Last week we brought two strategies from the Beyam Darkecha to use when we aren’t feeling a warm connection with Hashem while we daven. We learned the importance of holding onto two opposing thoughts simultaneously 1) To try as hard as you can to connect with intent and closeness and 2) to be mesameach bechelko, happy with your portion, and to use every moment of connection you received to the fullest. The formula is simple – push yourself, then celebrate!
The Beyam Darkecha gives two additional tools we can use to get the most out of davening:
- Switch It Up! There are so many different ways to connect while davening. If we aren’t connecting in one way, we can simply try another! It’s important to not make davening ‘keva’ – an established routine with no variety. Hashem orchestrates how we feel – our job is to connect in whatever way fits best with our current state.
There is davening while sitting with serenity, and there is davening while standing at attention before the King. There is davening with passion and movement, and there is davening with a still and gentle voice. There is davening with slow and mindful intent on every word, and there is davening with a determined but quick focus, passion and speed, to avoid “stalling” or becoming distracted. Sometimes you feel a strong internal connection, and you can feel your connection to Hashem with every word. Other times you feel cold, but then you can push yourself to daven out loud with an external passion – because the heart follows the action, and if you warm up your body, your heart will warm too! Sometimes singing your davening will open your heart, and other times screaming your davening will open your heart. And so on!
Pause for a moment before you instinctively daven the same way you did yesterday, or before trying to recreate an inspiring davening you had another time. Do a quick self-analysis to determine which is truly the best fit for you today, with today’s thoughts, distractions, and feelings. Don’t be thrown off if yesterday’s way, which perhaps you really enjoyed, is not the best for today.
- Stay Holy: There is a very simple formula that pertains to the degree with which we can merit dveikus, a feeling of closeness to Hashem. The more we maintain our purity and elevate ourselves in areas of kedushah, the more we control what we do, look at, and how much we separate and elevate ourselves above the false allusions of temptations and idle worldly pleasures, the more we will experience dveikus, and vice versa. If we experience bitterness, disconnection, and distance while davening, it may be a message from Heaven that our kedushah is not where it should be. It is not all or nothing – it’s never all or nothing! Rather our holiness is a sliding scale. Stay holy, stay close. The eternal, infinite pleasure of closeness with Hashem will always far exceed the temporary pleasures of temptation, which often end in bitter feelings.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 5.