:-)
Every day, we mumble the saaaaammmme woooordssssss and they mean the saaammmmeeeee thiiiinngggg. Doesn't that get booooorrrinnggg??? That is why people are visibly bored during davening. In order to spice things up people need a Carlebach Kabbolos Shabbos from time to time but that doesn't help with our daily prayers. So what to do?? I have been asked this question on innumerable occasions possibly because I give off the impression that I enjoy davening. So truth be told, I do enjoy davening but only when I am actually davening. When I am just mumbling words from a book with no feeling, emotion or understanding then I get little from the experience and the Ribbono Shel Oilam doesn't get much from it either [although it does serve to keep me out of trouble:-)]. So one answer I give myself and others is that one must learn the siddur. There is much theology, philosophy, mussar and general life guidance in our siddurim. The Heilige Gerrer Rebbe, the Imrei Emes used to learn siddur with his grandchildren. If I would try to teach the siddur today at many important yeshivas at best I would be ignored, at worst, thrown out on my head.... But alas, just because something isn't socially acceptable doesn't make it any less emes'dik and we at Mevakesh strive to be emes'dik.
The Gerrer Rebbe once asked his grandson to go around and ask people, talmidei chachomim, what the words פנות צבאיו קדושים means. He entered the beis medrash and asked men in their 40', 50's, 60's and 70's what the words mean. It is something they said every day for decades. Nobody knew....
I still harbor dreams of being able to teach tfilla in a yeshiva. One day I will meet a very rich man and he will say "I like your ideas". Then he will write a large check to pay for their dissemination. In the meantime, I will use this forum to spread them. I will also mourn the fact that people go 70-80 years without ever having davened. That is cool because now it is the 17th of tammuz which is a time for mourning.
We say אלו דברים שאדם אוכל פירותיהם בעולם הזה והקרן קיימת לעולם הבא - These are the mitzvos for which one eats the fruits on this world and the principle will remain in the world to come [which we proceed to list]. This means that these mitzvos have a profound effect on us in this world and the next. So our avoida is to understand each mitzva. For this post we will focus on bikkur cholim - visiting the ill.
A person is so needy when he is ill. He requires help eating and walking and with his personal needs etc. etc. By helping him, your portion in this world is so much more meaningful. But there is also a tremendous reward in the world to come. A sick person becomes much less focused on his physical pleasures because he doesn't have them anymore. The goal is to make him a more spiritual creature. That is why the gemara says that the shechina is above the head of the choleh. A person who has divorced himself from his physicality and embraced a more spiritual existence is able to elevate those around him to greater spiritual heights and to help them connect to eternity.
Did you ever think of that???:-)
In the words of the Master in עולת ראיה:
החולה, שגופו נדכא, וחייו החמריים מדולדלים הם, כמה מן הטוב הזמני יש לכל הבא להיות לעזר לו בחומר וברוח. אבל יותר מזה עומד כאן לפנינו חזון נצחי. המחלה באנושיות היא מקלשת את החמריות הגסה והיא מקרבת את האדם לצד עילאה. "שכינה למעלה מראשותיו של חולה". כאן יש זיו הנצח החי וקים עדי עד, המתחבר בקרנו העליונה עם הפירות, הבאים מצד הערך הזמני של הישועה החמרית, אשר להחולה שנשבר גופו והגיע עד דכא, שמשם יושע לאור באור החיים
