Q&A: Coordination of Intentions
Coordination of Intentions
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I saw that Rabbi Chaim Halevi raises a difficulty in Maimonides, in the Laws of Prayer: in one place (4:1) Maimonides writes that intention is indispensable throughout the entire prayer, and if one did not have intention he must repeat it; while elsewhere (at the end of chapter 10) he writes that intention is indispensable only in the first blessing, and if he had intention there he has fulfilled his obligation.
And there he wrote that there are two distinct laws regarding intention in prayer:
A. The law of intending the meanings of the words (= literal understanding), which is indispensable only in the first blessing.
B. The law of the intention of standing before God (perhaps a kind of conscious awareness), which is indispensable throughout the whole prayer.
My question is: if we really say that prayer without the awareness that I am currently standing before God is not considered prayer, and one does not fulfill his obligation with it, and I do not believe that in prayer I am standing before God but only that I am obligated to pray by force of God’s command, can I fulfill my obligation at all?
Answer
I do not understand the situation you are describing. You are standing before God all the time. So what is the problem?
Beyond that, as far as I remember, he has no proofs that these are specifically the relevant intentions. You could formulate two distinct laws on the basis of any other interpretation as well (for example, intention to fulfill one’s obligation—that is, prayer by force of obligation).
Discussion on Answer
Why should I care what prayer was instituted for? That is the rationale of the verse/law. The question is what prayer is, not why it was instituted. Do you think preserving the social structure is accomplished by means of meaningless chatter? (a bit like Leibowitz). Prayer is standing before God, and maybe they instituted it to preserve the social structure (where did this strange idea come from? But it is not important for the discussion).
If you do not think you are standing before God, your prayer is worth nothing even without Rabbi Chaim.
If when each person prays he is supposed to think that he is standing before God, but in practice most prayers look the way they do (starting late, ending in a rush, chatting, reading pamphlets, etc.), then apparently most people do not think they are standing before God. For if they did think so, they surely would not allow themselves to behave that way.
If so, it comes out that most prayers in most places are pointless.
First of all, so what?
Second, I do not agree. The Rema writes regarding intention in the first three blessings that nowadays nobody has proper intention, and therefore one should not repeat the prayer if he lacked intention. But that does not cancel the obligation to pray, because then nobody would fulfill his obligation.
And third, there is a rule that unspecified intent is presumed to be for its proper purpose regarding intentions in general, and in this case too.
And fourth, the question is whether Rabbi Chaim’s proofs are sound. If so, then that is the explanation. And if it comes out that nobody fulfills the commandment of prayer, then nobody fulfills it. Nobody also manages to avoid entirely the prohibition of evil speech.
If I believe that prayer is meant only to preserve the social structure of Judaism in exile, how am I supposed to believe that I am standing before God at the time of prayer? After all, He has no interest in that (according to the views that prayer is only rabbinic).
One could perhaps say that God is interested in rabbinic enactments, but how do we know that?