"The focus of prayer is not the self. A man may spend hours meditating about himself, or be stirred by the deepest sympathy for his fellow man, and no prayer will come to pass. Prayers comes to pass in a complete turning of the heart toward G-d, toward His goodness and power. It is the momentary disregard of our personal concerns, the absence of self-centered thoughts, which constitute the art of prayer.
The purpose of prayer is not the same as the purpose of speech. The purpose of speech is to inform; the purpose of prayer is to partake.
Ultimately the goal of prayer is not to translate a word by to translate the self; not the render an ancient vocabulary in modern terminology, but to transform our thoughts into thoughts of prayer. Prayer is the soul's imitation of the spirit, of the spirit that is contained in the liturgical words."
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Man's Quest for G-d
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