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Comfortable Speaking With God: Na’aman IV


So Naaman brought to the king of Israel, the letter which said, ‘and now when this letter comes to you, behold I have sent my servant Naaman to you that you shall heal him from his tzoraas.’ Isn’t there something missing from that letter?

The prophet.

What happened to the prophet? But the king is obviously, intentionally, avoiding any mention of the prophet. This is between king and king. And what message is he sending to Yehoram, to the king of Israel, you are responsible. You handle it any way you want, but you are responsible. Now let’s figure it out over here. Why wouldn’t he mention the prophet?

Why wouldn’t he?

Well what does the king of Aram expect Yehoram to do?

To find the best solution.

Which would obviously be what?

The prophet.

The prophet. But remember someone had a question before about this idea of the prophet. What’s the only way they know about this prophet?

Through the girl.

So he is not going to write a letter to another king based on what a little girl said. So he is saying, you know what, if the king of Israel really has this prophet, I would imagine that the king of Israel is using this prophet. That logical isn’t it, if the king of Israel has someone with so much power, he has got to be crazy not to be using this person with power. So let him take care of it, and if this prophet really exists he’ll take care of it, and if he doesn’t exist I’ll have an excuse to smash him in battle. So the king reads the letter and when Yehoram, the king of Israel, read the letter what does he do? He doesn’t say oh no, call Elisha we have an emergency, where is the hotline to G-d. we need him. What does he do? He tears his clothes and he says am I G-d that I can go and give life, that this person sends to me to heal a man of his tzoraas. Go now and see he is seeking a pretext against me. He wants war.

So a little girl knows about the prophet and it doesn’t even occur to the king to think about the prophet. Woah. It doesn’t even occur to him, and he is so angry what does he do? He tears his clothes. Now you picture yourself, you are the chief of staff of the army of Aram, you come into the king of Israel, you hand him a letter, you know about the prophet, the king opens the letter, reads it and tears his clothes, he is freaking out. What do you think about this man? If he is so angry that he is tearing his clothes, what do you think about this man?

That he is not going to be a very good enemy, he’ll be too ??

This guy is nuts. He’s wacko. A little girl thinks about the prophet and the king doesn’t? woah man, what is going on. No wonder this guy is losing all his battles, he cant think straight. And why doesn’t the king think about it? Why would he hesitate to think about the Navi? Because what is the price of his calling Elisha on the hotline?

He had to listen to Elisha about everything.

You mean if Elisha comes through for him here then he is going to have to start listening to Elisha. Does he want to start listening to Elisha?

No.

But of course none of us ever do that. Right? We never play this game with G-d. Do we?

No. never.

Ok. Good. So as long as we agree on that too then we are fine. But I suspect that some of us do. That when we need help from G-d and only G-d can come through for us or we are overwhelmed so we feel we need a super power, so, we call G-d. but sometimes we hesitate because we feel inadequate or sometimes we hesitate because we say, well, I’m not as good as I should be, I don’t daven as much as I should, I don’t learn as much as I should. I’m not as careful as I should be. And so there are times when we are hesitant in davening before G-d because we feel almost as if we are undeserving.

So here is king he is self-destruct. I mean he is ripping his clothes, what better indication of self destruct do you need that that? Because this is a king who has created a situation for himself, his only solution is the navi, everyone knows about the navi. And his only solution is the navi, but he has created a situation in which he is convinced that he can’t access the navi. And we believe this.

So Rabbeinu Menachem Hameiri in his commentary to the gemarah says that one of the biggest issues we have in davening is that we feel inadequate. First of all I’m going to bother G-d about my needs and G-d has to take care of the world. He said the bigger issue of inadequacy is we’re embarrassed. How can I come to G-d now and ask G-d for help when I haven’t been doing everything the way I should be doing it. Or I haven’t been doing it as well as I should be doing it.

The Meiri says that’s the biggest mistake a human being can make. G-d is G-d, there is no pestering, there is no issue that is too insignificant for G-d, G-d cares about everything and everyone. And there is no such thing as having reached the stage at which G-d says you have no right to daven. And somebody who reaches a stage, or they have created an environment around themselves in which they feel uncomfortable speaking to G-d because of the weakness in their relationship with Hashem is self-destructing in the same way that Yehoram was self-destructing when he was tearing his clothes. And the Navi knows this.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

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