Petitions and Gratitude: Is it for Hashem or is it for us?

(4) Life robs us of the correct judgment concerning God, the world, man, and Israel, and concerning our own relation to them. Leaving the disturbing influences of life and turning to God, you can approach and find Him in the mystic contemplations of the Tefillah. All the various component parts of the Hebrew worship subserve this great purpose, the bringing of man into communication with Him who is concealed from view in his (man's) daily life, ...תודות, thanks-givings and בקשות, supplications ; they express our profound gratitude for all that Deity has wrought and our full and unrestricted acknowledgment that everything past or future proceeds from His hands, and our humble petition that He may continue His bounty unto US, though we be unworthy.

(5) The admirable kind of pride is that, when the wise man prides himself on his wisdom, and the just man on his works, he should acknowledge, in these things, the great beneficence of the Creator, and should rejoice on account of these gifts. Such pride in these gifts will then induce him to increase them and make good use of them, and to be meek with all around him; and to rejoice with his fellows, and be eager for their glory, and to cover over their folly, and to speak in praise of them, to love them, and to rejoice over them, and to be careful of their honour. Then, also, his own good deeds will appear so small in his eyes, that he will be continually striving to increase them. He will be humble because of his sense o[ inability to attain to the realisation of his ideal in respect to them, and he will be full of gratitude to G-d for giving him these precious qualities. Such pride is helpful, and not harmful, to humility.