ייִדישער מחשבֿה אויף הושע 2:21

Shemot Rabbah 15 describes a king who, upon betrothal to the girl he plans to marry, guarantees her a few gifts in writing. By the time he actually marries her however, he showers her with gifts far in excess of anything he had promised. Our relationship to the Almighty (in this present world) is compared to that of the betrothed; however, once the messianic age will dawn and we will be truly wed to G-d, He will hand over everything to us. In Hoseah 2,21-22, Israel appears merely as betrothed to the Lord, whereas in Isaiah 54,5, the Lord is referred to as "for your Maker is your husband." Upon the departure from Egypt (Exodus 12,1), Israel merely received the moon, whereas in Daniel 12,3, with reference to the messianic age, it says, "And they that are wise will shine like the brightness of the sky, and they that turn the many to righteousness, will be as the stars forever and ever."

We find the following statement in Midrash Rabbah Parshat Eykev, concerning the covenant between G'd and Israel: Rabbi Shimon said "what is this subject comparable to? To the king who married a lady of aristocratic descent." She brought two irises with her into the marriage. Therefore, the king also gave her two irises. When his wife later on lost those flowers, her husband took his flowers back from her also. After a while , when his wife had regained her standing, she restored the flowers and the husband also gave her back his flowers. You will note that Abraham bestowed two qualities on his children, i.e "righteousness and justice." (Genesis 18,19) To match this, G'd had equipped Abraham's children with two qualities also, "loving kindness and mercy," as it is written in Deut. 7,9, "and He will preserve for you the covenant and the kindness. It is further written in Deut. 13,18 "He will give you mercy and have mercy on you." When Israel lost its distinctive qualities, G'd withdrew His contribution as we read in Amos 6,12, "you turned justice into gall and the fruit of the righteous into wormwood." So G'd says "I have withdrawn My peace from this people, and the loving kindness and mercy." (Jeremiah 16,5) When the Jewish people cleanse themselves, as is written "Zion is being redeemed through justice and its penitent sinners through righteousness," (Isaiah 1,27) G'd also restores kindness and mercy. We read in Isaiah 54,10, "even if mountains were to disappear as well as the hills be shaken, My kindness will not depart from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken, says the Lord who has mercy upon you." Since Israel contributed its share, G'd contributes His own share, and places it on the head of His chosen lady, as is written "I betroth you unto Me through righteousness and justice, through loving kindness and mercy. (Hoseah 2,21)

Because prayer is service of the heart, we have connected the chapter on prayer with the chapter on the olah, total offering. As an olah is an offering that "rises" towards G'd in its entirety, since the whole of the animal is being offered on the altar, so is prayer an offering of the heart which rises toward Heaven in its entirety. When our sages describe prayer without concentrating on its meaning, as being comparable to a body without soul, they mean that the warmth of feeling generated by genuine prayer, parallels the ongoing fire on the altar that burns the olah. In Vayikra Rabbah 7, Rabbi Pinchas notes that the Torah does not describe the fire on the altar as being "on" the altar. The Torah does not require that the "fire on the altar burn on it," rather it does say “aysh hamizbeach tukad bo," the fire on the altar shall burn within it, meaning that the entire altar should be permeated by it. (Leviticus 6,2) So our hearts are to be permeated by the outpouring of our prayers. The Talmud Berachot 32, tells us that we have to arrange the praise of the Lord before proceeding with voicing our requests from Him. Since the requests concern mostly our temporal needs, our sages (Shabbat 10) describe the supplicant as someone who temporarily abandons his concern with the values of the world to come, in favour of the mundane needs of this world he lives in at the time. If this is so, the opinion held by many, (including Maimonides chapter one hilchot tefillah ) which claims that prayer has been legislated by the Torah, is hard to understand. If the purpose of prayer would be exhausted by our asking for our needs, why should it matter to G'd whether we ask for them or not? We should be entitled to forego the opportunity to ask G'd for His kindness, assistance, etc. However, just as we have described the institution of sacrifice as designed to arouse certain emotions within us which will bring us closer to G'd, so prayer, by means of the trust we express when we ask Him for our needs, will bring us closer to Him. The conviction that He cares, that His Providence watches over us, all this helps to strengthen the existing ties between us and the Creator. The thanks we express for what He has done for us and for others, all help to cement our relationship with hashem. The early Chassidim, men of piety and devoutness, are described by the Talmud Berachot 32, as having prepared for prayer an hour ahead of time, and as having spent another hour winding down from the spiritual high achieved during prayer, before returning to the mundane tasks in their lives. Actually, they did exactly what our sages have since built into the formal liturgy that we follow nowadays. The hymns of praise, keriyat shema, are our introduction and preparation for prayer, i.e. the part during which we voice our requests. On the other hand, we are told that he who fails to enunciate the keriyat shema audibly, has failed in his purpose, since the praise of G'd and our assuming the yoke of Heaven are to be made known to our fellow men. On the other hand, he who raises his voice during the supplication part of the prayer service, is described as lacking in faith, as a prophet of the ido Baal. (Berachot 24) Channah already demonstrated that requests need not be aired audibly. If the High Priest Eli considered her as a drunken woman, this was not because she did not raise her voice in prayer, but because she had chosen a time of day he did not consider suitable for offering up prayer. (compare Samuel I chapter 1) He watched her closely to find out what she had to say to him, since most other women milling around the entrance of the tabernacle always spoke to him. Understanding Eli's error, she told him that her remarks were addressed to Him who does not need audible expression of her words in order to be able to hear and understand them. Since Channah came to the tabernacle after having dined, it was natural for Eli to have misconstrued her purpose, and to have judged same by outward appearances. In fact, one must not raise one's voice, so as not to create the impression that one considers G'd hard of hearing. When Ishmael was close to death, (Genesis 21,17) G'd considered his state of being "as he was then," not the loudness of his prayers. The mental anguish that he was suffering at that moment was the decisive element that led to his rescue. On the other hand, all those paragraphs in the liturgy that teach us knowledge and comprehension have to be recited aloud. "Hear O Israel!"- these words we have to hear with our own ears; they are directed both at ourselves and at our fellow Jews.