[Avodah] kavanah in tefila - guzma

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jul 06, 2011 at 01:45:57PM -0700, garry wrote:
> Is there any basis to hold that  R. Matnaya (and R.Chiya and Shmuel) did  
> not mean what they said
> about their problems with kavana, other than our understanding that
> "they were gedolim so they couldn't have meant what they said?"

I do think they mean what they said. However...

They couldn't have meant zero, as that would mean they believed no one
ever said a word of prayer thinking about G-d or the meaning of the
words, etc...

So, their notion of "not having kavanah" wasn't literally zero, just
something very close to it.

However, nowadays, nisqatnu hadoros. I mentioned all-day hanachas tefillin
as proof of nisqatnu hadoros WRT our ability to have kavanah. But this
means that what was once considered paltry little kavanah would today be
enough to be noticable; and perhaps even an accomplishment.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One doesn't learn mussar to be a tzaddik,
micha at aishdas.org        but to become a tzaddik.
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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