A badchin (a Jewish comedian invited to weddings and the like to add to the joy of the occasion with appropriate jokes, acting, and often imitation) was once imitating the Satmar Rebbe zt’l’s mannerisms while he prayed. He imitated the Rebbe’s facial motions, hand motions, and body movements almost to perfection. The Rebbe himself sat and watched with everyone else. Suddenly, the badchin noticed that there were tears streaming down the Rebbe’s face. Immediately the badchin ran over to the Rebbe. "Rebbe, had I known that I would hurt the Rebbe’s feelings, I would never have done my act. When I asked the Rebbe, he told me that he did not mind. Please forgive me!" The Rebbe shook his head, "I do not feel slighted in any way by your act and I indeed gave you permission to do so. However while I watched your imitation I realized that perhaps when I pray, I am merely imitating myself."
     Within the venerable song that Klal Yisroel sang at the banks of the Sea of Reeds, Klal Yisroel stated that G-d is (15:11), "Nora sehillos- Too awesome for praise." Rashi explains, "People are afraid to tell of Your praises, lest they be too few; as it is written (Tehillim 65:2) ‘To you, silence is praise’ (for it represents the fact that any verbal praise is inadequate)." The Gemarah (Megillah 25a) relates that a certain man once began referring to G-d with very lofty titles, "the great, the mighty, the awesome, the glorious, the strong, and the powerful G-d." When he finished, Rabbi Chaninah said to him, "Have you completed relating all of the praises of G-d? This can be comparable to a billionaire who is praised for having hundreds of dollars. Is that not a disgrace and a belittlement of his true wealth? Similarly we cannot relate the praises of G-d for we cannot even begin to scratch the surface of his greatness. The praises we do recite in our prayers were ordained by the great Rabbis and therefore we are able to repeat their words." The Gra explains that this is the meaning of the words we say each morning (in the chapter of ‘Baruch She’amar’), "Melech mehullal batishbachos- The King who is lauded with praises." We laud G-d strictly with praises that have been ordained previously but do not add to them.
     In the beautiful prayer of Nishmas recited on Shabbos, there seems to be a paradox. On the one hand we state, "Were our mouth as full of song as the sea, and our tongue as full of joyous song as its multitude of waves, and our lips as full of praise as the breadth of the heavens, and our eyes as brilliant as the sun and the moon, and our hands as outspread as the eagles of the sky, and our feet as swift as hinds, we still could not thank You sufficiently, Hashem, our G-d." Yet, later in the same paragraph we state, "Therefore the organs that You set within us, and the spirit and soul that You breathed into our nostrils, and the tongue that You have placed in our mouth - all of them shall thank and bless, praise and glorify, exalt and revere, sanctify and declare the sovereignty of Your name, our King..." If we are unable to state the praises of G-d because we lack appreciation of the true greatness of G-d, how are our organs able to laud and extol the praises of G-d?
    There was once a king who had two advisors. One was a devout and loyal Jew, the other an agnostic who had great disdain for the favored Jew. The agnostic constantly devised plans to defame and malign the Jewish advisor. One day the agnostic approached the king and told him that the Jew was disloyal and traitorous to the king. The king was skeptical of his jealous advisor but he acquiesced to the suggestion of the agnostic that the king request that the Jew make him a banquet to prove his loyalty. The next day, the Jewish advisor made a beautiful party, truly fit for a king. The king was pleased and mockingly remarked to the agnostic that he was very mistaken about the Jew. "But your majesty," remarked the agnostic, "look how sad the Jew looks. Tomorrow the king should provide him with money from the royal treasure house to make another party. Let’s see what his countenance will be like then." The king agreed and just as the agnostic had predicted, but the second party the Jew looked happy and excited.
    The king flew into a rage and demanded the Jew to appear before him. "How dare you show me such disrespect! When I ask you to provide a banquet with your own funds you look downtrodden and depressed. But when I pay for it, you appear elated? Is that the love and loyalty you have for me?" The Jew bowed respectfully before the king. "His majesty has completely misunderstood my actions. When his majesty asked me to prepare a feast with my own funds, I was anxious and nervous. No matter how much money and effort I put into the banquet I was still afraid that I did not expend enough to display my true love and devotion to his majesty. However by the second banquet, his majesty provided me with a specific amount of money. I knew that my obligation was to make the banquet utilizing that exact amount of money. Therefore at the second banquet, I was confident that it fit the expectations of his majesty, and thus I was more joyous."
    In truth, we can never relate the greatness of G-d for ‘even if our mouths were full as the sea and our tongue as full of joyous song as its multitude of waves,’ it would not be sufficient to relate the praise of G-d. However once G-d has endowed us with certain specific tools, i.e. our physical organs, we can and must utilize them to sanctify, exalt, bless, and glorify the name of G-d. Our prayers surely cannot compete with the unadulterated prayers of the mystical and pure angels. However we are not granted the ability to recite such perfect prayers and therefore it’s not expected of us. Nevertheless, we are able to pour our complete self into our prayers and pray with complete devotion and heart. There is a famous dispute if one should sway (‘shuckel’) while he prays. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein zt’l was of the opinion that one must stand perfectly erect while praying "as a servant stands in trepidation before his master". However Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky zt’l argued that one should indeed sway with enthusiasm to fulfill the verse (Tehillim 35:10), "All of my bones shall say: Hashem, who is like You?" This is the underlying reason why many Jews have the seemingly strange custom to sway while they pray (an unfathomable concept in other religions).
     When Hashem commanded Noach to gather all of the animals into the ark for the initiation of the flood, the pasuk states (Bereishis 7:1), " Bo atah v’chol bayscha el hatayvah- Come to the ark, you and all your household." The Ba’al Shem Tov interpreted the pasuk homiletically, understanding the word ‘tayvah’ to mean ‘word’ (rather than its true meaning here, ‘ark’). Thus the pasuk is telling us a deeper message: "When you pray, get into it! Bring your whole self and essence into every word recited. Think about your family and friends and don’t hold anything back."
    G-d may truly be well beyond our understanding. However, we are able to pray before Him and mentally prostrate ourselves before him with every fiber of our existence.