(10) In her wretchedness, she prayed to the LORD, weeping all the while. (11) And she made this vow: “O LORD of Hosts, if You will look upon the suffering of Your maidservant and will remember me and not forget Your maidservant, and if You will grant Your maidservant a male child, I will dedicate him to the LORD for all the days of his life; and no razor shall ever touch his head.” (12) As she kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth. (13) Now Hannah was praying in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk. (14) Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? eLit. “Remove your wine from you.”Sober up!”-e (15) And Hannah replied, “Oh no, my lord! I am a very unhappy woman. I have drunk no wine or other strong drink, but I have been pouring out my heart to the LORD. (16) Do not take your maidservant for a worthless woman; I have only been speaking all this time out of my great anguish and distress.” (17) “Then go in peace,” said Eli, “and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of Him.”
Eli thought Hannah was drunk with wine. As High Priest, the Divine Spirit rested upon him and he was able to see within the hearts of men and women. Yet, he saw Hannah as a drunkard-drunk with a worldly desire, a desire for a child so she would no longer suffer the shame and ridicule afforded her by Peninnah.
But Hannah answered, "No, it is not wine but my soul that pours out to God. For my desire for a child has purpose and meaning beyond the pursuits and follies of human beings. I have already promised my child to God,"
So it is with our prayers: we pray for material things, but it is not the material but the spiritual within them, that our soul desires.
The mission of every human being is to bring the many things of this chaotic world into harmony with their inner purpose and the oneness that underlies them. To do this, each of us must relate to our mission: our family, our health, our income. We pray for these things from the innermost of our hearts; our soul pours out for them- because our soul knows that without them she cannot fulfill her mission in this world.
And God listens. Because God wishes to dwell within our mundane world.
GEMARA: We learned in the mishna that prayer should be undertaken in an atmosphere of gravity. The Gemara asks: From where are these matters derived? Rabbi Elazar said: They are derived from the verses describing the prayer of Hannah, mother of Samuel, as the verse states: “And she felt bitterness of soul, and she prayed to the Lord and she wept and wept” (I Samuel 1:10).
(ד) והוא שדרז''ל בחנה (ברכות ל''א ב') והיא מרת נפש ותתפלל על יי. שהטיחה דברים כלפי מעלה. ר''ל הגם שהיא עצמה היתה מרת נפש עכ''ז השליכה צערה מנגד ולא אכפת לה להתפלל ע''ז כלל. אל''א שהטיחה דברי תפלתה לפניו ית''ש על הצער של מעלה הנעשה מחמת שהיא שרויה עתה בצער.
(4) And this is what the sages (OBM) expounded upon by [the story of] Channa (Berakhot 31b): “‘And she was bitter in her soul-Neffesh, and prayed to God-YHV”H650Heb.: hit-pa-leil al YHV”H (lit. “prayed on God-YHV”H”)’ (Shmuel Aleph 1:10)—that she hurled words towards above, as if to say that even though she herself was bitter in her soul-Neffesh, even so, she cast her suffering away and didn’t bother to pray about it at all. Rather, she hurled the words of her prayer before Him (blessed be His name) over the suffering above, caused on account of her now being steeped in suffering.
(ה) וּמֵאַחַר שֶׁהַתְּפִלָּה הִיא בְּחִינַת תְּשׁוּבָה עִילָּאָה – צָרִיךְ לְהַקְדִּים לְפָנֶיהָ בְּחִינַת תְּשׁוּבָה תַּתָּאָה. וְזֶהוּ שֶׁאָמְרוּ רַבּוֹתֵינוּ־זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה בַּמִּשְׁנָה: ״אֵין עוֹמְדִין לְהִתְפַּלֵּל אֶלָּא מִתּוֹךְ כּוֹבֶד רֹאשׁ״, וּפֵירֵשׁ רַשִׁ״י: ״הַכְנָעָה״, וְהִיא בְּחִינַת תְּשׁוּבָה תַּתָּאָה לְעוֹרֵר רַחֲמִים כַּנִּזְכָּר לְעֵיל, וְכִדְיָלִיף הָתָם בַּגְּמָרָא מִקְּרָא, דִּכְתִיב: וְהִיא מָרַת נָפֶשׁ.
(5) Since the prayer is the state of teshuvah ilaah, the higher return, it must be preceded by teshuvah tataah, the lower return. This is what the Sages intended in the Mishnah,13Berachot 30b. “One should not stand up to pray except from a state of awe.” Rashi explains, “Humility.” This is the state of teshuvah tataah, to arouse divine compassion, as noted above,14Ch. 7. and as the Talmud infers from the passage, “She was embittered.”15I Samuel 1:10.
"Where is the Dwelling of God?"
This was the question with which the Rabbi of Kotzk surprised a number of learned hasidim who happened to be visiting him.
They laughed at him: "What a thing to ask! Is not the whole world full of God's glory?"
Then he answered his own question: "God dwells wherever a person lets God in."
Vulnerability is being willing the express the truth no matter what, the truth of who you are, the essence at your core of what you're feeling at any given moment. It's being able to open up your soul so that other's can see their soul in yours.