Chasidut for Chagigah 30:20

Yet another interpretation of the opening verse in our ‎portion. We have a rule that when someone prays on behalf of a ‎Jew or Israel, which is in trouble, it is important that he prefaces ‎his prayer by pointing out Israel’s virtues first, i.e. that such a ‎virtuous nation surely does not deserve the troubles that have ‎come upon it. He must also point out that when any troubles ‎befall a member of the Jewish people, the real target is G’d ‎Himself seeing that He is our father. This is what the Talmud ‎‎Chagigah 15 means when it quotes Rabbi Meir saying: ‎‎“when a person is in difficulties, the Shechinah reacts to this ‎by saying: “My head hurts, My arm hurts.” In other words, G’d ‎feels personally hurt by whatever hurts a member of His favourite ‎people. It is therefore reasonable to remind G’d of this before ‎pleading for the individual Israelite on whose behalf one offers a ‎prayer to Hashem. This is the allusion in the words ‎כי תשא ‏את ראש בני ישראל‎, “when you point out what ails the head of the ‎Jewish people, etc.” The word ‎פקודיהם‎, is used to describe ‎shortcomings of the Jewish people, their needs, in the sense it is ‎used in the verse we quoted from Samuel I 20,25. The words ‎ונתנו ‏איש כופר נפשו לה'‏‎, refer to man reminding G’d how his soul is ‎inextricably linked to G’d.‎