Make Your Claim

This is also an important message to anyone who has a difficulty or lacking in his life and is praying to Hashem to give him what he wants. We must pray with this knowledge that Hashem doesn’t owe us anything. Hashem doesn’t owe anyone a spouse, and not good income, and not children, and not health and healing. Therefore, every prayer from A to Z must only be to request a free gift from Hashem’s kindness. 

There are those who are bitter, and cry, whine and complain, and impatiently ask: “Why have I prayed so much and haven’t been answered?” They haven’t been answered because they aren’t asking for a free gift. They aren’t thanking Hashem for their problem, which is really from Hashem and for their best. And this is all because they lack this basic understanding that Hashem doesn’t owe them anything. 

A person must only be the pinnacle of gratitude and thank Hashem for all of the loving kindness that Hashem does for him every moment. If he also merits to pray, and thank Hashem, and strengthen his emuna, and learn Torah – he must be even more grateful to Hashem for this additional spiritual bounty which he received as a free gift. Certainly, he shouldn’t be expecting anything from Hashem in return. 

Without this principle, it is impossible to really thank Hashem or pray at all, and for sure it is impossible to merit miracles and salvations. Just the opposite; such prayers only awaken more judgments upon a person, as is brought in the Code of Jewish Law, which I explained in Hearing Moshiach's Footsteps.

The need to appreciate the kindness of Hashem without expectation isn’t only true in prayer, but in a person’s general feelings about his life. All sadness and depression and the feelings of “it’s bad,” “my life is so bitter,” “I have so much suffering;” all the feelings that “this one hurt me” and “that one took from me;” and also all of the anxiety – everything stems from this same mistake of thinking that Hashem owes you something else. 

Sadness of all forms means that you think that Hashem owes you something. If this is so, then why ask Hashem? Go demand from Hashem, G-d forbid: “What is going on here? Why aren’t You giving me what I should have?” Why pray at all?! Why aren’t you ordering Hashem to come to a trial in court, or putting in a formal complaint instead, G-d forbid? If you have a contract which states that Hashem is required to give you something, come, make a claim! 

If you, like any normal person, are shaken just by the thought of such a thing, let alone actually doing it – so then why aren’t you shaken when people say “I am sad” or “Why wasn’t I answered the way I wanted?” It’s exactly the same thing! 

From these thoughts and feelings come all the bitterness, and in turn, all the sickness. Conversely, the biggest healer of the body and soul, the best medicine in the world for all sadness, depression and anxiety, the way to have real emuna and merit all the miracles and salvations, and the way to stand on steady ground even when the entire world is quaking, is specifically to work on this point that you don’t deserve anything. Even if at the beginning, you repeat it to yourself without feeling: “Hashem doesn’t owe me anything, and I don’t deserve anything. Everything I have, be it physically or spiritually, comes only from the kindness of Hashem as a free gift. Even what Hashem doesn’t give me is also a free gift, because Hashem knows exactly what I need for my purpose and rectification in this world…” 

This isn’t a one-time tidbit of knowledge that you read and move on. This is real work. Working on, and truly living, this concept requires daily reminders, daily consideration, and daily accounting until they sink in and become completely inseparable from our daily lives and emotions. 

If we really want to change in our lives for the better, we have to work at it! We must remind ourselves every single day of all the kindnesses that Hashem does for us every day and all of His great mercy on us, and for all the kindnesses that the tzaddikim do for us with real self-sacrifice – all of which is a free gift. No one owes us anything, and we don’t deserve any of the free gifts that we receive.  Rather, it is we who are utterly indebted without end. 

Through this realization, and only through this realization, can we subdue all the evil inside us, be saved from all sin, and merit to really live according to Hashem’s will – and merit all the miracles and salvations as well.