We conclude with the following request: “And above all, may Your name be blessed and exalted, our King, forever and ever. And may all life thank You forever and genuinely praise Your name, Almighty, who is our salvation and our help. Blessed are You, YHVH—the Good is Your name and it is a pleasure to thank You.” Let’s break it down, phrase by phrase: “And above all, may Your name be blessed and exalted, our King, forever and ever.” In other words, “May all the wonders and miracles in our lives not only fill us with gratitude, but always inspire us towards greater awareness of Your name. May we always remember that we can readily call to You, and You are always here for us. “And may all life thank You forever and genuinely praise Your name.” That is, we hope that the whole world will soon acknowledge You and thank You, and that everyone will join us in genuine praise of Your name. Our universal dream is that all people everywhere will acknowledge God and receive the joyous gift of His presence in their lives. “Almighty, who is our salvation and our help.” Note that we do not say, “who saves and helps,” but rather, “who is our salvation and our help.” In other words, God’s very presence is our salvation. Imagine that you are drowning and someone jumps in and pulls you out of the water. That person is the one “who saves.” Now let’s say that you are drowning and someone jumps in, and you feel saved simply because the person is there, whether he pulls you out or not. This is the meaning of this phrase. We acknowledge that whether or not God answers our specific requests, just to feel His presence is already “our salvation.” “Blessed are You, YHVH—the Good is Your name …” This could mean that God is referred to as the “Good One,” or that His name is what is good. In other words, the very ability to call out to God and feel His presence in our lives is the real goodness. As we noted earlier when we examined the sixteenth blessing, whether or not God answers us is not what is important. Just the power to pray, connect with God and know that He is listening is the ultimate answer to our prayers. Our relationship with God is all that matters; calling God’s name and feeling His loving presence is the greatest good. It is what our life is really all about. The Zohar teaches that the entire Torah is actually one word: God’s name. In fact, in the morning we recite, “Make Your Torah sweet in our mouths so that we and our children’s children will know Your name.” The whole goal of Judaism is to know that God has a name, we can call upon Him and feel Him ever-present in our lives. “And it is a pleasure to thank You.” In other words, to thank God is an enjoyable experience. It is not always a pleasure to express thanks. To acknowledge dependence on someone can be very humbling. But here we affirm that giving thanks to God is itself our pleasure; to recognize our dependence on God and His involvement in our life is the greatest joy. The word “pleasure” (na’eh) can also be translated as “befitting.” According to this understanding, we conclude with an acknowledgment that although most of the Amidah consists of requests, it is befitting that we should only give thanks. God is “the Good” and, in truth, everything we encounter in our lives is only and always His goodness. Therefore, as we near the end of the Amidah, we affirm, “Despite the fact that we feel things are missing in our lives, we know that in truth is it befitting that we only and always thank you. In fact, we should be grateful for whatever we lack.” This idea correlates to a blessing recited at the beginning of our morning prayers: “Blessed are You, YHVH, King of the Universe, who has made for me all my needs.” In other words, even what I lack is what I need. Even my needs are a gift from You, because they motivate me to turn to You, acknowledge You and seek Your presence in my life. A good friend of mine is a striking model of this truth. She only found her life partner for marriage when she was in her late forties. One day after she was married, I said to her, “You know what is amazing about you? I know how hard it is to be single, yet I never felt any bitterness from you all those years. I always felt that you were happy with your lot. In fact, I was worried that you wouldn’t get married because you never appeared unhappy about being single.” She said to me, “Rabbi, how could I be unhappy when I’ve always had so much in my life? I had God, Torah, a career that I loved, and I lived in Jerusalem. So I had a few percent missing.” “A few percent missing?” I exclaimed. “Most women would not describe being single as a few percent.” “Because I had so much in my life,” she added, “I actually felt embarrassed asking God for a husband, but I asked anyway.” “Maybe that’s why you got married,” I told her. If we are thankful for what we have and understand that our ultimate joy is God’s presence, then our vessel will be open to receive more. But if we are not thankful for what we have, why should God give us more? Too often, I encounter people who finally realize their dream of getting married, and the very next day they are arguing with their spouse. Not only are they not thankful for what they have, they do not realize that the purpose of marriage is only to come closer to God. In fact, the only reason for anything we have or do is to feel connected to God. Therefore, as we begin to bring closure to the Amidah, after our long list of requests, we acknowledge that it is truly befitting that we only give thanks to God and never complain. We must genuinely appreciate that our lives are filled with constant miracles. To simply call God’s name is itself the greatest wonder; the highest good. When you embrace this attitude, then your prayers are always answered, because your real prayer is just to pray. Your only request is, “God, I just want to feel close to You. I know that You’re listening, and I know that You’ll answer. I don’t know if I’ll get the answer I asked for, but that doesn’t matter, because all I want is to feel You in my life.