Questions tagged [kavana-concentration]
Questions pertaining to Kavana / Concentration which is most often an issue in prayer. There is another form of kavana which relates to intention which needs its own definition.
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Source for parable about wandering attention during tefillah
There's a well-known parable about concentrating during tefillah.
A person walks through the fair and looking at the various items on sale. Suddenly, he is struck in the chest. He sees nobody in the ...
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Sheimos During relations
Is there any source for being חֹקק שמֹת (focusing on contemplation of names of God), during sexual relations? I know of the concept of thinking about righteous people, but I'm asking even on a greater ...
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Source for Burnout
Is there a source that one should let go of limud hatorah when burning out?
How about letting go of other stuff, like kavana by prayer?
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Why didn't Jews pray from siddurim earlier in Jewish history?
It seems that tefilah was recited by heart for a long part of our history.
This generated many halachos related to concerns about getting confused during davening.
See, e.g., here and here ff (and ...
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Counting Omer Without Kavana
What's the halacha if one counted without kavana?*
With apps, it's quite easy to do. Normally, in a siddur, you have to actually figure out what is the day, and find it in the book, so you at least ...
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Learning while davening?
I usually can concentrate while davening, but most of the time I finish before the shliach tzibbur. I daven in a chabad shul, but living in Spain makes the minhag of the shul Edot HaMizrach, which ...
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Tips for improving Kavana (concentration during service)
I would very much appreciate tips on Kavana (the ability to connect one's heart to one's mind i.e. pay attention to, and feel the meaning of the words one says during prayer and the actions one does ...
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Which direction would Jews pray towards before the Beis Hamikdash?
It seems the idea of praying towards Eretz Yisroel/the Beis Hamikdash originated from Shlomo Hamelech, (Kings 1, 8:35 and following pesukim).
Which direction would they pray towards before this?
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Praying for too many people?
I have a list of people that I daven for, for many different things (shidduch, health, for them to lachzor betshuva, etc) It seems this list became too long though and I'm not able to focus on each ...
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Meaning of יוֹצֵר בְּרֵאשִׁית
What is the meaning and kavana for יוֹצֵר בְּרֵאשִׁית - "Maker of Bereshit" - eg. in מודים דרבנן and עלינו לשבח
? Especially, in light of the point made by Ramban in Bereshit 1:1 where the ...
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Rebbe of Kotzk and a penitent having kavannah
I once heard a story about the Kotzker Rebbe that went something like this:
A man came to the Rebbe with an urgent request. He had been to many other rabbonim and Rebbes, and begged them to prescribe ...
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Kavana for סֶּֽלָה
It is clear from this question that the word Selah isn't well understood. We have several wildly different definitions, and some of them have no associated Kavana.
This becomes a halachic problem ...
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Is davening with one's hands clasped behind the back something that is frowned up in Judaism?
Does davening with your hands behind your back present too relaxed of an attitude for proper prayer? I vaguely remember hearing or seeing this somewhere but cannot seem to remember where. Or maybe I ...
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Repeating first beracha of shemonah Esrei when know will have kavona with another siddur
I recently purchased a siddur for my son who has autism called siddur lakol (see below link to digital version). It uses symbols instead of words for each word.
https://www.jweb.org.uk/siddur-lakol
I ...
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Torah thoughts conceived during davening
Are there any statements in Chazal (any era) about Torah ideas that one had during prayer accidentally (b'shogeg/b'ones) ch'v, when one should have been concentrating only on the words of prayer (...
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