In the Toras Avigdor English booklet for last week's sedra (p.14-15), חוקת, Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l speaks about davening a bit (p.14-15).
After describing too common Shul scenarios that fall far short of what davening should really be like, he tells us what must be done. What is his advice, his guidance? You need to train yourself to understand what you're saying... to put in time to learn tefillah. You must invest effort.
That means that פירוש המלים, understanding the meaning of the words and overall ideas in davening, and thinking of that while saying them, is the foundation of our עבודה שבלב, service of the heart. Just saying words doesn't cut it. That might be service of the lips, but we need service of the heart.
So get to learning some siddur (פשוט פשט, not פשעטלעך), and start enjoying a greater closeness to הקב"ה. It may seem too simple of a solution to some, but it is what must be done. והבא לטהר מסייעין אותו.
There is a general problem nowadays with decline in attention spans. That affects us too, even if less than others. The solution is to refrain from trying to do too much at once. You don't have to say every word in the siddur. Rav Miller said that, but the Shulchan Aruch itself said in the first siman of Orach Chaim, טוב מעט תחנונים בכוונה מהרבות בלא כוונה, a little with kavannah trumps a lot without kavannah.
ReplyDelete