[Avodah] Jewish Tefila is Antithetical to the Common Conception of Prayer

[Prof. Levine]

The following is a selection from RSRH's commentary on Bereishis 20

7 Now, therefore, restore the wife of the man, 
because he is a prophet, so that he will pray for 
you and you will remain alive. But if you
will not restore her, know that you will surely 
die, you and all that are yours.

V'yispalal ba'adcha — from the root palal (to 
judge), related to balal As we have
already seen in the account of the dor haflaga (above, 11:7), the bolel does
not mix materials together; rather, he introduces a foreign element into
a substance and integrates some of the new into every particle of the
old, thus creating a new substance. According to the Jewish conception,
this is the task of the judge. Lies and injustice cause division, create
conflict and dispute. A judge introduces justice, the Divine truth of
things, into the disputed matter, creating harmonious unity where lies
and injustice had caused conflict and division.

Hispalal means: to perform this task (palal ) upon oneself, to infuse every
aspect of one’s being and existence with God’s truth, and thus attain for
oneself harmonious integrity of all of life by the light of God’s Countenance.

Jewish tefila , then, is antithetical to the common conception of
“prayer.” Tefila is not an outpouring from within, an expression of what
the heart already feels – for that we have other 
terms: t'china , si'ach , and the
like. Rather, tefila means infusing the heart with truths that come from
outside oneself.

Tefila is avodah sheb'lev; mispallel means to 
work on refining one’s inner self,
to elevate one’s mind and heart to the lofty heights of recognition of
truth and desire for serving God.

If this were not the case, if tefila were but an outpouring of our
emotions, it would make no sense to have fixed times and fixed texts
for our prayers. How could we assume that all the members of the
community would be imbued with the same thoughts and the same
emotions at certain predetermined times?

Moreover, prayer that is merely an expression of feeling is superfluous.
Thoughts and emotions that are already alive within us do not
require expression, least of all expression in set phrases formulated by
others than ourselves. Deep inner experience always finds its own way
of self-expression; and where the inner experience is exceedingly grand
and profound, it is beyond all expression, and the most appropriate
expression is silence.

It follows, then, that the whole purpose of our fixed prayers is to
awaken the heart and to revive within it those timeless values that still
require reinforcement and special care. One can truly say that the less
we feel in the mood for prayer, the greater is our need to pray, and
the greater is the redeeming power and sublime value of the work
upon ourselves that we perform through tefila . The absence of the
mood for prayer is in itself the surest sign of the obscurement and
dimming of that spirit that is not the basis for tefila but its goal and
exalted purpose .
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