Israel made a vow to Hashem and said, “if you deliver this people into my hand, I will consecrate their cities.” (Bamidbar 21:2)

The Jews were fighting a war against Amalek. A captive was taken. So the Jews prayed. Is it any surprise that the Jews prayed at this time? The Jews were in danger, so they prayed.

Last week, I learned an important lesson regarding prayer: it is not only for when you are in difficult times.

Last week, I went to Boston for a one day class. Since I lived in Boston 10 years ago and still have many friends there, I was overjoyed to once again get a chance to visit this wonderful city. I made my flight arrangements, but unfortunately, I had a middle seat on both flights. As I was walking on the plane that would take me from South Florida to Boston, I began offering a prayer: “Hashem, please do not make me sit in between two women.” I sat in my seat and watched joyfully as two men sat next to me.

Then the night before my flight home, I used my friend’s internet to print my boarding pass. I noticed an aisle seat was available, so I switched to that seat. As I got onto the plane, I was happy to have an aisle seat and did not say any prayer (as I did not feel one was necessary)… I was wrong!

I sat in my aisle seat when a woman with two children came walking down the aisle. The woman told her two children to sit next to me. Then, she went to the middle seat in the row on the other side of the aisle. Of course, the proper thing to do would be to give up my seat. But then I noticed the seat I would need to switch for… it was in between two women – not the thing I wanted. In the end, I offered my seat to the mother of the two boys because I did not want to cause a Chilul Hashem. I did not want someone to look at me (a man with a black yarmulka, tzitzis and a beard) and say, “Look at that Jew. He has no care for anyone else.” On that plane trip I learned a great lesson: we always have to daven, even when things seem to be going well for us. I did not think I needed to daven since I had an aisle seat, but this was incorrect. We always need to daven.

Some people wonder why we need to daven three times a day and ask for so many things. Wouldn’t it just be better if we davened when we go through hardships? The answer is we can avoid hardships if we daven with concentration during the good times. We then have a better chance of avoiding situations that we do not want to be in. Who knows what would have happened if I davened as I got onto the plane going home?

So before a person gets sick and before a person has financial difficulties, he should daven that Hashem continues to bless him. When things are going well, a person should not relax and just go with the flow because as one of my Rabbis told me, “the flow is always going downstream.” If we want to rise higher, we can’t just lay on our backs and float, we need to constantly work, even when the waters do not seem so rough.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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