Avos 2:13

בס׳ד

note: please take the time to let us know who you are and where you are from.  You can submit a comment or email me privately at jaffee613@gmail.com.  (ed.)

אבות ב:יג

Rabbi Shimon says: Be very careful in reciting the Shma and the Prayer; When you pray, don’t pray by rote; Rather beg for mercy and condolence from the Blessed Source, As it is said: “For He is gracious and merciful, patient and generous, forgiving evil” (Yoel 2:13); And don’t treat yourself as if you were wicked.

רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי זָהִיר בִּקְרִיאַת שְׁמַע וּבַתְּפִלָּה. וּכְשֶׁאַתָּה מִתְפַּלֵּל, אַל תַּעַשׂ תְּפִלָּתְךָ קֶבַע, אֶלָּא רַחֲמִים וְתַחֲנוּנִים לִפְנֵי הַמָּקוֹם בָּרוּךְ הוּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (יואל ב) כִּי חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם הוּא אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב חֶסֶד וְנִחָם עַל הָרָעָה. וְאַל תְּהִי רָשָׁע בִּפְנֵי עַצְמְךָ:

        Each of Rabbi Shimon’s teachings asks us to approach our prayer as the most important part of our day.  The idea of being “very careful” means, first of all, to keep our mind in touch with the meaning of the words we are saying.  This is just about the hardest mitzvah to fulfill in any consistent way.  But we must remember that recitation of the Shma is nothing less than the acceptance, twice a day, of HaShem’s dominion over our lives.  In the first paragraph we acknowledge HaShem’s unity and our obligation to love Him; in the second we confess confidence in the promises He offers us in His covenant; in the third we acknowledge His redemptive love for us in the past and our trust in the redemptive future.

        The Shmoneh Esreh requires an entirely different kind of attention from us.  As the Rabbis taught us, the Shmoneh Esreh is our opportunity to offer sacrifice to HaShem now that the Temple is destroyed.  Therefore, when we recite it we must take at least as much care as the Kohanim used to take in the Temple when they offered the daily Tamid offering.  Rabbenu Yonah knew a version of this mishnah which said that we should take more care in reciting Shma than the Shmoneh Esreh.  He understood this to refer to the fact that the obligation to recite the morning Shma must be fulfilled earlier than the Shmoneh Esreh.  Since there is less time to recite it, we might be tempted to rush it.  For this reason, we must take care to recite it properly.

        This is also the point of not “praying by rote.”  When we pray and pay attention to what we’re doing we will be able to get in touch with that part of us which always is in desperate need for HaShem.  But if we rattle off our prayers without thinking about them we cheat not only HaShem, to whom we pray, but ourselves.  We are just babbling. This perspective on the mishnah is reflected in Avos d’Rabbi Noson’s version of this mishnah which reads: “don’t treat your prayer like a chat.” (A, 17).

        Rabbi Shimon’s final teaching is perhaps the most important piece of psychological advice one can learn.  If you convince yourself you are wicked, you have then given yourself a whole list of excuses that prevent you from improving yourself.  If you say, “I’m a rasha, what can I do?”, you actively prevent yourself from benefitting from the purifying effects of Torah and mitzvahs.  Even worse, you justify your failings by making them seem out of your control. None of us can claim to be a tzaddik - but as Jews who have a share in the Torah of HaShem, we all have a basic capacity to climb the ladder of kedushah through the life of Torah.

        

&&&