Shlomo asks Hashem to accept the prayer of the simple Jew as well as the prayer of the non-Jew. He asks that Hashem listen to the people’s prayer when they go to war that they may be successful. “In exile, hear their prayers so they may return to You through teshuvah, and You shall respond to their prayer and return them to their land.” In each case he asks Hashem to hearken to their prayers. Essentially, Shlomo asks that Hashem accept any prayer offered by the people in time of need.
Shlomo, the wisest of men, who admitted that even he could not understand the paradoxical law of parah adumah, did not attempt to answer the question that frightened Moshe. He accepted that the commandment to create a house for Hashem is not within man’s capacity to comprehend. As Shlomo says in Shir Hashirim (6:2): “Dodi yarad l’gano.” Hashem has descended, so to speak, from His infinite abode to the finite garden to be with Bnei Yisrael. That is the manifestation of alma b’bra kerusei, the world created according to His divine plan. Man has to accept that building a Temple is simply the divine will.
(The Rav noted that with the theme of “And you shall hear them in the heavens, the place of Your throne” [Melachim Aleph 8:43], Shlomo lays the foundation that man should never be embarrassed to pray when he feels a need, even for the seemingly trivial. It may not be granted, but he will not be faulted for the request.)
We can derive the central role prayer plays in Judaism from the fact that Hashem wanted us to construct a home for Him. Our daily prayers correspond to the various daily sacrifices. One can offer a sacrifice even though he is very distant from Hashem and the Temple. He may send the sacrifice via surrogate and attain atonement without appearing before Hashem, without leaving the comfort of his home or losing a day of work. Indeed, the halachic principle that shlucho shel adam k’moso (that one’s messenger has the same status as the one who sent him) is derived from sacrifice, from the korban Pesach. However, with prayer there is no concept of shlucho shel adam k’moso. I cannot appoint someone else to fulfill my obligation to pray. (Even though prayer derives from the obligation to bring a sacrifice, surrogacy laws of sacrifices are not transitive to prayer.)
One may ask: did not the Anshei Ma’amad, who in the time of the Beis HaMikdash represented all of Bnei Yisrael with their prayers that coincided with the daily sacrifices, act as surrogates? The Rav explained there is a “double moment,” as he phrased it, to the relationship between Hashem and man. The distance between man and Hashem (the altar) does not affect the acceptability of sacrifice, so long as its offering meets the requirements. Man can be working while his sacrifice is offered, there can be a seemingly infinite distance between Hashem and man, yet Hashem accepts the korban.
On the other hand, prayer (for personal needs) requires closeness to Hashem, to view myself as standing in front of Hashem and in His embrace. I cannot pray if Hashem is distant from me. The definition, the essence of prayer is my drawing closer to Hashem. Without kavanah, intent and understanding, there is no prayer. Kavanah implies I exist in Hashem. I can express my needs before Him without reservation, as I would to someone I would confide in.
The Rambam noted that the main reason for building the Temple was for sacrifices. Why weren’t the bamos, the temporary altars allowed in the time before the Beis HaMikdash was built, sufficient? Why build a “house” for Hashem? The Temple expresses our desire that Hashem live near us, so to speak, to be our close neighbor. Proximity is not necessary for korbanos. Hashem accepts korbanos even when great distances separate Hashem from man. For prayer, man and Hashem must be close to each other, next door, L’shichno sidrishu u’vasa shama. The “house” of Hashem is unique because it is a nearby house of prayer, “ki veisi beis tefillah” (Yeshayahu 56:7).