Proper Preparation for Prayer - Rabbi Avraham Mizrachi shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast of Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 This part of the lesson deals with laws concerning the place of prayer—specifically, that there should be nothing between the person praying and the wall that might distract him. In other words, halacha recommends praying facing a wall, not facing something that might interfere with his concentration. Let’s go into some of the details. The Alter Rebbe writes in section 90, paragraph 20: “One who prays Shemoneh Esrei should have nothing separating him from the wall, as it says, ‘Chizkiyahu turned his face to the wall and prayed.’” What things are considered a separation, making it inadvisable to pray facing them? We’ll look at several. For example, stationary objects—things that are not moved around, such as a cabinet, a chest, or a bed—are not considered a separation. Small objects, on the other hand, less than ten tefachim high—80 centimeters—and less than four tefachim wide—32 centimeters—are also not considered a separation. And something needed for prayer is not considered a separation either. For example, a lectern on which a person places his siddur while praying is not a separation, because it serves the prayer itself. But other objects that are movable and large are considered a separation, and it is preferable not to pray facing them, but to face the wall instead. Of course, if there is a large congregation and it is not possible for everyone to pray facing a wall with nothing between them and it, that is no reason to forgo praying with a congregation. Each person should pray in his place. If he can face the wall, all the better; if not, he should pray where he is and avoid distraction by looking into his siddur or closing his eyes. A living creature is considered a separation. It is movable, it is, uh,

03:03 Speaker 2 large, so an animal is a separation between him and the wall while he prays. By contrast, a person standing in front of him in prayer is not considered a separation. According to certain opinions, which are followed as the basic halacha, one person does not constitute a separation for another. If someone can be stringent, all the better, but when that is not possible, he should not forgo praying with a congregation on that account; he may pray behind another person. There are other things that can distract a person during prayer and are best avoided. Pictures on the walls of a shul should be placed above a person’s height, so that when he prays, his eyes are not drawn to a picture that might distract him. Sometimes, too, people pray in a sukkah with decorated fabric walls or curtains. One should not pray facing them, because they are distracting; he should close his eyes so he will not be distracted during prayer. Of course, there are many other examples of things that might distract a person during prayer, and he should avoid them. For example, a person might find himself praying facing a noticeboard. A noticeboard invites distraction. Or he might pray facing a bookshelf with books that particularly catch his attention, and find himself distracted in the middle of prayer. So he should not do that. If he has no choice, he should pray from a siddur or close his eyes. All of this, of course, brings us back to a fundamental point about prayer: its central element, a very important part of it, is concentration. That is why the Sages instituted a number of practices to help us concentrate, and, of course, to remove things that might disturb us during prayer. In this part of the lesson, we’ll discuss a very important subject: preparing oneself mentally and emotionally for prayer. We’ve already discussed in earlier lessons that the essence of prayer, which is called “service of the heart,” is concentration. Prayer without concentration is like a body without a soul. Prayer is a service of the heart—an inward, even emotional service. And certainly, the inner purpose of prayer,

05:50 Speaker 2 as we’ve said several times, is connection: prayer is an inward connection between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Since this is a spiritual service, it certainly requires preparation. Anything worthwhile requires good preparation. And something that engages the inner life certainly requires mental and spiritual preparation as well, so that the prayer truly lives up to its name. That is why our Sages established a number of preparations for prayer, both in halacha and, of course, in Chassidus. There is no question that preparation for prayer occupies a very significant place in the teachings and ways of Chassidus. According to Chassidus, it begins the night before, with Krias Shema She’al Hamitah: “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” This is the “removal of the ashes,” as it is called in the maamarim of Chassidus. All of it is preparation for the morning prayer, Shacharis. In this lesson, we’ll focus mainly on the preparations mentioned in halacha: both the positive things one should do to prepare for prayer and the things one should avoid before prayer so they will not disturb him while praying. Let’s begin with the positive side. “One should begin praying only in a serious frame of mind.” That is what our Sages teach us in the Mishnah in Berachos. “The early chassidim would sit for an hour before praying, so that they could direct their hearts toward Hashem.” Rashi explains “a serious frame of mind” as humility born of awe of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In other words, a person should prepare himself to approach prayer with awe and humility before Hashem, as it says, “Serve Hashem with awe.” There is room for joy as well; the two are not contradictory. One should pray with joy—the joy of a mitzvah, of words of Torah that gladden the heart. “The precepts of Hashem are upright, gladdening the heart”; verses that comfort a person; themes of Geulah and consolation; things that encourage the heart and soul of the person praying. And that is why, in Shacharis and Mincha—the principal prayers, which have long been obligatory—our Sages

08:35 Speaker 2 instituted that immediately before Shemoneh Esrei we engage with uplifting words. In Shacharis, for example, we join the blessing of redemption directly to the prayer, with verses of Geulah, consolation, and encouragement for the Jewish people. In Mincha, too, we finish Ashrei Yoshvei Veisecha, which is entirely verses of praise and joy directed to Hashem, and then go straight into the Amidah. Chassidus also discusses this in Likkutei Torah. In a maamar of the Alter Rebbe, three appropriate preparations for prayer are mentioned: immersion, tzedakah, and studying the inner dimension of Torah. As for tzedakah, there is the well-known teaching of our Sages that Rabbi Elazar would give a coin to a poor person and then pray: “Through righteousness I shall behold Your face”; “When I awaken, I shall be satisfied with Your likeness.” Before approaching Hashem in prayer, one gives tzedakah. Interestingly, the Rambam’s wording is that one gives tzedakah before every prayer. Giving tzedakah before prayer is a preparation that helps bring Divine assistance in prayer. Another preparation is immersion in a mikveh. Immersion in a mikveh clearly adds purity of thought and helps one concentrate during prayer. And, of course, those who follow the customs of the chassidim and of Chassidus have been especially careful about this every single day: immersion before prayer, except on Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur. Apart from those days, immersion before prayer every day. Chassidim took great care with this, to purify the heart and one’s concentration in prayer. The third is studying things that awaken concentration in prayer: studying Chassidus and contemplating the greatness of Hashem and one’s own lowliness. All this brings a person to the awareness of before Whom he stands. Then his prayer truly lives up to its name. That, in brief, is the positive side: things a person should engage in before prayer so that his prayer will be fitting. On the other side are things a person should avoid before prayer so they will not trouble him while he prays. There are several such things. One should not begin praying while in a state of

11:18 Speaker 2 Things that might distract a person during davening. For example, laughter, casual jokes, mockery. That is not proper preparation for davening. Frivolity, idle talk—Chassidus explains that a lot of idle talk before davening brings distracting thoughts during davening. And certainly anger. When a person is caught up in an argument or a quarrel, his soul is in turmoil. That is not the calm, happy state of mind in which he should approach davening. Discussions, too: a person has just finished a hearing in beis din that left him emotionally shaken, and immediately goes to daven. That is not appropriate. These are all things that interfere with davening. A person is still preoccupied, his thoughts still revolving around what he experienced beforehand. So he should not go straight from those things into davening. Rather, he should take a break, engage in things that are appropriate before davening, and then begin. In this part of the class, we will discuss the halachos that guide us in avoiding things that disturb our concentration during davening. A person who davens needs to be completely focused, without distractions. Therefore, we do not hold things that might distract us if they fall. In other words, if he has to pay attention to keeping something in his hand because it matters to him, and dropping it would disturb him, then before Shemoneh Esrei he should certainly put it down. For example, a sefer. I am not talking about a siddur: a person holds a siddur to daven from it and help his concentration. Quite the opposite. But holding another sefer during Shemoneh Esrei is not appropriate, because he has to pay attention to keeping it from slipping out of his hand. If it falls, it will disrupt his davening, so he should not hold it in the first place. Yes,

13:40 Speaker 2 sefarim, and even ordinary things. If he is holding a full glass of water, a bowl piled high with things that he must take care not to spill, a wallet with money, or other important items, these can distract him. But if it is some insignificant little thing, and whether it falls or stays in his hand does not bother him at all, there is no objection to holding it. The best practice, though, is not to hold anything. Anything at all. Even simple things should not be held, so that he can be one hundred percent immersed in davening, without even a small part of his attention turning elsewhere. If, while he is davening Shemoneh Esrei, a sefer slips and falls, and seeing a sefer on the floor disturbs his concentration so much that he cannot daven calmly, he is explicitly permitted to finish the bracha and pick it up. An interesting halacha on this subject is that on Sukkos, if a person wants to daven the Amidah while holding the lulav, he may do so. Holding the lulav is itself a mitzvah, and the mitzvah does not distract him from concentrating on his davening before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Of course, one of the most common issues nowadays is mobile phones. A person should definitely turn off his phone before he starts davening, because if it is on, calls can certainly come in and disturb him. And here I want to make a very important point, based on experience: it is very, very advisable that when a person comes to daven, when he enters shul, he turn off his phone completely and even put it some distance away from where he is davening. During the time he sets aside for davening—forty-five minutes, an hour, however long it is—he should be completely focused on davening and not distracted by his phone, which

15:57 Speaker 2 really disconnects him from his connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu during davening. So turning off the phone beforehand is certainly part of the halachos requiring a person to avoid things that may disturb him while he davens. A practical question sometimes arises when a person davens from his phone. If he truly has no choice—there are no siddurim and he needs to daven from the phone—that is possible. But of course, if he can block incoming calls and messages of all kinds while he davens, so that he can be completely focused, he needs to do so. Some people have jobs that may involve emergency calls. They are indeed permitted to leave their phones on, though of course the phone should be on vibrate so it does not disturb the other people davening. And if they need to provide vital help in an emergency, they are certainly permitted to stop in the middle of davening to do so, while causing as little disturbance as possible to the others. A person is hiking with a backpack, and when it is time to daven, he steps off to the side of the road and begins. If the backpack is small, with a capacity of less than 4.8 liters, he may continue davening with it on his back. But if it is larger than that, he should put it on the ground and daven. The halacha also addresses someone who has phlegm, a runny nose, or other things that might disturb him during davening. It is very advisable that before davening he step aside, blow his nose, and clear his throat. Then he can daven properly, calmly, and respectfully. If he nevertheless has to—blow his nose or clear his throat during davening, he should of course do so as politely as possible, since he is standing before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, before the King of kings, and is

18:21 Speaker 2 in such a dignified meeting with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. If he has no choice, he should do it in the most respectful way possible, with the least possible affront to Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s honor during davening. In this part of the class, we will discuss the halachos of washing hands in preparation for davening. We will not address the broader subject of washing hands upon waking in the morning, which has its own special laws and reasons. Rather, we will focus mainly on washing hands as a direct preparation for davening—whether Shacharis, Mincha, or Maariv. Even if a person washed his hands as soon as he got up in the morning, if several hours and other activities have passed before davening, then when he is actually about to daven, there is certainly reason to wash his hands again in preparation. The reason is: “I will wash my hands in cleanliness and circle Your altar, Hashem.” A person needs to daven with clean hands, and it is quite possible that his hands are not clean or pure when he comes to daven. He may have touched parts of the body that are usually covered, or he may have used the bathroom before davening. These things require him to clean and purify his hands before he davens. Here we need to distinguish between two situations. If a person knows for certain that his hands became unclean through touching covered parts of the body or using the bathroom, he is obligated to wash them before davening to remove the uncleanliness. No, one does not say a bracha over this washing, but he does need to wash his hands. As for using a vessel, one does not necessarily need to be strict about that. Some halachic authorities say that neither a vessel nor water poured by human action is required; washing the hands under running tap water is enough. But he should and must wash his hands, because they are unclean and he cannot daven that way. Therefore, he needs to wash them before davening. If there is no water nearby, he must make the effort to walk close to a kilometer—in the terminology of halacha, a distance

21:06 Speaker 2 a mil to wash his hands. If he is traveling, has gone out on a trip, and is now preparing to daven, and there is water farther along in the direction he is going, the halacha is even stricter: he must travel up to four mil—about 3.648 kilometers—continuing in that direction to find water, wash his hands, and only then daven. Of course, this does not apply if the walk would cause him to miss the time for davening or davening with a minyan. In that case, he should rub his hands on a wall or with earth rather than, G-d forbid, miss either of those. But if neither is at risk, he should certainly continue until he reaches water and then wash his hands. All this applies when he knows for certain that his hands are not clean. But if he does not know of having touched any covered parts of his body, does not remember his hands getting dirty, and knows he washed his hands and cannot recall any reason since then to wash them again, we are more lenient. If water is readily available, he should wash. If it is not, he may suffice with rubbing his hands on something that cleans them, as we mentioned earlier—earth, pebbles, or a wall. That is enough to clean his hands when he is merely unsure whether they are fit for davening. So that, briefly, is the additional subject of washing one’s hands in preparation for davening. Again, I stress that I am not talking about washing one’s hands in the morning after sleep; we are talking here about preparing one’s hands specifically for davening. Another part of the halachos of davening, of a Jew standing before Hakadosh Boruch Hu in prayer, is dressing appropriately for someone standing before a king.

23:23 Speaker 2 There are also halachic requirements for what a Jew wears while davening: which clothing is appropriate and which is not. As we said, when davening, a person should conduct himself as though he is standing before a king and speaking with him. This is especially true of Shemoneh Esrei, which halacha defines as a person actually speaking in the presence of the King. Accordingly, he should dress as someone standing before a king, in awe of him. So let’s first talk about the bare minimum the halacha requires if someone finds himself in circumstances where he cannot dress fully appropriately. At the very least, when davening he must wear shorts, and his upper body must be covered by at least an undershirt. That is the absolute minimum without which he cannot daven Shemoneh Esrei. Of course, from that minimum we move on to what is truly appropriate. Ideally, a person should wear respectable clothing, as he would when meeting someone important. Customs naturally vary between communities according to what is considered appropriate dress in the presence of an important person. In Chassidic communities, davening with a hat and jacket, and for married men, a gartel, are among the most basic Chassidic customs. These are things one does not forgo. Again, a hat, a jacket, and a gartel for married men are simply part of the necessary dress for a Jew standing before a king while davening. Later halachic authorities discuss davening in pajamas. They say it is inappropriate unless the person is, G-d forbid, ill and pajamas are his regular clothing. If he remains dressed that way even when important people come to visit him, those clothes become his normal attire, and he may daven in pajamas. But otherwise, for a healthy person in normal circumstances, it is not appropriate to daven in sleepwear;

25:58 Speaker 2 rather, he should put on proper clothes and stand to daven. As for other items, such as a raincoat, gloves, or boots: if he can easily take them off, it is certainly appropriate to do so, particularly for Shemoneh Esrei. But if it is very, very cold and he needs to keep them on to avoid suffering from the cold, that is permitted. Likewise, if it is normal in that place to wear the items I just mentioned—gloves, a raincoat, or boots—even when meeting important people, he may daven in them too. That briefly covers the subject of dress, from the bare minimum to the most appropriate and respectable clothing a person should wear while davening, as one standing before a king—and especially before the King of Kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The next subject we will address in this lesson is keeping the place where one davens free of excrement and bad odors. The halacha says, citing the verse as support: “You shall turn back and cover your excrement, for Hashem your G-d walks in the midst of your camp, and your camp shall be holy.” In other words, the four amos around a person, which are considered his camp, must be clean so that they are fit for davening, for speaking before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When “Hashem your G-d walks in the midst of your camp,” that place must be holy, suitable, and clean, free of things that do not belong there, such as excrement or other truly foul-smelling things. Everything within his four amos must be completely clean—not foul-smelling, and not something that detracts from the holiness and dignity of the place where he davens. The area in front of him is also considered part of his camp. Everything in his line of sight must be clean and suitable, with no excrement or foul-smelling things in front of him, even beyond his four amos.

28:35 Speaker 2 Even if the offensive, foul-smelling thing is not within his four amos or directly in front of him, if its smell reaches the place where he is davening, he cannot daven there. He must move four amos beyond the point where the smell ends and daven there. If he already recited Shema while knowing he was in a place unfit for davening for the reasons we have just mentioned—the place was filthy or smelled bad—and read Shema anyway, he has not fulfilled his obligation. He must read it again and daven again. But what if he did not know the place was filthy or smelled bad, or that there were foul things there, and he davened? That depends. If it was a place where such things were likely to be found and he negligently failed to check beforehand, he must daven again. But if it was a place where one would not expect anything unclean, then even if he did not check—because it is normally a clean place—he has fulfilled his obligation if he has already davened. One should not daven facing a bathroom when its door is open; it is not appropriate to daven facing the bathroom. Even when the door is closed, if a bad smell comes out of the bathroom, it is forbidden to daven there. But if no bad smell comes out and the door is closed, one may daven. As we mentioned earlier, a person must distance himself from excrement and foul-smelling things. When we speak of excrement, we mean that of an adult. As for a young child, an infant: ideally, the most appropriate and correct practice is to distance oneself even from the excrement of a child eight days old, so that the place is entirely clean, entirely free of filth—a suitable and dignified place to daven to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But as to the basic halacha, it applies to an infant of about one year old, defined by halacha as being able to eat

31:02 Speaker 2 A kezayis of grain within the time it takes to eat a pras—six or seven minutes. From that age, the child’s waste is treated like an adult’s, and the rules we mentioned earlier apply: one may not pray within four amos of it, or anywhere its odor reaches. A common situation is someone praying at home, in a household [?] with children and young children. A little child may be wearing a soiled diaper and moving around near the person praying. We need to distinguish between two situations. If a bad odor is coming from the child, one cannot pray within four amos of him or anywhere the odor reaches. But if we know the diaper is soiled, yet it is covered by clothing and no bad odor comes from it, one may even pray within four amos of the child from the outset, since it is covered and no bad odor comes from it. Of course, as we mentioned in the previous halacha, if a bad odor does spread and the person prays anyway, he has not fulfilled his obligation and must pray again. What happens when people are in shul and bad smells come in from outside—sewage smells or other unpleasant odors? As long as the bad smell is present inside the shul, one may not continue praying until the smell is eliminated. How is that done? There are various solutions. In the past, people would take a piece of paper or cloth and burn it, so that the smell of the burning would overcome the sewage smell. Today there is a simpler solution: spray a fragrant air freshener into the air. This eliminates the bad smell, and then one can continue praying. In rural communities with cowsheds and chicken coops, unpleasant smells can enter homes and shuls when a person wants to pray. In communities where this is normal and commonplace, it is not considered a bad smell, and one may pray even with that odor. But in places where it is not normal—in cities, for example, when all sorts of

33:28 Speaker 2 waves of odors suddenly arrive—that is not acceptable. One must wait, or find a way for the odor to pass, and only then continue praying. Another very common halacha concerns times when people pray outside the shul and someone finds himself praying near a garbage bin. First of all, if a bad odor comes from it, praying there is certainly forbidden, even at some distance from the bin. As long as the odor reaches that spot, one may not pray there. And even if the bin is clean and has no bad odor, one should not pray within four amos of it, because those four amos must be completely clean. A garbage bin is considered inherently unclean and should not be within four amos of a person praying. That concludes this additional part of the lesson, in which we discussed keeping the place of prayer clean of unpleasant-smelling things that detract from its dignity and sanctity.