Yaakov Raskin |When prayer gets specific

Two weeks ago, I woke up to dozens of messages on my phone from friends and community members asking if I had heard what Tucker Carlson had said about Chabad on his latest podcast. I hadn’t, but when I listened, I was horrified. One of the most listened-to podcasters in the world made an outrageous claim about the Chabad-Lubavitch movement – of which I am a proud emissary.

He claimed that Chabad rabbis are the driving force behind the US war in Iran in order to push a secret agenda to destroy holy sites and rebuild the third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Amid global conflict in the Middle East, people may have differing opinions and I am usually open to hearing both sides of an argument. But these comments targeting Chabad and falsely libeling us was so far from anything logical that I found myself almost at a loss.

One person asked, “Rabbi, how do you respond to something like that?”

I had to think about it for a moment. Then I said: with prayer. And I meant it sincerely.

Anyone who has had even a brief encounter with the Chabad here in Jamaica or elsewhere knows that Tucker’s description couldn’t be further from the truth. Chabad is here to help the Jewish community connect to their roots, and to spread acts of goodness and kindness to all humanity, one small act at a time. Our belief is that when enough spiritual light accumulates, a metaphysical energy balance in the world shifts, ushering in a divine redemption.

The third Temple will be rebuilt when the world has been filled with enough kindness and wisdom that G-d restores his kingdom. It is something spiritual that will come when humanity has earned it, not through force or wars. When that time comes, there will be peace and the world will all know his presence.

That is what we have prayed and yearned for thousands of years.

THE POWER OF PRAYER

So what do we do when faced with such falsehoods and slanderous lies?

My answer was to pray. Why do I say to pray rather than something else?

The reason lies in a story that I think about often. One which will resonate with anyone who has ever closed their eyes and asked G-d for help.

The Talmud speaks of a sage named Choni, who lived in the times of the Temple. There was a severe drought in the land, and the people came to him desperate to pray to the lord. Choni drew a circle in the earth, stood inside it, and said plainly to G-d: I am not moving from here until You show mercy on Your children.

Rain began to fall, but only in drops.

His students said the drops had come merely to release him from his oath, nothing more. So Choni prayed again, asking for rain that would fill the cisterns and the caves. This time the rain came in such torrents that his students feared the world might be overwhelmed.

And so Choni prayed once more: not for a flood, not for drops, but for rain of blessing and bounty, rain the earth could actually receive. And that is precisely what came.

The Rebbe – Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory – teaches a valuable lesson. We are each deserving of G-d’s greatest blessings. And if G-d doesn’t give us what we asked for the first time, don’t be shy and ask again. But on the flip side, if G-d gives too much, don’t be embarrassed to ask for blessings that can be contained.

The Rebbe compares our prayer to children approaching a parent. Children don’t simply say “help me” and walk away. A child says here is what I need, and I need it right away.

The lesson here is that when we pray, we should not offer vague, open-ended requests and simply hope for the best. We shouldn’t be afraid to ask for what we actually need.

And if we feel undeserving, we must remember that we are G-d’s children and that just like a parent, G-d is always ready to receive us with an open heart if we agree to go on his path.

In Jamaica, there is a quality of faith that simply can’t be taught – a type of prayerfulness that’s in the atmosphere. People here feel G-d and know that prayer is a real conversation between a being and their Creator and trust that prayer has a real power.

So when someone in a position of influence says something false and damaging, of course we speak up and bring clarity where there is confusion. But we also do what Choni taught us to do. We pray specifically, and we pray honestly, for what we actually want: not war, not destruction, but the peace the prophets described, when nation shall not lift sword against nation, and the knowledge of God fills the earth the way water fills the sea. That prayer is not a retreat from the argument. It is the clearest answer we have.

Rabbi Yaakov Raskin has served as the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Jamaica since 2014. Known to many as “Jamaica’s rabbi,” he and his wife Mushkee direct Chabad Jamaica, providing Jewish education, community services, and humanitarian outreach to locals and visitors across the island.