Last class we look at the fifteenth blessing of the Shemoneh Esrai, continuing to review the communal blessings and focusing on our request for Mashiach to come. Today we review the sixteenth blessing overall and the last of our middle section of communal requests. As always, let’s first review the actual text of the blessing.
“Hear our voice, HaShem our G-d, pity and be compassionate to us, and accept – with compassion and favor – our prayer, for G-d Who hears prayers and supplications are You. From before Yourself, our King, turn us not away empty handed, for You hear the prayer of Your people Israel with compassion. Blessed are You, HaShem, Who hears prayer.”
We mentioned in an earlier class that the text of the Shemoneh Esrai is broken into three sections – an initial praising of HaShem, a middle section replete with requests, and a final section thanking HaShem. This prayer, a plea that G-d listen to us, finalizes the middle section of requests. It makes sense, then, that we would finish with an urgent request that HaShem listen to all that we have just asked for and hear us with compassion.
The placement of this bracha also flows logically. As Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer notes, Dovid wanted nothing more than to be attached to G-d at all times, and nothing cements that more than prayer. As mentioned above, our last bracha focused on our pleas that Mashiach arrive and usher in the return of the Davidic dynasty, so we now ask for what Dovid wanted most – to cement our bond with G-d through prayer.
Notably, the bracha asks that HaShem hear our voice. We would expect the text to ask that He hear our prayer – why a focus on our voice? We focus on the voice because we are requesting that HaShem hear more than just the words we are saying. Rather, we are asking Him to also hear our voice as it calls out in anguish and desperation. There may be times (and if we’re being realistic, there may be many times) where we lack the proper concentration in our prayers, or perhaps we feel that as individuals we don’t merit what we are asking for. Still, we ask HaShem to hear our voice, even if our words are inadequate.
The bracha also seems to switch between singular and plural tenses, specifically when discussing prayer/prayers and supplications. Why the change? Talelei Oros on Tefillah, citing the Yalkut Katan, notes that when an individual manages to daven with proper concentration, it not only enhances his current prayer but it manages to retroactively fix the quality of prior prayers that may have lacked the same concentration. Therefore, we ask that HaShem not only accept this current prayer, but all of our prior prayers and supplications as well.
Finally, this class encapsulates so much of what this series has been focused on. One theme that has been prevalent throughout this series is personalizing prayer and finding a way to connect with each bracha. Nowhere is this easier than here, in this final bracha. Here, we are encouraged to add in our own personal requests for anything we might need. Although we’ve previously asked for health, prosperity, and a return to Jerusalem in the formal text of the prayer, the Shulchan Aruch rules that during this bracha, one may add a request for anything and everything. Nothing is too minute to ask for and, on the contrary, asking for the minutiae in life shows HaShem our understanding that He – and He alone – can grant us our request.