Is prayer just asking Hashem for what I need?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches that prayer is more than asking. “Praying is about manifesting, connecting, hoping, believing, living in it. Live in it.”
That is why he tells a person not to stop at the request: “Don't ask him, believe he's going to give it to you.” He quotes the verse in English, “Hope to Hashem, make your heart strong, and hope to Hashem,” and says that this is praying.
In A Soul at Peace, he notes that the verse says “hope” twice. The first hope is the first step of turning to Hashem out of need; the verse then asks a person to strengthen his heart and hope again.
Related concepts: Prayer that starts in the heart · Giving up is not peace
In A Soul at Peace: Hope in Hashem, and Our Limits
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Prayer is connecting, hoping, believing and living in it, not only asking.
Underlying need or longing
To trust that Hashem will give, rather than merely to request.
Deepest human truth
Strengthen your heart and hope again: prayer means living inside the hope.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Wealth, Work, and Divine Sustenance · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz