BS"D

WE'RE MUSLIMS?!?

I'm learning about prayer with R' Ross in the Shulchan Arukh & I'm still not putting it into practice. I'm gathering strength, tho'. When my Muslim friend Kyla (yes, the one I bought the peace plate for in Jerusalem) talks about stumbling out of bed at 3 or whatever & bumbling through her prayer, I know how she feels...but I don't like being in that state when I daven, so depending on how disoriented I feel when I wake up, I don't daven right away. But then I wonder if I should just do it anyway, partly because it is, in fact, my own ideal, partly because I think it actually may be law somewhere, but also because there's something egoless about being on autopilot. So maybe being half asleep would make me apprpriately egoless & therefore hunble in connecting with G@d...but then maybe my kavanah will be low. But then my kavanah can certainly be low when I'm fully awake as well - *that's* an ego issue

Joel thinks kavannah is really *the* central issue in prayer. We can, and should, be aiming to connect with the Divine at all times and in all activities. & I agree with him. The Mishneh Brurah talks about keeping G@d before you at all times. It was fascinating!

Basically it said that we rush around & make preparations when we have the priviledge to meet a human king, so we should do at least the same for G@d, who is omnipresent & not a mere glorified human. That's why so many thoughts & so much advice around rising in the morning have been put to paper in Jewish tradition.

It even went on to talk about the Sh'viti'im people make & how we're not allowed to write G@d's 4-letter name on a piece of qlaf & keep it in our sidurim. People used to do this so they could increase their kavanah, & it sounds like a good idea, until the Mishneh Brurah went on to say that even tho' this is a nice idea, that these Sh'viti'im would fall out of people's sidurim & be destroyed in the street, thereby erasing G@d's name. So that's why in many shuls now there's a big Sh'viti in the shape of a menorah up at the bimah or the aron. That was the M"B's suggestion.

It occurred to me that since both qlaf & d'yo are made with the kavanah that they be used in sofrut & sanctified by a verbal declaration of said intention, that perhaps this is another reason to avoid such sacred "arts & crafts", as they're inappropriate to the material's potential.

So what the Mishneh Brurah suggested is that instead of using a physical device we maintain a constant state of meditation in which we "see" the Y-H-V-H before our eyes at all times. Because when people think they're alone, they behave very differently than when they are aware of the Presence.

So R' Ross interpreted this as a pair of glasses with Y-H-V-H printed on the lenses :) & you'll love this: when we learned that we should "wake the dawn like a lion", ie, get up when it's still dark & with great vigour daven shachrit as the sun rises - I said, "But we're not *Muslims*!"

& R' Ross said, "Well, yes - we *are*!"

I'm going to miss him!