„When the soul's feeling, in its state of weakness, must be supported…”
„When the soul's feeling, in its state of weakness, must be supported at another's table and is not nourished from within itself, the contradictions are revealed, and the war is aroused at every time of prayer; the thoughts become confused, and prayer loses its great value of enlivening the soul in its essence, and consequently the intention weakens and it remains a commandment of men learned by rote. And since it does not properly nourish the feeling, just as it is not properly nourished by it, it goes to rest upon the tents of the intellect and calculation. And when the intellect handles with its cold hands the warm prayer, daughter of the heavenly fire, it destroys its vigor and diminishes g...”From Shemonah Kevatzim, I, 33
When there is fatigue, impatience, a desire to advance in steps too great, the power of feeling diminishes and the action stems from an intellectual place. The inability to carry out the processes and experience them at all times, because of fatigue, brings the person and the nation to do so from a place of intellect and logic. They do it because it is right, because it is required, because it is written - not because that is what the heart says.
The advantage in this is that logic does not let a person fall apart; it gives a temporary remedy to a person during the low period in which he cannot be connected to his feelings. Thus the person continues to pray and to be connected to the Holy One even in his difficult moments.
But on the other hand, in such a state in which logic leads and from it a person turns to his God, prayer loses its original value, which is the connection with the Holy One. When the logical place leads, the problems begin. The Merciful One desires the heart.
When a person deviates from the emotional place and turns prayer into just another task, it becomes a difficult and distant thing. This distance creates a defect in the person and a defect in the prayer. A defect in the person, because he is unable to connect to the inner place; and a defect in the prayer, because it already loses its place and its inner voice.
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Have a good evening.
For the recovery of the girl Noa bat Sarah
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From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.