Know Before Whom You Stand

My Obiter Dicta has a recent post that laments the lack of spirituality and connection to God in Modern Orthodox prayer. The irony in this is that the self-same "dry" halakhic texts contain within them a great deal of spiritual advice - if you look for it, that is. Having recently gone through much of Hilkhot Tefilah (Tur/Shulkhan Aruch) with a friend of mine, I can attest that many of the simanim are chock full of practical advice for one who wants to know how to properly daven. In this post I would like to address one such recommendation: preparation.

There was a tradition among pious Jews in the Talmudic period known as "Hasidim Rishonim" to prepare for an hour before actually engaging in prayer. The Tur advises that everyone should wait a few moments before starting prayer - advice that he repeats a number of times. Instead of rushing in from work or sleep and immediately getting to praying, one should step back and mentally prepare oneself to stand before God Almighty. I can not stress enough how much this exceedingly simple tip helps. Instead of seeing davening as just another task to get out of the way, the "prepping period" helps get one in the necessary frame of mind.

Indeed, those who are capable of doing this during everyday davening have an immediate advantage over those who only work on kavanah during the High Holidays. It's like comparing two contestants in a race - one does jogging on a regular basis, the other went through a quick crash course a week, or even a month, prior to the race. Who do you think will have the easier time of it?

Indeed, we could all improve our yiddishkeit if we took more preparation for mitzvot more seriously. If we treated Erev Shabbat with more awe, if we realised that the pre-pesach period is time for more than just spring cleaning, if we understood that mental preparation is an integral part of doing mitzvot with the proper kavanah, we would all be the better for it.

Shanah Tovah to you all and Ketivah VeHatimah Tovah.