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Tefilla: Concentration

Written by Moshe Yitzchok Jacobs

…Boruch attoh Hashem…I have to get my suit dry cleaned…Magen Avraham…

Stop it!

Attoh gibur…I wonder what’s for dinner tonight…leolam Hashem… Concentrate on davening!

Sound familiar??

The Baal HaTanya (Chapter 28) writes that the source of our frustration should in fact be the source of our joy. Rather than feeling downhearted about foreign thoughts entering our mind whilst we are immersed in tefilla, prayer, we should instead be inspired to attain new heights in our prayers.

This concept can be demonstrated in the example of two people are fighting. When one person gains a stronger grip or asserts more pressure, his opponent must strengthen himself at that point too. In the same way, we were created with a yetzer hatov, a good inclination and a yetzer hara, negative inclination. They are in constant battle. The yetzer hatov is fighting to create its connection with Hashem and the yetzer hara’s goal is to destroy that relationship. Therefore, the Bal HaTanya continues, when we are trying hard to create our connection with Hashem through our tefilla and we are prevented by foreign thoughts, this is just a sign that we are doing well with our efforts to get close to Hashem, for if it were not the case the yetzer hara would not need to strengthen himself to attack us at this point. This attack should lead to an enhanced state of joy during our davening which will give us enough time and energy to ignore the foreign thoughts and continue with our prayers.

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