Where did all our prayers go?

Question:

I was praying for Rabbi and Mrs. Holtzberg and all the other Jewish people in Mumbai asking for G‑d to help them. But I wonder now--why didn't He listen to me and the many others who prayed to him and asked for their lives to be saved? Where did all those prayers go?

Response:

Some people say that G‑d answers all prayers and sometimes the answer is "no." I cannot believe such a thing. If G‑d's children pray to Him from their hearts, so many of them, all together, is it possible He can answer them with a "no"? Could you do that with your children?

The Baal Shem Tov taught that every prayer is answered, only that the answer may not be what we expected, when we expected it. We may need to wait, to get used to G‑d's cosmic time.

I disagree with that as well. Not with the Baal Shem Tov, but with G_d. Why can't He answer us now? How can He expect us to live in His time?

But, look, He's put up with my obnoxious habits and blunders all this time, so I'll just have to bow my head once again and say, "How deep are Your thoughts..."

Take a look at the Torah Portion right now. Imagine you were living at that time. You recall there had been a great man named Abraham with a great dream. And now what do you see? His son is old and doesn't move from the tent. That son has two heirs, one a bully, the other an idealist. The bully has several wives and is living happily. The idealist is still single--and now he has to run for his life, empty-handed, away from the promised land, so that his bully brother won't kill him. So much for Abraham's dream.

When we read it, we don't see it that way. Why? Because we know the whole story: The idealist comes back 20 years later with a large family and great wealth, makes peace with his brother and continues where his grandfather left off. But if we would stop right here, we would say, "The Promised Land is in the hands of a terrorist! Darkness rules and light flees its path!"

Gavriel and Rivky are, their souls are in a higher place now, a place reserved for martyrs, far beyond the place of most tzadikim. From there, they see the purpose and meaning of all this. They see where all our prayers went and what they effected.

As for us, down here in this mundane world, we are not mean to understand. Understanding brings complacency. We are meant to be outraged that such evil exists in our world. We are meant to fight back and destroy it. Not to leave that up to G‑d and His wisdom--but to do all we can that the world should be filled with such light that such a thing could never happen again.

May the entire world soon be redeemed from this darkness, the curtains lifted, and the final era of wisdom, truth and beauty be revealed, very soon, sooner than we can imagine.