n an effort to enhance our prayers and to elicit more KAVANA (intent and meaning), we have to look into and examine the kinds of development and origins of prayers. Most daily prayers consist almost entirely of selections from the Bible and later Jewish literature.

The order of these prayers emanates from our sages and the members of the Great Assembly of the time prior to the destruction of the Temple and subsequent to that. When the sacrifices had to be eliminated from the services because of the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, sacrifices were replaced by Tefilah [prayer] (the service of the heart.)

Originally, the services at the time of the Temple consisted largely of sacrifices. When the sages arranged the structure of the service of the heart, they were mindful to select mainly chapters from the Book of Psalms and also Talmudic passages which would evoke our utmost feelings and inspire us to strengthen the bond to our Father in Heaven.

Also, at the same time they had in mind to include Biblical texts which contain the basic truths of our religion as well as elementary moral and ethical values to the utmost ideas and principles of pure monotheism which we recite in the Shema three times daily.

The sages surely intended the Siddur (prayer book) to evoke the utmost religious feelings and to be instructive. The Siddur (prayer book) aimed to be not only the way for the Service of the Heart, but also to be an instrument for both mind and heart. It is also said that the Kavana (intent and devotion) is the very soul of our prayers.

Sometimes, our nature is such that repetition of prayers day after day tends to reduce their meaning and the profound experience of their intent. To be sure, even superficial recital of the daily prayers has rewards because it cannot be devoid of an awareness of G-d.

However, in order that our prayers still impress themselves upon our heart and mind, a basic knowledge at least of their inner meaning and content is indispensable. Therefore, we should make it our intention to establish circles of learning just for the purpose of making ourselves more knowledgeable about the origin, background and intent of prayers, and this can also be incorporated in particular times in the service itself.

Rabbi Meir Dvir