(א) מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה לְהִתְפַּלֵּל בְּכָל יוֹם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמות כג כה) ״וַעֲבַדְתֶּם אֵת ה׳ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם״. מִפִּי הַשְּׁמוּעָה לָמְדוּ שֶׁעֲבוֹדָה זוֹ הִיא תְּפִלָּה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים יא יג) ״וּלְעָבְדוֹ בְּכָל לְבַבְכֶם״ אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים אֵי זוֹ הִיא עֲבוֹדָה שֶׁבַּלֵּב זוֹ תְּפִלָּה. וְאֵין מִנְיַן הַתְּפִלּוֹת מִן הַתּוֹרָה. וְאֵין מִשְׁנֶה הַתְּפִלָּה הַזֹּאת מִן הַתּוֹרָה. וְאֵין לַתְּפִלָּה זְמַן קָבוּעַ מִן הַתּוֹרָה:
(1) To pray daily is an affirmative duty, as it is said, "And ye shall serve the Lord, your God" (Exodus 23:25). The service, here referred to, according to the teaching of tradition, is Prayer, as it is said, "And to serve Him with all your heart" (Deuteronomy 11:13), on which the sages commented, "What may be described as Service of the Heart? Prayer". The number of prayers is not prescribed in the Torah. No form of prayer is prescribed in the Torah. Nor does the Torah prescribe a fixed time for Prayer.
עבודה שבלב
1. Prayer is the service of the heart. “‘And you should serve God with all your heart’ (Deut. 11:13). What is the service of the heart? Say it is prayer” (Taanit 2a). The heart is the epicenter of all that happens and the way in which we serve God. This book attempts to offer a language for working with prayer not in the form of study whose content is prayer, but rather through the language of service, the language of the heart: to put our heart into our soul, to give the soul words, and to offer ways we may reach it.
2. Prayer encompasses our whole being: It peeks out at us from an obtuse day-to-day life at moments of crisis, when a crack appears in the sense of security that envelops us. It smiles at us at moments of great joy. It whispers to us when we are stirred by the beauty of nature or the perfection of a passing moment. The call to prayer is a call to life, a call to open to the deep, primal voice that stirs within us and in all of reality in every moment.
3. Prayer’s great message is the very belief in the power of the desires and the yearnings that beat within us to influence our lives. The power of words, which are the tools with which we express our desire, can change reality. Many people walk about the world believing reality is closed and stuck, and almost impossible to change. Some believe in the power of deeds to fix the world, others choose to look at reality and complain. The one who prays believes in the power of prayer, of words, to soften reality and to forge openings in it. People who pray are like viewers standing in front of a television screen seeing reality through it, when suddenly they discover that the screen is a touch screen, and it is possible to influence what they are watching. One who has experienced reality in this way changes from a guest or an observer to a household member, a partner. Through words it is possible to give freedom to thoughts, to desires and yearnings, and these words penetrate through the screen to their destination.
4. The first step toward prayer is working on our ability to speak; to speak to one another. “Then the God-fearing men spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard it” (Mal. 3:16). It is the training of our ability to be in a meeting place where the speech is born of the connection; the words arise and grow from the meeting of two. In this meeting a friend is not only a screen on which to shine our words, repeating ourselves with the same words we always say, but rather through our meeting, from the essence of our shared presence, something happens. This kind of speech is unique in its existence, words are born. If we were to speak with someone else, the words that would rise between us would be completely different. The new words, bubbling up, become a kind of testing ground for the quality of the meeting. This kind of conversation comes into being through my ability to turn to another with all of myself, to speak in the first person and with words that come from the heart. Beyond the words there is of course the listening: Is our voice heard? Has it reached its destination? Have we heard our friend’s voice? Like when a pebble is tossed into a well, our ear is eager to hear it hit the water.
5. And sometimes a couple, or two good friends, sit and speak heart to heart, and they merit to feel that their words not only reached their hearts, but also touched eternity. Something happened between them that went beyond them. “And God heard and listened.” Their words merited to be heard by God. Even though they were not aimed at God, God listened and heard. It’s as if they could feel God standing behind the wall, peeking in and listening. The words transformed into prayer, the root of the soul awakened. There was a secret presence between them that gave the speech born amongst them a three-dimensional quality.
7. When we are able to open our hearts to each other, to speak to each other with real words, with words of closeness, we can direct that same quality of speech to our words with God in prayer, as one speaks to a friend.
8. These thoughts led me to encourage groups all over Israel to form ĥavurot (workshop-style study groups) whose purpose is to come together to seek this heart-to-heart talk in learning, work, and prayer. This kind of direct, personal conversation affects the character of the learning and transforms the learning into a dialogue, which then transforms into prayer. Many of the understandings embedded in this book and the “recipes” which appear in it were born out of the work I did with different ĥavurot of prayer.
(א) אֵין עוֹמְדִין לְהִתְפַּלֵּל אֶלָּא מִתּוֹךְ כֹּבֶד רֹאשׁ. חֲסִידִים הָרִאשׁוֹנִים הָיוּ שׁוֹהִים שָׁעָה אַחַת וּמִתְפַּלְּלִים, כְּדֵי שֶׁיְּכַוְּנוּ אֶת לִבָּם לַמָּקוֹם.
(1) One should not stand up to say Tefillah except in a reverent state of mind. The pious men of old used to wait an hour before praying in order that they might direct their thoughts to God.