A Cemetery For The Living

[Warning: Don't read if you are put off by shtark mussar. Don't say you weren't warned...]


There I am, in a place with lifeless people. It is depressing! No life, movement or vitality.


A cemetery? No! A shul.

Ahhhhh sweetest friends, what are we going to DO?! No life, no feeling, no emotion, no crying out, no ecstacy. Just a dull recitation [some don't recite, they just sort of scan the page] of the same old thing every day.



Birchos Hashachar - HASHEM, THANK YOU FOR NOT MAKING ME RETARDED! THANK YOU FOR NOT MAKING ME BLIND. THAT WOULD BE HORRIBLE! THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO SIT UP STRAIGHT! Feel it when you say it.



When a person davens with feeling and makes some noise he is shushed. The Arizal says that one must loudly chant psukei di'zimra in order to remove all of the powers of evil that prevent our prayers from being accepted. Zimra means song and also means pruning [i.e. cutting the branches of a tree to promote its growth]. We must SING it to chop down the dark side. But for most people psukei di'zimra is BOOOOORING. So they skip it.



After Barchu we sing to Hashem as the angels do. Do the angels yawn when they sing to Hashem?



Shema means - "HASHEM, YOU ARE EVERYTHING. I LOVE YOU!". Imagine someone saying I love you with ZERO feeling. INSULTING!



Shmoneh Esrei - Hashem, give me health, a livelihood, forgive me for my sins, REDEEM THE WORLD, thank you for all of the gifts you give me daily. All that said with slightly less feeling then one has when he brushes his teeth.



After davening I should be a different person.



But I am not.



That is something to REALLY cry about.