"Be favorable, Hashem our Lord, toward your people Israel and their prayer. And restore the service to the Holy of Holies of Your Temple."

In this blessing, we ask Hashem to accept our prayers. But we do so, writes the commentary Otzer Hatefillos, with the full recognition of our failings. So we do not ask Hashem to accept our prayers because they are worthy in and of themselves. Instead, we ask him to be favorable toward His people Israel, and therefore to accept also their prayers.

For we are fully cognizant of the fact that in our present day exile, we cannot hope to fully express all that which is within our hearts, and to converse freely with Hashem. But despite this, we turn to Hashem and ask him to accept our hesitant, faltering words of prayer, as if they contained all the heartfelt emotion which we would wish to express.

On the face of it it seems remarkable that, in the very next sentence, we have the termerity to ask Hashem to restore the service to the Holy of Holies of His Temple. We don't merely ask Hashem to restore the Temple service. No: we speak specifically of the Holy of Holies, the "dvir" of Hashem's Temple. The "dvir," the Hall of the Word, could be entered by man only once in the course of the year. The Kohen Gadol, the high priest, would enter it whilst performing the Yom Kippur service. But we are taught that all through the year, all prophecy originated from the Divine presence which dwelt within the Hall of the Word.

And yet it is in this blessing in which we speak so candidly of our shortcomings in the realm of prayer, that we have the termerity to ask Hashem to restore to us that Hall of the Word.

Or perhaps it is not so surprising after all.

For what we are really saying is: although we are only human, and we cannot find words for all that is within our hearts, nevertheless may You accept our prayers in the spirit in which they are offered. Look beyond the individual words themselves, and see that contained within those words is our desire to be your people. And restore to us that ability to be able to converse fluently with You.

Accept our prayers in the spirit in which they are offered, and restore to us the "dvir," the Hall of the Word.

Copyright (c) 1998 by Rabbi Levi Langer

Courtesy of www.JewishAmerica.com
Have a good Shabbos!