The ten days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur are days dedicated to prayer. But what kind of requests can we make? Don’t we recognize in our prayers (in particular in the Unetana Tokef) that G-d decides what kind of year we will have, so how much influence over G-d do we really have?
Chana, the heroine we read about in the Haftarah on Rosh Hashanah, teaches us how to make a request of G-d. Chana made a request of, and a promise to, G-d: She asked to be blessed with a child, and promised to raise him or her in the ways of G-d, saying that her child will be committed to G-d. Now, this promise is really nice, but how can she make a commitment for her unborn child? How does she know how her child will grow up? We all know how it is—parents can try their hardest, but in the end, the child will do what they want. Yet, it is from this promise that we learn how to pray.
Chana teaches us that we have the power to ask not only for the possible, but even for the impossible!
We have the power to create a new reality just by asking. The “formal” prayers in the Machzor are there to guide us in asking for the blessings that fall in the realm of the possible. But we also need to take the time, and think long and hard about the blessings that we want in our lives, and ask for the impossible. Of course, that request has to come with a commitment on our part, just as Chana promised to do what she could.
Our new or renewed commitments and resolutions for the New Year enable us to pray for things that we may think we cannot even ask for.
This Yom Kippur, make a new resolution and pray for the impossible.
Edited by geminiwordsmiths.com