Vessel of Divine Abundance

One person told me that he doesn’t ask Hashem for anything in his personal prayer, but only thanks Hashem for his blessings. I told him that by refraining to ask for anything from Hashem, he’s denying limitless gratification from Hashem. A Hebrew folk expression says that the cow wants to give milk even more than the calf wants to drink. Hashem created the world in order to bestow His loving-kindness on mankind. Even more than man yearns for Divine abundance, Hashem desires to bestow His Divine abundance on man. Rebbe Nachman of Breslev therefore says (ibid, 102) that a person should therefore pray to invoke Divine abundance for himself and for the entire world.

The success of Israel and the Jews is a special sanctification of Hashem’s name. Israel is a tiny country that according to natural phenomena and logic should have ceased to exist long ago. The Jews are a minuscule people on a quantitative basis. The fact that Israel and the Jewish people not only exist but flourish is a clear indication of Divine abundance. The nations of the world recognize that such success can only be attributed to Divine intervention, providence, and abundance.

Prayer is the means whereby we bring Divine abundance from the upper spiritual worlds to our low material world. The words of prayer are vessels of abundance. Imagine that a person is a wheat field at the time of harvest: the owner of the field invites him to take home as much wheat as he can carry. An unprepared person tries to stuff as many wheat grains as he can in his pockets, and carries whatever he can in his fists. Maybe he’ll walk away with a pound or two of wheat. But, if the same person comes prepared for a burlap sack, he’ll be able to walk away with fifty pounds of wheat. Even more so, if a person comes to the field with a pack mule and four burlap sacks, he’ll walk away with two hundred pounds of wheat. In like manner, the more we pray, the more we create receptacles for Divine abundance.

The abundance we receive through prayer is so much more blessed that what we receive automatically, without prayer. Indeed, when a person lacks adequate vessels for Divine abundance, Hashem will refrain from sending the Divine abundance. No person in his right mind would pour a fine wine all over the table and on the floor if he couldn’t find a proper wine goblet. Hashem too will not send down Divine abundance if a person lacks an adequate receptacle. This causes untold anguish to Hashem, for He wants to give us all types of abundance in both spiritual and material forms as well.

If prayer is an adequate vessel of Divine abundance, then prayer that includes teshuva, or atonement for wrongdoing, is an especially superb vessel for Divine abundance.

We can conclude that one cannot receive Divine abundance without prayer, for two reasons: First, prayer stimulates teshuva ,and teshuva  invokes Divine abundance. Second, prayer creates a vessel for Divine abundance. One who doesn’t pray inhibits the Divine desire to bestow abundance on the world.