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Q&A: Prayer Without Concentration

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Prayer Without Concentration

Question

Question: Lately I find myself in a situation where even before prayer I already know full well that I won’t be able to concentrate during the prayer. Maybe somehow I’ll manage at least the intention of standing before God, in line with Rabbi Chaim’s novel idea that this might be enough (?), though even that is not certain. 
My question is: since I remember Maimonides in the laws of prayer ruling, “If his mind is confused and his heart troubled, he should not pray,” is it possible to conduct oneself this way in actual Jewish law today? 
A further question: assuming Jewish law does in fact recognize prayer without concentration (like the view of the Tosafists, who innovated that today, realistically, one cannot require repetition of a prayer said without concentration, since nobody really concentrates—though there would seem to be room to disagree with that reasoning, because if so you should rule that nobody should pray unless he can concentrate, not that concentration is not required at all), is this law a kind of “dispensation” (against Maimonides’ prohibition), or once it is permitted does it automatically become an obligation?
My question obviously stems from a feeling—very strongly backed emotionally—that there is simply no point in such a prayer. But if there is nevertheless a full obligation, then I will accept that. 

Answer

Hello David.
I didn’t understand which kind of intention you mean: intention to the meaning of the words? Intention to fulfill one’s obligation? Without intending the meaning of the words, you’ve done nothing at all. As for intention to fulfill one’s obligation and standing before God, it seems reasonable that ordinary undirected intention for the sake of the act is enough. But regarding the meaning of the words, that of course doesn’t help.
Even according to Rabbi Chaim, standing before God is in addition to, not instead of, the other intention.
Even if you know in advance that you won’t concentrate, the obligation to try still rests on you. Even where you estimate that you will sin, we do not rule like Rabbi Ilai, who said one should go to a distant place and do what his heart desires (see Rif and Rosh on Moed Katan 16).
Specifically someone who usually prays with concentration, and this one time his mind is troubled—to him we say to forgo it and not pray. But someone for whom this is the regular state obviously is not to be excused and exempted from the commandment of prayer. And that is exactly the reasoning of Tosafot and the halakhic authorities who follow them: yes, one should pray, but not repeat the prayer.
 

Discussion on Answer

David (2017-09-19)

What I meant was that I know with certainty that I will not be able to concentrate on the words at all.
Even though we do not rule like Rabbi Ilai, Maimonides ruled that if one finds his mind confused and his heart troubled, “he should not pray.” I’ll quote the law (chapter 4, law 15):
“Any prayer that is without concentration is not prayer; and if one prayed without concentration, he must pray again with concentration. If he finds his mind confused and his heart troubled, he is forbidden to pray until his mind settles.” (Why not? “Try!”). And in law 16: What is the concentration (which seems, on the face of it, to be indispensable)? That he clear his heart of all thoughts and see himself as if standing before the Divine Presence…”
All this is practical Jewish law, explicit, without much room for conceptual pilpul. I know that Maran ruled like him regarding repetition (the view of the Rema is that repetition is not required, but perhaps he too was not speaking about deliberately praying without concentration, only after the fact). Does this mean that Maran holds the above law with all its implications in practical Jewish law? If so, then someone whose “mind is confused”—which according to Tosafot is all of us—is forbidden to pray.
So it’s not similar to Rabbi Ilai’s statement, because he was speaking about a person who wants to commit a transgression, and obviously we cannot rule like him and permit it. Here, prayer without concentration is the transgression!

David (2017-09-19)

And regarding the concern about “neglecting the commandment of prayer,” I agree that this is the reasoning underlying Tosafot’s innovation, but Maimonides and those who follow him certainly disagreed, because their rulings have no such qualifications. The Shulchan Arukh requires someone who did not concentrate to go back and pray again.
So if we don’t harmonize the sources, I at least have Maran to rely on (even though I’m Ashkenazi…). Certainly in extreme cases of prayer that is nothing but disgrace and meaningless mumbling.

The Main Thing Is to Concentrate on the First Blessing (to David) (2017-09-19)

With God’s help, 28 Elul, “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” — 77

David — hello,

It is a clear halakhic ruling from the Talmud itself that if one can concentrate on the first blessing, he should pray—and we are talking about an effort of a minute or two.

There is a good chance that if you pull yourself together and concentrate on the first blessing, you will continue further with concentration as well, and if not throughout the whole prayer, then at least at the closing of the blessings and in the blessing of Modim.

One should remember: crises pass, but once you get used to “cutting corners,” the habit can, God forbid, become second nature! And the main thing is to be careful about regular sleeping hours!

With the blessing, “May it be a year of alertness and vitality,” S.Z. Levinger

Source Citation (2017-09-19)

A baraita in Berakhot 34b: “And if he cannot direct his heart in all of them, let him do so in one,” and Rabbi Chiya explained: “In the blessing of the Patriarchs,” and so ruled the Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 101:1.

I discussed this topic at length in my comment “The medieval authorities? — The Talmud! (to Rabbi M.A.)” from 5 Tammuz on column 77, and in my later comments there.

With blessings, S.Z. Levinger:

David (2017-09-19)

To Rabbi S.Z.,
Thank you for the advice; I’ll try to apply it. I assume that if I know that after the fact it is enough to concentrate on the first blessing, that makes it much easier.
For analysis: in the Shulchan Arukh’s ruling there is still room to discuss this, because he ruled the above Talmudic passage only after the fact, for someone who already prayed and did not concentrate. There is no explicit source permitting one to pray this way from the outset. On the contrary, in siman 93 he ruled that one should not rise to pray from the midst of legal judgment or halakhic debate, and even the Rema did not disagree with that law (and although the Mishnah Berurah wrote that this is not talking about a case where he would lose the proper time for prayer, Maran himself did not qualify it; perhaps he held that in such a state one would not be able to concentrate even on the first blessing).
Also, what Rabbi Michi links—the exemption from repeating the prayer for someone who did not concentrate—with permission to pray this way from the outset, needs a source and is not at all necessary. Reasoning in the opposite direction is also possible: that they did not want to multiply prayers that a person says without concentration. In any case, we see that the Rema ruled both: one should not pray from the midst of legal judgment, and one should not repeat if he already prayed without concentration.
And the above baraita did not permit someone who cannot even direct his heart in one blessing.

The Words of the Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 101:1 (to David) (2017-09-19)

The wording of the Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 101:1:
“One who prays must concentrate in all the blessings.
And if he cannot concentrate in all of them, he should concentrate in Avot.”

And the Biur Halakhah explained:
“It seems from this wording that even from the outset it is permitted to stand and pray, since he is under compulsion and cannot settle his mind [for all the blessings except the first, that is], and this also appears from the wording of the baraita…” *)

As for after the fact—whether he should repeat if he did not concentrate—the Shulchan Arukh wrote there:
“And if he did not concentrate in Avot, even though he concentrated in all the rest, he must return and pray again.”

On this the Rema wrote that nowadays the custom is not to repeat for lack of concentration, for fear that even in the second prayer he will not concentrate, and Sephardic halakhic authorities wrote (such as Kaf HaChayim and Yalkut Yosef) that nowadays even Sephardim do not repeat for lack of concentration.

With blessings, S.Z. Levinger

*)
According to the Mishnah Berurah, even in our times, if he cannot concentrate in Avot, he should not stand to pray. By contrast, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (quoted in Ishei Yisrael) wrote that the custom is to stand and pray even if one will not concentrate even in Avot (and so ruled in Yalkut Yosef). In my humble opinion, nowadays, when prayer books are available in everyone’s hands, it is very uncommon that a person cannot concentrate in Avot.

David (2017-09-19)

If that’s the law, I’ll accept it.
The question is what value such a prayer has for me. If you say that in our spiritually diminished generation the Holy One, blessed be He, simply accepts what there is… maybe. But doesn’t that turn prayer into a “one-sided event”?
I’m writing this because I know many others also “suffer” spiritually from this problem.
Speaking for myself, I can say that sometimes I try, for example, combining and adding different personal requests in my own language within the blessings. But that takes real emotional and even physical investment from me, and there isn’t always enough strength or the right “feeling” for it. Maybe that’s what prayer is supposed to look like—I don’t know.

Michi (2017-09-20)

I already explained my view of Maimonides, and I won’t go over it again.
Clearly, if one concentrates in the first blessing, that is enough in order to pray. I understood you to be claiming that even in the first blessing you do not concentrate.
The connection to Rabbi Ilai is that Jewish law does not recognize weaknesses and does not make concessions. Someone worried about weakness should try harder. I did not mean to compare the cases as if we are speaking here about a transgression. And see Rabbi A.U.’s article in his explanations to aggadic passages on “forty days before the formation of the fetus,” where he wrote that Rabbi Ilai was a determinist (and in my opinion he is not correct about that, but this is not the place).

“Approaching Battle Against Devastation” — Prayer as Struggle (to David) (2017-09-20)

With God’s help, ערב ראש השנה 5778

In the introductory “permission” prayer before Malchuyot, Zikhronot, and Shofarot—“Our God and God of our fathers, be with the emissaries of Your people, the House of Israel”—the prayer leaders are described in the standard printed text as “approaching the holy ark in awe.”

However, in the machzor of Dr. Goldschmidt of blessed memory, the original wording is brought: “approaching battle against devastation.” In prayer we stand against the accuser, who wants to weaken us and nullify the value of our good deeds. And the prayer leaders stand before God to defend Israel, to make their merit heard, and to ask mercy for them from the Master of all.

But the prayer leaders alone are not enough. They need “Your people surrounding them like a wall”—that I, you, and all of us should mobilize our strength and join the struggle to open our hearts, after which, with God’s help, the gates of heaven will open.

The success of a struggle depends on its starting point. When you look at the great difficulty and panic—you lose in advance. But when you focus on the starting point and succeed there, one success leads to more. Did you concentrate in Avot? Then try to hold on and concentrate in a few more blessings. Did you manage a little today? Tomorrow, with God’s help, you’ll manage more!

When one opens an opening like the eye of a needle, the Holy One, blessed be He, helps widen it beyond measure!

With blessings, S.Z. Levinger

And regarding “our diminished generation”—specifically in the area of the ability to concentrate in prayer, our situation may actually be better. We all know Hebrew at the level of a mother tongue, and we all have prayer books readily available.

Imagine how hard it was to concentrate when the prayer was recited by heart, and mental concentration on one section of the prayer could completely break the worshipper’s train of thought—a problem from which someone with an open prayer book before him is exempt, fulfilling “Say it with the book, and his evil thought will return.”

Oren (2017-09-30)

Following up on this question: is intending the meaning of the words also indispensable in Shema, Grace after Meals, and blessings in general? Or is that only in the Amidah?

David (2017-09-30)

In Shema, concentration is indispensable in the first verse, and if one did not concentrate he must go back and recite it again. In the rest of Shema, after the fact he has fulfilled his obligation even if he did not concentrate.
In Grace after Meals and blessings in general, concentration is not indispensable after the fact.
(In my opinion the difference is that Shema is a core statement of faith—“And these words that I command you today shall be upon your heart”—whereas blessings are saying “thank you,” and in ordinary human practice, saying thanks is enough.)

Michi (2017-10-01)

It seems to me that intending the meaning of the words is indispensable in anything bound up with speech. Speech without intention is not speech, just random movement of the lips. Of course, there are different levels of intention (understanding the words, intending what they mean, etc.).

Oren (2017-10-01)

What would the law be if you said some blessing—for example, one of the blessings of Shema—and after a few sentences you caught yourself and realized you had not been focused and had not paid attention at all to what you were saying. Do you need to go back to the last point where you were focused? Or perhaps we would say that a general intention to fulfill one’s obligation for the blessings of Shema helps here?

Michi (2017-10-01)

It’s hard to say anything precise here. My sense is that general intention helps, especially according to the Rema and the medieval authorities who say that nowadays we do not really concentrate even at the beginning of the Amidah.

שתף

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