Tefilah: Waking Up Jewish

An Hour or Less

Generally, when Chazal referred to an hour, they meant an unspecified amount of time. Regarding the practice of waiting an hour before tefillah, one hour refers to an actual hour. Are we in fact obligated to spend an hour preparing for prayer?

The Shulchan Aruch rules that one should spend a full hour beforehand preparing for prayer (93,1). As stated in the previous section, one can include Berachos, Korbanos, Pesukei D’zimra, Krias Shema and the berachos before and after Krias Shema as well. If a person prays in a slow minyan, these tefillos alone can fill a good part of an hour (Pri Megadim, Eshel Avraham 93,1).

When the Tur cites this halachah he writes that a person should pause momentarily before tefillah (93,1). The commentators explain that the time span of an hour was primarily said for the extremely righteous, but for everyone else a few seconds suffices. Nonetheless, every person must pause a short time before he starts tefillah (Mishnah Berurah 93,1).

Seated in One’s Place

Rashi says that the goal of the hour before prayer was to enter tefillah with koved rosh, i.e., dignity and focus. Attaining this state of mind is no easy feat, especially for a person with a packed schedule. Pausing before tefillah is the mechanism that we use to achieve koved rosh.

Changing places, naturally, causes a degree of disorientation. By the time a person is reoriented, he may have already completed Shemoneh Esrei. Waiting before tefillah in the same place where he will later recite Shemoneh Esrei helps a person to acclimate himself, and ensures that his prayers will be more focused (Rashi, Berachos 30b; Shulchan Aruch Harav 93,1).

Even after arriving at his set place of prayer, a person may still feel disoriented while standing. Sitting down helps one gain composure and focus on the upcoming tefillah that he is about to commence. In order to bring a person to the right frame of mind, Gedolei Torah advised that the pause before prayer should be done sitting down (Rav Chaim Brisker as cited in Teshuvos V’Hanhagos 2,49).

Pausing During Prayer

The Gemara tells us that in addition to the hour before tefillah, the chassidim also spent an hour reciting Shemoneh Esrei. There are a limited number of words in tefillah. How did these chassidim pray for an entire hour? One of the hardest parts of tefillah is staying focused on prayers for the entirety of Shemoneh Esrei. Even before one opens his mouth, the yetzer hara offers a person a plethora of foreign thoughts to fill his head. Concentrating on prayer is a great accomplishment.

One common problem is that a person’s mind tends to wander. A thought enters his mind, and this leads to another until the person can forget that he is praying altogether. Before he knows it, he is at the end of Shemoneh Esrei.

The Chofetz Chaim offers a practical suggestion to help avoid this problem. He suggests that a person should stop before each berachah and think momentarily about the theme of the blessing he is about to recite. This built-in pause will save him from going into a tefillah by rote mode, and will help him regain his concentration if his mind wanders (Sefer Shem Olam, endnotes to second volume).

Text Copyright © 2012 by Rabbi Daniel Travis and Torah.org