Description: Introduction to She'arim BiTefillah 05
She’arim BiTefillah
Introduction 05
The goal of tefillah is to be able to communicate with Hashem as if He is standing in the room with us – a real reality. This is quite challenging, as the Mesilas Yesharim explains, because our senses don’t help us in this at all – on the contrary, they deny it. But he encourages us, that anyone who applies themselves, and tries to think it through, will be able to start acquiring levels of this belief and feeling, to have the ‘hergesh’ while davening that we are speaking to someone, just as when we speak to our friends, and He listens to us, and it’s a give and take. With more thought we can come to appreciate the greatness of Hashem, and how miniscule we are, when we speak with Hashem. The Mesilas Yesharim has confidence in us – that if we only try, we can acquire this knowledge and make it real – something we feel!
This takes practice, and constant focus, and repetition, to make this a part of ourselves. But in addition, sometimes, by learning and understanding how tefillah works, little pieces of information, or deeper understanding opens up whole new vistas for us.
For example, the Arizal says, that Chazaras Hashatz, when the Chazzan repeats Shemonah Esray, has a power beyond the silent Shemonah Esray. This is what Chazal alluded to when they explained the pasuk we say ‘kavay el Hashem chazak v’yamaitz libechah, v’kavay el Hashem,’ hope to Hashem, strengthen your heart, and hope to Hashem. Chazal explain, if you daven and don’t seem to have been answered, daven again! That’s what this pasuk means. But the Arizal explains it really means, that if you haven’t been answered in your silent Shemonah Esray – make sure to pay attention and ‘daven’ the Chazaras Hashatz! It has the power to get your tefillos answered.
Chazal say, ‘Hein Kail Kavir lo yimas,’ Hashem doesn’t tire of the tefillos of a tzibbur. Chazal mean Chazaras Hashatz which is in it’s essence the tefillah of the whole tzibbur. The fact that our silent Shemonah Esray needs to be quiet, is partially because it’s so valuable, we want to ‘hide’ it from the evil spiritual forces that would try to ruin it. But Chazarah is so powerful, it’s invulnerable to those spiritual forces – and we can daven it out loud!
Here’s something, which perhaps up till now we felt it was a necessary evil, we have to do Chazaras Hashatz, we have to wait through it, we don’t really know why, but can it end already! What were we giving up on!? We could let seventy years pass and not begin to understand the value of Chazaras Hashatz! People think at best it’s time to look in a sefer a little, and at worst – to do other things! But once we have been introduced to the concept, now Chazaras Hashatz takes on a whole new reality to us, and every Amein we answer is a different Amein, and every brachah we listen to is different – simply by having been taught this concept.
This can be compared to someone driving a stick shift car, and doesn’t realize that it can be driven on more than first gear. He drives in first gear, goes from ten to twenty miles an hour, and is amazed by the capability of an automobile, how much faster it can go than a human. But in truth, he hasn’t begun to understand the car’s capabilities! It can go much faster than that – you just have to learn how to drive stick and change gears! Likewise, we daven, but without understanding how to change gears – we don’t begin to appreciate the potential power inherent in tefillah.
She’arim BiTefillah
Introduction 05
The goal of tefillah is to be able to communicate with Hashem as if He is standing in the room with us – a real reality. This is quite challenging, as the Mesilas Yesharim explains, because our senses don’t help us in this at all – on the contrary, they deny it. But he encourages us, that anyone who applies themselves, and tries to think it through, will be able to start acquiring levels of this belief and feeling, to have the ‘hergesh’ while davening that we are speaking to someone, just as when we speak to our friends, and He listens to us, and it’s a give and take. With more thought we can come to appreciate the greatness of Hashem, and how miniscule we are, when we speak with Hashem. The Mesilas Yesharim has confidence in us – that if we only try, we can acquire this knowledge and make it real – something we feel!
This takes practice, and constant focus, and repetition, to make this a part of ourselves. But in addition, sometimes, by learning and understanding how tefillah works, little pieces of information, or deeper understanding opens up whole new vistas for us.
For example, the Arizal says, that Chazaras Hashatz, when the Chazzan repeats Shemonah Esray, has a power beyond the silent Shemonah Esray. This is what Chazal alluded to when they explained the pasuk we say ‘kavay el Hashem chazak v’yamaitz libechah, v’kavay el Hashem,’ hope to Hashem, strengthen your heart, and hope to Hashem. Chazal explain, if you daven and don’t seem to have been answered, daven again! That’s what this pasuk means. But the Arizal explains it really means, that if you haven’t been answered in your silent Shemonah Esray – make sure to pay attention and ‘daven’ the Chazaras Hashatz! It has the power to get your tefillos answered.
Chazal say, ‘Hein Kail Kavir lo yimas,’ Hashem doesn’t tire of the tefillos of a tzibbur. Chazal mean Chazaras Hashatz which is in it’s essence the tefillah of the whole tzibbur. The fact that our silent Shemonah Esray needs to be quiet, is partially because it’s so valuable, we want to ‘hide’ it from the evil spiritual forces that would try to ruin it. But Chazarah is so powerful, it’s invulnerable to those spiritual forces – and we can daven it out loud!
Here’s something, which perhaps up till now we felt it was a necessary evil, we have to do Chazaras Hashatz, we have to wait through it, we don’t really know why, but can it end already! What were we giving up on!? We could let seventy years pass and not begin to understand the value of Chazaras Hashatz! People think at best it’s time to look in a sefer a little, and at worst – to do other things! But once we have been introduced to the concept, now Chazaras Hashatz takes on a whole new reality to us, and every Amein we answer is a different Amein, and every brachah we listen to is different – simply by having been taught this concept.
This can be compared to someone driving a stick shift car, and doesn’t realize that it can be driven on more than first gear. He drives in first gear, goes from ten to twenty miles an hour, and is amazed by the capability of an automobile, how much faster it can go than a human. But in truth, he hasn’t begun to understand the car’s capabilities! It can go much faster than that – you just have to learn how to drive stick and change gears! Likewise, we daven, but without understanding how to change gears – we don’t begin to appreciate the potential power inherent in tefillah.