{"id":69446,"date":"2020-02-02T21:59:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T19:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=69446"},"modified":"2020-02-02T21:59:10","modified_gmt":"2020-02-02T19:59:10","slug":"dont-pray-god-just-might-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/dont-pray-god-just-might-listen\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Pray &#8211; God Just Might Listen"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"69446","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37561,"related_cahpter":"407","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Especially if you are brokenhearted and pleading for mercy\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Talmud in Bava Metzia teaches that God always hears the prayers of the broken- hearted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indeed, much of the Jewish prayer service, especially on the High Holidays, is dedicated to reminding God to listen to our prayers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what do we do when God doesn\u2019t want to listen?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In verse 16, God tells Jeremiah not to pray on behalf of the Israelites, because God will not listen. On those \u201cglass half full\u201d kind of days, this verse provides some comfort that God does indeed heed the pleas of the brokenhearted. But on glass half empty days, those days in which we are particularly likely to want to cry out for help or even just for God\u2019s attention, this verse could be terrifying. Sure, God might hear our prayer, but what do we do if God has turned away from us, or decided to meet our prayers with obstinate rejection?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It seems the verse contains its own answer. God has to tell Jeremiah not to pray specifically because God will be moved by Jeremiah\u2019s prayer if Jeremiah offers it. In the case of the disobedient Israelites, God was determined to enact their punishment. But the verse seems to imply that God needs to take the extra step of forbidding Jeremiah\u2019s prayer because it might interfere with God\u2019s plan. It seems God learned from Moses, that God cannot help but listen to pleas for mercy on God\u2019s people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To those who doubt God\u2019s attentiveness to our needs, this chapter of Jeremiah delivers a strong message: God hears our pleading and prayer, and God is moved by it, even when God would rather not have mercy on us. God\u2019s default is listening. This, of course, does not guarantee any answer, let alone an answer we want. But at least we can know that, like the Talmud claims, the gates of prayer are always open to the brokenhearted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>image: &#8220;One&#8221; &#8211; statue of prayer in the three monotheistic relgions, Nes Ammim, sculptor: Tova Halperin, photo by Dr. Avishai Teicher, 2013 \/ wikicommons CC2.5<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69447,"id":69447,"title":"jer7-prayer","filename":"jer7-prayer.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/dont-pray-god-just-might-listen\/jer7-prayer\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer7-prayer","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69446,"date":"2020-02-02 19:58:35","modified":"2020-02-02 19:59:05","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer7-prayer-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Don\u2019t Pray - 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