We are in Tehilim 44, 7 where David Hamelech says, כי לא בקשתי אבטח ולרבי לא תושיעני I do not rely on my bow and my sword will not help me. The Gemara in Bava Batra 123A finds a connection between this and the words Yaakov Avinu tells Yosef, “ I'm going to give you an extra portion that I took from the Emori. I took it with my sword and my arrow. On this, the Gemara asks, “ Do Jewish people win wars with their swords and the arrows? As David Hamelech says, כי לא בקשתי אבטח ולרבי לא תושיעני /I do not rely on my bow, and my sword will not help me. Obviously, Yaakov Avinu is no different. So what is the sword of the Jewish people and what is the arrow of the Jewish people? חרבי The Yalkut Shemoni explains, in Yeshaya chapter 41, where Hashem tells the Jewish people referring to the end of time, Our sword refers to prayer , and קשתי refers to requests . אל תיראי תולעת יעקב Don't be afraid, the worm Yaakov. That's a strange term to use when you're giving someone words of comfort and inspiration. The Midrash says, Just like a worm is very small and easily crushed, and yet it could bring down cedar trees with its mouth, so too with the Jewish people, their strength is with their mouth, with prayer . It goes on to bring the example of our pasuk where David Hamelech says, I don't win my wars with my arrows or with my sword, rather with my prayer. David Hamelech goes back to his childhood, to his first major confrontation with Goliat. When he tells Goliat, אתה בא אלי בחרב ובחנית וגו / You come with your sword and your shield and I come in the name of Hashem,” And David Hamelech says again in Tehilim, אלה ברכב ואלה בסוסים / they fight with their chariots and their horses….Our bows and arrows, our swords are our prayer, and that's always the Jewish pride. The Brisker Rav, in his commentary on Bereshit 48, 22 on this pasuk where Yaakov Avinu says, I won the war with my sword and my arrow, brings the Targum Onkelus that translates חרב as צלותי and קשתי as בעותי , my prayer and my request. What’s the difference between a prayer and a request, and what is the difference between a sword and an arrow? The Brisker Rav explains that a sword is naturally sharp. It can cut and kill. But a bow and arrow do not have the power, in themselves, to cause harm just by touch. Rather, it's the force and energy that's put into the arrow that shoots from afar that pierces and punctures and damages. So there's a difference between the sword that has a slicing power, like a sharp knife that can cut somebody's finger, and the arrow, which needs force from behind. So too, he says, with prayer. There are two kinds of prayers. There are the prayers that the Rabbis of the Great Assembly enacted, called our Amida , and there are personal prayers. And there's a difference between them. For some prayers, we need to inject Kavanah. That's like the arrow, that's like the keshet . Then other prayers have inherent power to them-,the prayers of the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah. Men of the great assembly. The Amida they made for us, that's a sword. That has a power regardless of the person that prays, just like the sword is inherently powerful. If you pray the Amida with a Sibbur, regardless of who you are, you have that power called the Amida, and that's the Cherev/ the sword. U’B’Kashti , which means with my arrow, can also be read as U’Bakashati/My requests . Those are personal requests for the individual. Those personal requests are like an arrow that you have to inject your kavanah , your force into, in order for that prayer to be answered. The beauty of this is that we can see how exacting our spiritual ammunition is. We have spiritual ammunition that's like a sword, and we have spiritual ammunition that is like an arrow. I'm sure there are many more spiritual ammunitions. For example, the Hebrew word Tilim means missiles , and Tehilim is sometimes referred to as Tilim . The bottom line is, as David Hamelech says, we should appreciate that when we're talking about arms tha