We all know the story about Noach (Noah) and the Mabul (flood). The Torah calls the flood waters "Mai Noach" - "the waters of Noah". The medrash says that the reason for this strange statement is that the flood what partially his fault because he did not pray for his generation to be saved. One must look at this and ask, how is this possible? The Torah itself calls Noach one of the greatest tzadikim (righteous people) of his generation. How could he not have davened for his friends to be saved? This is the whole world we're talking about! And yet we say that he didn't daven?
The answer to this perplexing dilemma is that, yes, of course he davened, and of course he cared for his fellow people. However, he had one problem; he didn't believe in the awesome strength of his teffilah. He didn't believe that the prayers of one man could possible save that many people. And because of this, the whole world was destroyed.
The Gemorah (talmud) brings down another
insightful parable about the power of prayer. There once were two men who
were falsely sentenced to death for the exact same crime. One of them was
saved, the other one was sadly killed. The reason for this was because one
of them prayed, and the other, did not. The Rabbis ask, how is it possible
that someone about to die would not pray? Doesn't he care about his very own life? They answer that the second man
surely prayed to be saved - but his prayers were lacking. He did not fully believe that
his prayers could truly save him, therefore, they did not.
We can see from the above stories that Teffilah is one of the strongest weapons in our arsenal. If we pray for sick people, IT CAN SAVE THEM.
If you send us an inspiring story about teffiah, we will publish it here.