Volume 29 Rosh Hashana -vov Tishrei

Hannah speaks her heart, and from this we learn that one must know one's innermost intentions in prayer.

Only her lips moved, from which we learn that one who prays should enunciate their prayers.

and her voice was not heard, from which we learn that the Amidah prayer is to be prayed in silence.

Of course, we want to understand what it means that several fundamental laws relevant to prayer are learned from Hannah's prayer.

Prayer was taught to us in Chumash, in the five books of Moses, and we learn about prayer from Abraham, from Isaac, and Jacob, from Moshe's prayer.

which is discussed at length in Torah.

And the sources cover prayer in these five books of the Chumash.

What does it mean then that the prayer of Chana, which only appears later in the portion of the prophets, unlike the Torah, which is direct transmission from God to Moshe, holds several fundamental lessons in prayer? It might be said that Hannah's prayer was such a foundational prayer, begging God for children, which is such a significant prayer that the key to this blessing is held by God alone, and one prays to God alone for this blessing, as our matriarch Rachel prayed.

when she prayed for children, saying, without children, it's like I'm not alive.

From such a penultimate prayer, there are laws to be learned about prayer in general.

But this isn't really an answer, because Isaac's prayer dealt with the same important request for children.

As we learn in the verses, they pray to God for his wife, Rivka.

And Rashi explains that he prayed intensely, for she was barren.

One also can't explain that the reason we're learning laws from Chana here is because one can't learn fundamental laws of prayer from the prayers of our forefathers, because their prayers preceded the giving of the Torah.

We don't learn Torah law from pre-Sinai events.

First of all, what we learn here from the prayer of Chana aren't verses directed towards teaching laws of prayer.

Rather, it's the way Chana prayed that teaches us how to pray.

with intention, quietly, but enunciating each word.

Particularly as the Talmud in the tractate of Brachas teaches that prayer was established by our forefathers, and the Talmud connects the prayer of the morning, the Shacharit prayer, with a verse in Torah that speaks of Abraham's morning prayer.

And the prayer of Isaac is connected to the Mincha prayer, connecting it to specific verses in Torah.

In fact, regarding the prayer of Hannah and the laws that commentaries teach that we learn from her prayer, like praying with intention and praying in silence, we actually learn from other sources as well.

And pointing to these instructions in how to pray, the commentaries say we also learn this from Hannah's prayer.

Accordingly, those things that we learn about prayer from other sources may well be from the prayers of our forefathers.

And then the idea that we don't learn law from before Sinai is no longer relevant, as this source, the prayer of Hannah, reinforces those earlier laws and teachings.

It must then be said that when the sages state that from Hannah's prayer we learn several fundamental laws of prayer, there are in fact aspects of Hannah's prayer that illuminate and define prayer and its uniqueness.