However, it seems to be that this is not so! Every day, three times a day, the Jewish people pray eighteen blessings, including many prayers for redemption. "Sound the great Shofar...Restore our judges...Return us to Jerusalem..." And yet, for close to 2000 years we are still in exile!
The Shaloh Hakodesh offers the following explanation: "G-d hears our prayers and the angels fashion them into a crown for Him. However, He does not necessarily carry out the request exactly as we asked. The prayer reached its destination and the reward is still to come."
In other words, the prayer has its effect up above even if we don't see immediate results down here below.
However, the Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that since our primary existence is our spiritual soul and not our physical body, the spiritual effect is not incidental, but rather, it is the priority.
At the same time though, when we pray, we don't have in mind a spiritual effect. When we ask for redemption, obviously we are asking for a redemption that will be felt in the physical realm. Our sages have established the prayers for redemption as part of the daily blessings. Therefore, it is understood that the blessings will be fulfilled - otherwise, they would be vain blessings, and we are forbidden to use G-d's name in vain.
How then will these blessings be carried out? G-d will link our prayers to the prayers of previous generations. In their merit, we will experience the immediate redemption.
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