Baruch atta Hashem (I have to get my suit dry cleaned)… magen avraham (I’m really hungry)… stop it I need to concentrate on davening. Sound familiar?? Well fortunately the Baal haTanya, Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi comes to our rescue. The Tanya (Primary book of Chabad Chassidus) dicusses in Chapter 28 this very issue. In addition to providing guidance on how to avert ones mind and concentrate on prayers it comes out with a very powerful statement…
That one need not be downhearted that his mind wonders or turns to earthly matters. The reason being was that man was created with 2 souls. If it was the case that man only contained an G-dly soul then no foreign thoughts would enter his mind. But that is not the case so don’t be too upset. What we are experiencing when our mind wonders is the battle between the yetzer hara and hatov. We should be conscious of this battle and use it to draw new strength into our tefilah.
The Baal haTanya continues that we should not fight with this yetzer hara because we will just become soiled, rather, once we experience this amazing battle occurring during tefilah we merely should use it to gain new strength and then push it to one side.
Rav Chaim of Brisk reminds us that other then the kavana needed for the first brocha in the amida the only kavana needed for the remaining 18 blessings is that “I am standing before G-d”.
We all experience earthly thoughts during prayer, push them to oneside understand you were created with 2 souls and draw new strength in the privilege you having to talk there and then in front of the creator of the world.
