Seven Answers in the Amidah

Rav Chaim of Volozhin once heard his rebbe speak about the power of tefillah. The Gaon said that Heaven had once shown him how awesome it truly is.

For twelve weeks, the Gaon related, he had labored over a Zohar passage that speaks of Rosh Chodesh without finding clarity. Then, on a Rosh Chodesh morning, as he stood in the Shemoneh Esrei, seven different explanations suddenly came to his mind at once. He wondered whether he might pause for an instant to fix them in his memory, even though it might count as a forbidden interruption in the middle of his davening. In the end he did pause, for about a quarter of a minute, arranged his thoughts and returned to his prayers.

When he finished and tried to recall them, nothing remained. They had vanished entirely. He was deeply pained, and it took him half an hour to calm himself so that he could say Hallel properly.

Then he stood to daven Mussaf, and the same seven explanations returned. This time he paid them no attention and did not interrupt his davening at all. When he finished, he found them waiting, clear and complete in his memory, each one sweeter than honey.

Rav Chaim commented that this shows how pure his rebbe's mind was in prayer. Even words of Torah counted as foreign thoughts to him while he was standing before Hashem.