted concerning the ending they would add upon completing their Amidah prayers.
We once again see the beauty of their prayers and the importance of taking life matters into account when praying to God. “Please save us,” or at least, “Please save me!” is an important theme. Indeed, one can pray anything at the end of the Amidah – asking God for all our needs. These prayers that we see the giants of the Jewish nation praying teaching us how important it is to pray for everything we need in life. We need God for everything in our lives. We need Him for the blessings we require and we need Him to keep away our enemies who constantly work towards destroying us.
We ask God for help in our Torah study and being blessed to immerse ourselves in a Torah lifestyle always. This is certainly what these giants of the Torah and Jewish world would pray for – as can be seen in today’s reading – and our lives are no different. A few of these prayers are well known to us today, and indeed we pray them today too. (with minor changes.)
There are also other occasions we pray to God. It is not just a once-off that we pray for help when we conclude the Amidah, but rather on every occasion of our life we pray to God.
Rabbi Yochanan would pray when he concluded the book of Job. Perhaps it is not a prayer exactly – but his words show us the importance of what life is all about and so in a way – there really is a prayer there too.
Rabbi Meir also relates to us – in his “prayer” the importance of valuing a Torah lifestyle and in purifying oneself appropriately.
