{"id":6055,"date":"2010-01-05T01:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T23:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=6055"},"modified":"2018-05-24T11:16:18","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T08:16:18","slug":"02-05-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/02-05-01\/","title":{"rendered":"01 &#8211; Emotional Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"yhb-content-audio\"><audio controls><source src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.yhb.org.il\/mp3\/en\/en-02-05-01.mp3\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\"><\/audio><\/p>\n<p>Prayer is intended to elevate and strengthen people. Therefore, knowing that one is about to be uplifted and brought closer to Hashem, a person must approach prayer out of joy and not while in a state of sadness or apathy.<\/p>\n<p>The <i>Chachamim<\/i> teach (<i>Berachot<\/i> 31a; <i>Shulchan Aruch<\/i> 93:2), \u201cOne should not pray out of laughter,\u201d because laughter nullifies one\u2019s awe for God, and a person must pray out of fear and submission. \u201cNor amidst talk,\u201d because chatter distracts a person from his inner world and prayer is supposed to emerge from the depths of one\u2019s soul. \u201cNor from lightheadedness and idle words,\u201d because prayer is based on the recognition of one\u2019s ability to do wonders with his speech, and if a person comes to prayer with idle words, he demonstrates that he does not value his speech (see <i>Olat Ra\u2019ayah<\/i>, part 1, p. 29).<\/p>\n<p>It is good to give <i>tzedakah<\/i> before praying (<i>Shulchan Aruch <\/i>92:10), for by doing so one approaches prayer pleased and uplifted from the mitzvah he just performed. Furthermore, when we come to pray and request kindness and compassion from Hashem, it is proper that first we ourselves show mercy on the poor. The <i>Ari HaKadosh <\/i>says that before prayer it is good to reflect upon the mitzvah, \u201c<i>V\u2019ahavta l\u2019re\u2019acha kamocha<\/i>\u201d (\u201cLove your fellow Jew like yourself,\u201d) for this is a great Torah principle. The prayers are written in the plural because we are praying for the nation as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>One should not begin to pray when his mind is preoccupied. Even someone who has the privilege to learn Torah before praying should try not to come to prayer immediately after learning a very complex subject of study. His mind is liable to be absorbed in thoughts of the topic that he has been studying, and he will not be able to concentrate properly on his prayer. Instead, before praying, he should learn straightforward matters of halachah, or uplifting essays on <i>emunah<\/i> (faith). <i>B\u2019dieved<\/i>, one should not avoid praying in a <i>minyan<\/i>, even if he is preoccupied with matters of Torah or has other concerns (<i>Shulchan Aruch<\/i> 93:3; <i>Mishnah Berurah<\/i> 6).<\/p>\n<p>The <i>Chachamim<\/i> instituted the recital of uplifting verses prior to praying the <i>Amidah<\/i>,<i> <\/i>so that before the <i>Amidah<\/i> people would be engrossed in inspiring and elating matters. Before <i>Shacharit<\/i> and <i>Ma\u2019ariv<\/i>, we recite the <i>berachah<\/i>,<i> <\/i>\u201c<i>Ga\u2019al Yisrael<\/i>,\u201d and before <i>Minchah<\/i> we say <i>Ashrei<\/i> (<i>Shulchan Aruch<\/i> 93:2).<\/p>\n<p>The Talmud records that devout people paused to meditate a full hour before praying so that they could properly direct their hearts to their Father in Heaven (<i>B<\/i>e<i>rachot<\/i> 30b; <i>Shulchan Aruch<\/i> 93:1; <i>Mishnah Berurah<\/i> 1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prayer is intended to elevate and strengthen people. Therefore, knowing that one is about to be uplifted and brought closer to Hashem, a person must approach prayer out of joy and not while in a state of sadness or apathy. The Chachamim teach (Berachot 31a; Shulchan Aruch 93:2), \u201cOne should not pray out of laughter,\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-05-preparations-for-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}