The Daily Chizuk from The Rav, the holy gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — Why did Moshe need to learn how to plead?

“And I pleaded to Hashem at that time, saying” (Devarim 3:23)

“He saw their distress when He heard their song” (Tehillim 106:44)

Thursday, 17 Tishrei 5786 — Hashem taught Moshe how to pray so that his prayers would be answered

These are his holy words:

There are three kinds of Megaleh Amukos (the sefer of Rabbi Nosson Nota Shapira zt"l of Krakow). There are sections on the weekly parshiyos, and there is one on “Va’eschanan” that reveals all of Moshe’s secrets—what “Va’eschanan” really means.

Hashem says to Moshe: You don’t know how to plead. What is “Va’eschanan”? You’re not speaking correctly. First you must say a song—sing!

Before a person goes to pray, he needs to sing—make some kind of niggun, say a verse. You can’t just jump into prayer. That’s why a person is not answered.

A person doesn’t understand: he has no children, he has no shidduchim—he doesn’t know how to pray. “Va’eschanan!” Is that how you plead? You don’t even know how to plead. Learn from the Leviathan, because we must merit the Sukkah of the Leviathan, which is the Fiftieth Gate.

Learn: there is a Leviathan. The whole issue is that we want to reach the Sukkah of the Leviathan—another 35 days and it will already be Sukkos. About the Leviathan it is written “servant”—you will not be a servant like this; you don’t know how to plead. First you must say a song, to sing and to play music. They play music before and after the Ma’ariv prayer.

Only through niggunim does the prayer rise—without niggunim it’s just a prayer said plainly.

Rebbe Nachman says, “He saw their distress when He heard their song” (Likutey Moharan I, Torah 42: “He saw their distress when He heard their song”—behold, through niggun, the judgments are sweetened…) Just as a rainbow has colors—there is green, there is red—so too prayer must have colors.

Without colors you can’t see anything; without colors it has no taste—so too prayer: if it has no colors, it has no taste. These are the three colors of the rainbow: white, red, green.

In another 35 days we will already be sitting in the sukkah, and we still haven’t prepared the sukkah. We need to reach the Sukkah of the Leviathan—to pray with supplications. You seal the covenant: “and he shall be your servant forever” (Devarim 15:17)..

A person needs to be a servant of Hashem.