Letter from Honi ha-M’agel to Klal Yisrael -How to Pray on Rosh Hashana

Sep 17, 2017 by Chaim David Targan

LEARN HOW TO PRAY on Rosh Hashana
from HONI the CIRCLE MAKER(If you are unfamiliar with who he is, see below)Klal Yisrael – You are praying all wrong. Stop beating yourselves up. Hashem didn’t make you imperfect and expect you to be perfect. Pray with passion, Pray with love, Pray and yes demand with holy chutzpah. You are the sons and daughters of the King, of the King of Kings. Never forget that… And more than anything else, The King wants a relationship from you. Hashem doesn’t need you. Hashem wants you. Hashem wants the relationship, wants the connection with you.. and in thus lies your power.

Hashem created a system of reward and punishment and for the.most part plays by his.own rules. But more than anything, He is looking, desiring, hoping and even craving (in an anthropomorphic sense of course) for us to give Him a good. reason to override things.

So connect with Hashem… Argue with Hashem…. But do it out of love… and this Rosh Hashana, let’s give Hashem a reason to overturn His harsher rulings to sweeter ones.

WHO WAS CHONI THE CIRCLE MAKER
(Courtesy of Chabad.org)

It once happened that they petitioned Choni the Circle-Maker, “Pray that rain should fall.”

Said Choni to them, “Go, bring your Passover ovens indoors, so that they should not dissolve.”

Choni prayed, but no rain fell. What did he do? He drew a circle, stood inside it, and said to G‑d: “Master of the Universe! Your children turned to me because I am like a member of Your household. I swear by Your great name that I’m not budging from here until You have compassion on Your children!”

A rain began to drizzle.

Said Choni: “That’s not what I asked for. I asked for rains to fill the cisterns, trenches and reservoirs.”

The rains started coming down in torrents.

Said Choni: “That’s not what I asked for. I asked for rains of goodwill, blessing and generosity.”

A proper rain began to fall. But it continued to fall until the Jews went out of Jerusalem up onto the Temple Mount, because of the flooding caused by the rains. So they came to Choni and said: “Just as you prayed that the rains should fall, now pray that they should go away.” Said he to them: “Go and see if the Stone of Claims1 has dissolved yet . . .”

Shimon ben Shetach sent a message to Choni: “If not for the fact that you are Choni, I would have issued a decree of excommunication against you. But what can I do against you, who nags (מתחטא לפני) the Almighty and He fulfills your wish, like a child who nags his father and his father fulfills his wish . . .”

Chaim David Yosef Targan
At the Kever ( grave) of Honi haMagel
Hatzof , Israel
Sept 12, 2017