With Hashem's help, I stumbled on a very interesting Arizal, in his introduction to Shaar Mitzvot. He says that when a person prays to Hashem for whatever he needs, for example, food, wealth children, or the like, he shouldn't pray because he wants what he wants. He should pray because God commanded us to pray to Him when we're in trouble. Part of this is that we need to have kavana; we need to have intention when we do Mitzvot. But he says it’s more than that. If we're praying just because we have a problem, that's nice. But if we realize that God asked us to pray when we have a problem, we have to ask ourselves why He asked us to pray. We're not just praying, because it’s a good thing to do. He told us to pray for a reason. The Arizal says it’s to show that, -Number one, He is our God. -Number two, we are His nation and His servants, and our eyes are on Him, like the eyes of the servant to their master. The words he uses are, “ Our eyes are dependent like servants look to their master.” This is the same term we use in our Rosh Hashana Musaf prayers. We say, “ God is judging us, Im K’Banim, Im K’ Avadim He's judging us like sons or like servants. Im K’Banim/If God's judging us like son, have mercy like a father has on his sons . And if we're servants, our eyes are dependent on You until You have mercy on us and give us a good judgment. These are the two approaches: I can look at God as my Father- Avinu , as we say Avinu Malkenu. If He's a father, I'm asking for mercy. But if I'm a slave, who says a slave deserves mercy? So there's another concept called, “ Our eyes are dependent on You.” These words actually are sourced by David Hamelech in Tehilim 123 הִנֵּ֨ה כְעֵינֵ֪י עֲבָדִ֡ים אֶל־יַ֤ד אֲֽדוֹנֵיהֶ֗ם כְּעֵינֵ֣י שִׁפְחָה֮ אֶל־יַ֢ד גְּבִ֫רְתָּ֥הּ כֵּ֣ן עֵ֭ינֵינוּ אֶל־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵ֑ינוּ עַ֝֗ד שֶׁיְּחׇנֵּֽנוּ׃ “Like the eyes of the servants on the hand of their masters, Like the eyes of the maid-servant to her mistress. So our eyes are to God, until He has Hanun,” which means when He looks at us and wants to give us a free gift. חׇ נֵּ֣נוּ ה׳ חׇנֵּ֑נוּ כִּי־רַ֝֗ב שָׂבַ֥עְנוּ בֽוּז׃ Have mercy on us, Hashem, Have mercy on us, Because we have satiated a lot of disgrace. This is David Hamelech’s terminology of the servants dependence on the master. His eyes are to his master. Rabbenu Yonah, in Mishleh (3,26) says that when a problem comes and you know everything is from the hand of God, and that He can save you as well, you are focusing on God. And he quotes our pasuk, “ Like the eyes of the slave are to his master, ” and I'm not afraid of the one who's hitting me because I know it's all coming from Hashem. My eyes are on Him. This is true every day of the year when we pray: We pray to realize He's our God, We're His nation, We're His servants, And to Him, our eyes are counting like the servant's eyes are to the hand of his master. The Radak asks Why the “ hand ” of his master? Because even when he's getting hit, he knows there's no one else that can help him but his master. The Arizal continues, “ No one else could help us but Him.” This is why we pray every single day- our prayers are there to show us something; to teach us something. Prayer is a lesson in Emuna. This is extremely important. We pray every day, but we might not realize that actions speak louder than words. When we pray, we're making a nonverbal statement. We’re praying to God. What does that mean? He's Elokenu, which means He's the one that's in charge. We're His nation. We're His servants. Our eyes are to Him, like a servant’s eyes to the hands of his master, and there's no one else that's going to help us but Him. He ends with, “ And all our reliances is on Him.” That is for every day's prayers, and surely for the prayers of Rosh Hashana. Let us review these concepts as necessary, so that we can focus on this when we pray. Have a wonderful day.