Boulder Aish Kodesh

The Gemarra points out that the word that begins this week’s Parsha, ‘v’et’chanan’ has a numerical value of 515, and that Moshe prayed 515 times to be allowed to enter the land of Israel. G-d had already told him would not be allowed to enter the land, and yet he persisted until G-d had to tell him ‘do not ask again!’

This is true desire. It is so easy to take no for an answer. Maybe we do not pray at all, we merely accept that whatever happens to us is what is meant to happen. Perhaps we pray for something once or twice, and then give up. Moshe teaches us to pray again and again.

There is an idea that praying for something 40 days in a row has great effect. This is an amazing time to clarify what we really need in order to better serve G-d, and to make that topic a key point in our regular prayer life.

As the three weeks climaxing in the 9^th of Av are now over, should we let off thinking about Jerusalem until next year? If we really want Jerusalem to be rebuilt, we should be praying for it all the time. Moshe teaches us this essential lesson in this week’s parsha.