catch yourself:
Catch yourself. I am among those who shudder when I view the use of segulos as a marketing tool. That is certainly not the intent of a segulah. We are certainly told plenty about how HKB”H is available, hears our tefilos, and even invites us to speak to him three times a day. Yet, there are many, many times we find that tefilos can get an extra push.
Why? Because there are such things as ???????, generally ?????? who “ride interference”. They are metaphorically the servants of the King who receive the tefilos and deliver them to the King Himself. One way to image this is to picture an ordinary person seeking to ask the King for something, who is turned away by these bodyguards because his behavior is seen as not befitting of someone who wants something from the King. “He is asking for ?????? But he is in violation of these mitzvos!”
There are various things that assist us in overcoming this resistance, and many of these are stated clearly in Shas, Shulchan Aruch, and numerous seforim from the early Gedolei Hador to the contemporary. Giving tzedokoh before davening, engaging in preparation before tefilo, the inclusion of baalei aveiroh in the minyan, davening in certain places (mekomos hakedoshim, kivrei tzaddikim,) etc. There are times when the receptivity to our tefilos is more certain, including Yomim Noraim, especially at Ne’ilah, during the process of several mitzvos such as Ner Chanukah and ner Shabbos, and when placed in situations in which we are able to overcome strong influences (example – when embarrassed by someone and not responding).
To challenge segulos, particularly those that come from reliable sources, is blasphemous. If the seguloh is to daven at a particular time, it does not mean to postpone tefiloh until then, or to ignore other responsibilities then. The Beis Yisroel – Gerrer Rebbe ZT”L missed Ne’ilah on Yom Kippur because he was attending to someone who was staying out of shul in defiance of the special day. The problem is not segulos. The problem is that they have been reformed into a marketable commodity. the organizations cast themselves as the owners of yeshuos, and that you can only be zocheh to be granted a yeshuah if you give them your money. That extreme is no more acceptable to me than the trashing of all segulos. And that is the problem with the 9-9-9-9 stuff.