Tefillah: Kavanah

The Yeitzer Hara employs different strategies. One of its strategies to which we're often susceptible is it urges us to take shortcuts. And that in taking the shortcuts, so we'll, we'll beat the system. Maybe let's, we've been talking the past couple of weeks about Inyonei Tefilah, so maybe let's consider an example with regard to Tefilah. To daven with kavannah is one of the bigger challenges of a life of Avodas Hashem. We're all familiar with the Gemara in Bava Basra and Tosafos's understanding thereof that ג' עבירות שאין אדם ניצול מהן בכל יום. There are three aveiros that without a very, very concerted effort, a person will violate on a daily basis. I think the Chofetz Chaim writes it doesn't mean literally that אין אדם ניצול מהן, it doesn't mean that, that there are mitzvos, that there are dinim which are not practical, which a person can't comply with. But what it means is that if a person won't make a very concerted effort, so then inevitably he'll be nichshal. What are those gimel aveiros? הרהור עבירה, עיון תפילה, ולשון הרע. The Gemara explains lashon hara here means avak lashon hara. Tosafos famously says that iyun tefilah in this context means she'einam mechavnim tefilasam. It means that we daven without, without kavannah.

ומזה אין אדם ניצול בכל יום, שאין שום אדם יכול לכוון בתפלתו היטב. והכי אמר בירושלמי, אמר רב מסניא, מחזיקנא טיבותא לרישא, דכי מטי למודים, כרע מגרמיה.

Tosafos quotes the Yerushalmi and they seem to take it very much at face value that one of the Amora'im says that he feels indebted to his head that of its own accord it knows when to bow down when he reaches Modim, because he doesn't necessarily know whether that he's up to Modim in the, in the Amidah. So, mustering and, and maintaining kavannah for tefilah is from the avodos hachamuros of Avodas Hashem. So clearly, clearly shortcuts are, are not going to work. And yet, in Berachos in the fifth perek,

אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי, חסידים הראשונים היו שוהים שעה אחת קודם תפילתם.

Minan hanei milei?

אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי, אמר קרא אשרי יושבי ביתך,

and after that yoshvei veisecha, only then od yehalelucha selah. So first yoshvei veisecha, first they sit, they prepare, and then od yehalelucha selah. Tanya nami hachi,

המתפלל צריך שישהא שעה אחת קודם תפילתו ושעה אחת אחר תפילתו.

Kodem tefilaso minayin? שנאמר אשרי יושבי ביתך. Good. Okay. So what does the Gemara say? So l'chora what the Gemara says is that there's a chiyuv to, to come to shul a few minutes before one davens. Not, not to come to shul and, and daven, but to come to shul, ashrei yoshvei veisecha, and only then od yehalelucha selah. When you take a look in, in the Rambam, I'm sorry, I forgot to, I forgot to bring it down. Does anyone happen to have a Rambam, Sefer Ha'avodah, or on the computer, anyone have it? No? Yes? Yeah? Yeah. In Perek Dalet Halacha Tet-Zayin in Hilchos Tefilla. Okay, thanks. Thank you. Thank you. So the Rambam writes as follows:

כיצד היא הכוונה שיפנה את לבו מכל המחשבות ויראה עצמו כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה. לפיכך צריך לישב מעט קודם התפילה כדי לכוין את לבו ואחר כך יתפלל בנחת ובתחנונים.

So what's so striking about the way the Rambam quotes this din from the Gemara? It's a din from the Gemara that המתפלל צריך לשהות שעה אחת קודם תפילתו. That a person has to wait a certain period of time kodem tefilaso. So first of all, the Rambam quotes it. First he tells you what kavana is and then he tells you the Gemara's din. So the very distinct and powerful impression that the Rambam conveys here is that what Chazal are telling us here isn't simply a chiyuv. It's not just an obligation לשהות שעה אחת קודם תפילתו. Again, sha'ah literally for chasidim harishonim, sha'ah not literally for the rest of us. But it's not simply a chiyuv but Chazal are telling us a metzius. And that's the significance of how the Rambam presents the din. The Rambam should have said, the Rambam should have said that the way the Gemara says it: צריך לשהות שעה אחת קודם תפילתו. But he doesn't present it that way. The Rambam says that kavana is absolutely indispensable and then he quotes the chiyuv that Chazal that Chazal had for being

שוהה קודם קודם תפילתו. כיצד היא הכוונה שיפנה את לבו מכל המחשבות ויראה עצמו כאילו הוא עומד לפני השכינה לפיכך צריך לישב מעט קודם התפילה כדי לכוין את לבו ואחר כך יתפלל.

Thank you very much. So again, the point which the Rambam makes here is that this is a din, a chiyuv, but a din, a chiyuv which reflects a metzius that Chazal are telling us. Dehainu, it's not stam a chiyuv because it will enhance tefilla. It's not stam a chiyuv maybe mitzad derech eretz that a person shouldn't just barge in and begin to daven. But it's a din, it's a chiyuv that reflects a metzius that the transition from our daily involvement and our daily routine to davening bekavana is a metzius, is a transition that requires some, perhaps even a very, very small period of time. But it requires some time to make that transition. It's a metzius that without, again, a modicum of preparation, without at least a few moments to try to clear our heads and enter a mindset for tefilla to see ourselves omed lifnei hashchina there is a requirement for sha'ah achas. What emerges is that when we neglect that din of צריך לשהות שעה אחת קודם התפילה we undermine our tefilla. It's not a self-contained din, self-contained obligation. But because it's a din which is an outgrowth, an expression of a metzius, that kavana bitfilah is possible only when a person allows himself again, maybe it's only a few moments, but some transition time, when we neglect the din, so inevitably it's not only that din which is neglected, but it's tefillah which is undermined. And this, the diyuk is there in the Rambam, but but I'm not sure we really need it, I'm not sure we really need a rayah from from the Rambam. Mibsari echezeh, I think I think a person knows it from personal experience. Es geht nisht, it doesn't doesn't work, doesn't work when when we arrive for the 6 o'clock, the 7 o'clock, the 8 o'clock minyan at 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, even though you'll argue maybe all of psukei dezimra is the hachana built in, still doesn't work. So what is it besides trying to clear one's mind from from other thoughts? So what is it that one thinks about during the moments or minutes, however long it is of hachana? So the mishna says at the beginning of the fifth perek that אין עומדים להתפלל אלא מתוך כובד ראש. What does koved rosh mean? Rashi says hachna'ah. A person should have a sense of hachna'ah. That should be the mindset when we get up to davven. The Rama writes in siman tzadik chet,

יחשוב קודם התפילה מרוממות האל יתעלה ובשפלות האדם ויסיר כל תענוגי העולם מלבו.

So before tefillah a person should think of the exaltedness, the greatness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the lowliness of of a person. Romemus hakeil and shiflus ha'adam. What's pshat? Not only as we spoke I think last week, not only pshat that a person has to understand what the relationship is in order to cultivate the relationship, but more than that as well. Sometimes we're prone to think because of so many tefillos that that we've davvened over the years without kavana, so sometimes we think, you know, maybe I just can't do it and maybe it's mimmeni vahal'ah, it's beyond me to have kavana. But we know that's not true. We know it's not true, not only because, again, the Torah, Chazal don't ask us to do what's beyond us, but we know it's not true from personal experience. Most people have had a moment or a time or a period in their lives when there was something very, very pressing, something very troubling, maybe rachmana litzlan it was someone close to them with serious illness, maybe it was some other very And even if a person has been so blessed that he's never had such a moment, Baruch Hashem everyone around him is well, has parnassa, everyone, everyone knows how to daven at Neila. Everyone knows how to daven at Neila. No one's looking around at others during Neila, but if we would, we would see that everyone's davening. Everyone knows how to daven at Neila. Clearly the explanation is that when we feel that something, that everything is on the line, so then we can takke daven. When we feel the need, when we feel needy, when we feel vulnerable and helpless, so then we can daven. And when we feel comfortable and complacent and that things are good, Baruch Hashem I'm healthy, my family is healthy, we have parnassa, everyone's on the derech, things are good, we don't feel a sense of need, so then we don't daven. When the Rama says, quoting the Rabbeinu Yona, that יחשוב קודם התפילה מרוממות האל ושפלות האדם, part of that is to engender a sense of need. The reality is that our need and dependence and vulnerability is constant. And obviously there's tremendous, impossible to exaggerate need that we have at every moment. At every moment a person is totally, totally dependent upon the Ribbono Shel Olam. יחשוב קודם התפילה מרוממות האל ושפלות האדם, but we don't feel it. We don't feel it, so because of that, our heart's not in it. And the reason there are moments when we're able to daven is because then we feel it. On Neila, what Jew doesn't feel it? What Jew doesn't feel the need? What Jew doesn't feel that everything hangs in the balance? We all feel it, so then we all able to daven. And when we don't feel the need, we're not able to daven. Ribbono Shel Olam is so good to us that we don't feel the need. Many people's lives are still not just disrupted but just total upheaval from the storm. One unmistakable reminder, it's written as the saying goes in osiyos kiddush levana. I think that means number 35 font or whatever the largest font is on the computer. Written in osiyos kiddush levana, one of the reminders of the storm was the reality of our absolute vulnerability and helplessness. Again, the most advanced technological society, the world superpower at the hub, Manhattan. Among other places, other communities as well, just totally helpless, totally helpless. And it was even the reminder, it was even more pointed than that. Not only was all our technological advance and prowess helpless and useless, it was worse. It was counterproductive. The ability that we have to build these tall buildings and to have elevators that whisk us in moments to the 15th, the 20th floor, so that compounded the devastation of the storm. Because of all that technological advance, so because of that, rachmana litzlan, there were people who were and still are stranded on high floors and because of infirmities of old age, rachmana litzlan, or sickness, they can't get up. So not only was the technology helpless in preventing, counteracting the storm, we suffered because of it. A very, very powerful reminder of romemus Hakel and shiflus ha'adam. But the metzius is צריך לישב מעט קודם התפילה. It's not just the din and the chiyuv, it's a metzius that we need to take a few moments to clear our minds of all other thoughts. Some may be very important, noble, very worthwhile thoughts, but not tefilla related and not tefilla oriented, to focus on it for a few moments. And the reality of course is and the irony is that we're most vulnerable and insecure when we delude ourselves into feeling secure and invulnerable. And we're most worthy and deserving of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's protection and of His shield of invulnerability davka when we know and realize that without it we're totally vulnerable and without it we're totally helpless. So it's when we feel invulnerable that we're really most vulnerable. And when we feel vulnerable, it's only then because of that, because of the shifchi kamayim libech, it's only then that we really do become safe and secure.