Over Shabbos, I skimmed through a stack of Family First magazines that my sister brought over recently. In the erev Rosh Hashanah edition, there was a feature on tefillah. I was struck by the following excerpt from a Q & A with Mrs. Mindy Hilewitz:
The gemara in Berachos states that if a person sees that he has prayed and has not been answered, he should pray again. The gemara does not mean he should try harder, scream a bit louder until his tefillos are accepted — like when the soda doesn’t fall from the vending machine, kiveyachol, you kick from this side, shake from that side, until you finally achieve your desired result. Rather, as Rav Ezriel Tauber explains, it means it is a Heavenly sign that more tefillos are desired, more layers of our connection with Hashem and reliance on His salvation are being mined from us.
