We have thus far asked God to help us accomplish our personal teshuvah as members of the collective Jewish community. We then expressed our concern for national teshuvah, that our people return to our homeland and establish a state. We next prayed for global teshuvah—that Jerusalem become the command central for the Messiah and that he should arrive quickly. Having expressed our desire for individual, national and global return to God, we now pray for God to return to us, as He promised us, “Return to Me … and I will return to You …” We also express our concern for God’s pleasure. Take pleasure, YHVH Eloheinu, in Your nation Israel and their prayers, and restore the service to the chamber of Your house. And accept the fire-offerings of Israel and their prayers, lovingly and willingly. May You always take pleasure in the service of Israel, Your nation, and may we see with our eyes Your return to Zion. Blessed are You, YHVH, who returns His Divine Presence to Zion. Retzeih, the first word of this seventeenth blessing can be translated in two ways: 1) “take pleasure” (according to the prayer-book of Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch), or 2) “be pleased.” In either case, we are essentially saying, “God, we hope that we and our prayers have been pleasing to you. We hope that You have enjoyed our prayers, because we did not pray just for our own sake but also for Your sake—to give You pleasure.” Judaism considers prayer to be an avodah—a service to God. How could our prayers be a service to God when, in fact, our whole prayer is asking Him to do things for us and serve our needs? What pleasure could our prayers give God when, in fact, we are asking God to give to us? And yet Judaism teaches that God desires our prayers and enjoys them, so to speak. How so?