Instead of focusing on how long or short the ideal service should be I suggest
the underlying topic that is at issue is how do I make the service meaningful
without becoming a burden.
Tefila beTzibur (prayer with the congregation) is not so simple. Here I am
trying to pray to G-d for my needs and give my thanks yet I am confined by
the minyan around me. I want to praise G-d, THEY want to go to work. I want
to go to work, THEY want to pray for the healthy recovery of the ill. Add to
this that almost all of our prayers we say are written by the sages hundreds
of years ago. I feel the need to pray for X and the written prayer has Y
and Z.
It requires wisdom and effort to understand how I as an individual fits into
the community. Tefila beTzibur requires and teaches that I must realize that
I must relate to the needs of others in order to understand my own needs.
The Amidah (or Shemonah Esrah- 18 blessings) that is the heart of each service
is written in the plural to express the needs of all. Its requests are general
enough that any personal petition can find a home. All our needs are subsets
of the standard prayers. (I challenge all to find exceptions.)
Clearly effort is required to "personalize" the written prayer to our needs.
This personalization occurs when the person saying the prayer combines the
written word with the emotion of the heart to express the needs of the moment.
This, to me, is the meaning behind Kavana in prayer. This effort is preferable
to be done before one actually begins the prayer. (It is already mentioned
in the Talmud that there are those who prepare themselves a long period of
time BEFORE prayer services begin.) Others prepare their thoughts during the
prayer service when actually saying the prayer. Also, there is a school of
thought that says the highest level of Kavana is to make no specific personal
requests. Rather understanding and relying on the deeper meaning of the
prayers the great sages prepared with tremendous insight into human nature
and our needs is the purest type of prayer.
Any of the above and perhaps other variations are all valid. But we (most of
us) are human and not always able to have this level of Kavana. To be able
to concentrate on the same written prayer day in and day out for the entire
service is clearly not an easy undertaking.
I am listing a few ideas and pointers I have gathered over the years:
1.Add new musical tunes to the service. [Even on weekdays?:-)]
2.Speed reading hurts .
3.Slow reading causes day dreaming.
4.Understanding Hebrew helps.
5.Moving back and forth in place helps or hurts, it depends on you.
6.Once in a while (or always) try to think before you pray. (Before the
service, before the paragraph and/or before each word.)
7.The Holidays add different tefilot try to get the most out of the variety.
8.Visit a different type of synagogue for new insights. (I found going to a
Safardi-Oriental minyan very enlightening.)
9.Focus for a week on one specific part of the prayer and then move on.
10.Pray at a pace that is comfortable for you.
There is a story of a great Chassidic Rav (whom I don't recall his name) who
sent himself on a self-exile. Before he left he trained himself to compress
all the Kavana of his long prayer service into the time a wagon driver spends
on prayer.
The moral is clear:
One who prays as a wagon driver need not offer the prayers of a wagon driver!
May we all be blessed with a happy New Year.
Yakov