The first Torah reading on Rosh Hashana is about the birth of יצחק.
Abraham was praying for all of the women in his community who weren't able to have babies. They were all healed. Including Sarah.
What do we learn from this?
Anyone who prays for mercy for someone else, and for themselves as well will have their prayers answered first. (Of course this cant be done with ulterior motives- it has to come from sincere emotion) It's a מידה כנגד מידה. This means that Hashem relates to us individually in the same manor we relate to other people. (For example, if you give people the benefit of the doubt, Hashem will do the same for you)
When יצחק was finally born Sarah said "וַתֹּאמֶר שָׂרָה--צְחֹק, עָשָׂה לִי אֱלֹהִים: כָּל-הַשֹּׁמֵעַ, יִצְחַק-לִי."
At first, I thought this meant that Sarah was thinking that people were going to make fun of her for having a baby at such an old age. Wow look at Sarah an old lady walking down the street with a baby carriage.
Later on I came to realize that the word צחק here means to rejoice. בני ישראל is going to be happy for her and share in her simcha. Why? Not just because that's how it should be. The day Sarah gave birth was so busy. Every woman was in labor, people were sick and many people's תפילות were answered that day. Everyone was full of rejoice because everyone had their own simcha in their own homes.
When Sarah was praying, she was praying for everyone. Us as a nation are responsible for praying for each other. It's not that you're a nice guy if you pray for someone else, it's actually bad if you don't. We have to be the people who do those things. On Rosh Hashana, not only are we welcoming Hashem in as the מלך but we are also praying for our nation as a whole.
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