Recording Available Via Telephone
Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2399
The Shomer Emunim said about himself that he had times in his life when he experienced tremendous amounts of physical pain due to illness. During those times, he didn’t have enough strength to even sit up in a chair. Yet, with his steadfast bitachon in Hashem, when it came time to pray, he would push himself with a great deal of sacrifice and pray with all of his might. In the natural way of the world, that should have caused him much more pain. However, in every single instance, Hashem helped him. Most of the time by the middle of the Amida he felt like a new person. Sometimes only after he finished the Amida and sometimes not until after his Amida, plus reciting Tehillim. Each time he felt like he received a new body. He said he is not telling us this to brag, but rather to teach us of the awesome power of tefila and the wondrous abilities of Hashem to save a person in an instant.
Tefila is so powerful, the yetzer hara works overtime to try and ruin a person’s tefilot, especially by putting all different types of thoughts in his head, trying to distract him from doing it properly. It could be thoughts about business, or something he has to do that day, or sometimes it is even thoughts about Torah and mitzvot. All of them come from the yetzer hara, trying to ruin his tefila. A person may think that a thought in Torah, perhaps an answer to a difficult question, or a pshat in a pasuk or in a Gemara is something pure. In fact, however, it is nothing more than the plays of the yetzer hara, getting a religious person to stumble.
The Noam Elimelech wrote that a person is bombarded with all different kinds of thought specifically during the Amida. When he finishes, most of the time those thoughts go away. We must know, he warns, that no good can ever come from a thought during the Amida. Even if a person thinks of a great way to serve Hashem, it will not work because it came from the yetzer hara during his tefila. Therefore, if a person ever has distracting thoughts during his Amida, he should strengthen his bitachon and say to himself, “If I push these thoughts out of my head and focus on talking to Hashem the way I should be, for sure I will not lose from it. Just the opposite, I will only gain by praying the way I am supposed to, overcoming the test I am being given.”
The Shomer Emunim tells us, this is a wondrous way for a person to be able to truly focus when he prays. Whenever a foreign thought comes into his mind, he should think, “It is so foolish for me to continue this thought. I am not going to gain from it anyway. But if I overcome it, Hashem will appreciate my tefila so much more and help me more.”
The Vilna Gaon once told that during his Shacharit Amida one morning on Rosh Chodesh, seven explanations of a very difficult Zohar popped into his mind. He stopped his Amida for 25 seconds to organize his thoughts and then went back to praying. When he finished the Amida, he went to go write them down, but he had completely forgotten every single one of them. While he was saying Musaf, all seven explanations came back into his mind. This time, he ignored it, and when he finished the Amida, they were all still in his mind and he wrote them down.
A focused Amida is so powerful, do not let the yetzer hara ruin it.