הִנְנִי הֶעָנִי מִמַּֽעַשׂ Here I am, empty of deeds. A private meditation, said in the first person singular by the leader of prayer. It expresses the sense of inadequacy anyone must feel, not simply in standing before God in prayer – for that is something we must all do – but in doing so on behalf of others. Abraham, praying for the people of Sodom, said “I am but dust and ashes” (Gen. 18:27). Moses, charged with leading his people to freedom, said, “Who am I?” (Ex. 3:11). The paradox of spiritual leadership is that those who think they are great are small; those who think themselves small are great. In Judaism, all leadership, including leadership in prayer, is a form of service, not superiority or dominance, and cannot exist without humility. הִנְנִי Here I am. This single word is the ultimate human response to the call of God. When God summons us, He calls our name, and the most profound reply is simply, Hineni, “Here I am.” So said Abraham at the beginning of the binding of Isaac (Gen. 22:1). So said Jacob when God told him not to be afraid to go to Egypt (Gen. 46:2). So said Moses when God appeared to him at the burning bush (Ex. 3:4). So said the young Samuel when God appeared to him at night (I Sam. 3:4), and Isaiah in the mystical vision that marked the beginning of his mission (Is. 6:8). At the beginning of the human story God called to Adam and Eve in Eden, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). So He has done ever since: He calls to each of us, here where we are, this person, in this situation, at this time, saying: there is an act only you can do, a situation only you can address, a moment that, if not seized, may never come again. God commands in generalities but calls in particulars. He knows our gifts and He knows the needs of the world. That is why we are here. There is an act only we can do, and only at this time, and that is our task. The sum of these tasks is the meaning of our life, the purpose of our existence, the story we are called on to write. God’s call is almost inaudible. It speaks in “a still, small voice” (I Kings 19:12), meaning a voice we can only hear if we are listening. But it is there and if, from time to time throughout our lives, we create a silence in the soul, we will hear it. Our lives, offered in faith and trust, are the answer to God’s question. There is no life without a task, no person without a talent, no place without a fragment of God’s light waiting to be discovered and redeemed, no situation without its possibility of sanctification, no moment without its call. It may take a lifetime to learn how to find these things, but once we learn, we realize in retrospect that all it ever took was the ability to listen. When God calls, He whispers our name – and the greatest reply is simply Hineni, “Here I am,” ready to heed Your call, to mend a fragment of Your all-too-broken world. Let nobody in Israel, God forbid, ask himself: what am I, and what can my humble acts achieve in the world? Let him rather understand this, that he may know it and fix it in his thoughts: not one detail of his acts, his words, and his thoughts, is ever lost. Each one leads back to its origin, where it takes effect in the height of heights. (Rabbi Ḥayyim of Volozhyn) No limits are set to the ascent of humankind, and to each the highest stands open. Your choice alone decides. (Rabbi Naḥman of Bratslav) כִּתְפִלַּת זָקֵן וְרָגִיל… As if it were the prayer of an old man, experienced and fluent… This series of descriptions comes from the Mishna (Ta’anit 15a) which prescribes the procedure for public fasts proclaimed because of drought. The leader of prayer on such occasions had to be one beloved of God and of his fellow humans. וְתִגְעַר בְּשָׂטָן Banish the Adversary. Satan, the Adversary, is not, in Judaism, a force of evil as in some non-Jewish theologies, but one of God’s angels whose task is to be the prosecuting counsel in the heavenly court (See Zechariah 3, Job 1). וְאַל יְהִי שׁוּם מִכְשׁוֹל בִּתְפִלָּתִי And let there be no obstacle to my prayer. The saintly Ḥanina ben Dosa, known as one of the great masters of prayer in the age of the Mishna, used to say that if his prayers came fluently from his mouth, he knew they had been accepted (Mishna, Berakhot 34b).