How long does it take to daven? The answer could range from 2 seconds to many hours! We can daven to Hashem, and talk to Hashem, as often as we want, at any time, no matter what we are doing. That’s the privilege we have as children of The King – we get 24/7 access to the Throne. From ‘Thank You Hashem’ when we see blessings in our life, to ‘B’ezras Hashem’ when we express our trust in Him, to ‘Help Me Hashem’ when, we are in a pickle or a battle with our yetzer hara, every small expression of connection to Hashem is beloved and cherished. Even a wordless sigh or cry, when directed Heavenward, can open the gates of mercy, blessing, and redemption, as it did for the Jewish slaves in Egypt who cried out to Hashem in wordless tefillah. Talking to Hashem in your own words is an essential form of prayer.
Then there is the longer, more formal davening, as instituted by our great sages, in the form of Shacharis, Minchah, and Maariv. In their prophetic wisdom, they foresaw that this particular compilation and order of prayers is the framework we need for our daily davening. Every single component of this davening is there to get us to the proper ‘destination’ of tefillah. We don’t need to grapple with figuring out what to say or when to say it – we can simply follow along in our siddur, knowing that we are saying the right words.
But obviously, davening is much more than saying words! Tefillah is the service of the heart. Chazal knew this, of course, and determined that the best way to awaken the heart in passionate prayer was through this particular framework of davening. But what if this framework isn’t awakening your heart? Then what do we do?
Our davening experience is not always consistent. Sometimes we may feel the presence of Hashem, and daven with a sense of love, awe, and passion. Sometimes we may seem more like a servant with a hangover who waltzes into the king’s inner chamber and approaches his throne half asleep, mostly dressed, and stumbles over his words, unsure what he is really saying and even to whom he is talking. Oftentimes we are probably somewhere in the middle, having moments of connection and closeness to Hashem alongside moments where we are mindlessly ‘checking the box,’ followed by moments where we are just itching to be done and get on with our day.
We all want to improve our tefillah, to be able to express our relationship with Hashem directly – with passion and love. If we struggle to connect in a deep and meaningful way to various parts of davening, it just means we have some work to do!
In the next article in this series we will explore what tefillah is – and what it isn’t – based on the powerful, perspective-changing essay on tefillah from the sefer Beyam Darkecha.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 1.