“These two things I have never forgotten,” Rav Tzvi Hirsch would say. “I have always tried to repair the tears in my soul so that I may return it to my Maker in as close as possible to it’s original condition. On the other hand, I watch every good quality that I have acquired so as not to ruin it …”
Rav Moshe Of Pashvarsk
The man who was to have a profound influence on Rav Tzvi Hirsch was Reb Moshe of Pashvarsk. He was a student of the great Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk and the teacher of the Chozeh of Lublin. Besides being a great Torah scholar, Reb Moshe had a great power of tefillah. He was extremely careful about the way he davened. The following story illustrates his attitude.
It happened that Reb Moshe was once staying at an inn, together with a great scholar who was a misnaged. As morning came, the misnaged awoke early to daven, followed by a session of study in Mishna and Talmud. Reb Moshe, on the other hand, began very great and elaborate preparations before his tefillah, and by the time he got around to the actual services and wrapping himself in his tallit and tefillin, the proper time for tefillah had passed.
Why The Preparations?
The misnaged, seeing all this, approached Reb Moshe and asked him, “Tell me, why do you go through all these preparations before davening?”
“I will tell you,” answered Reb Moshe. “In truth, I am very jealous of you, who are able to rise and daven at the proper time and then sit down to study. What can I do?
“When I awake in the morning and say, ‘I give thanks unto You, Living and Eternal King, who restored my soul,’ I immediately begin to think to myself: Who am I and what is meant by ‘Living and Eternal King’ and what do we mean by ‘soul’?
“And so one thought leads to another and I wonder if I am truly worthy of appearing before this King and if I am worthy of having my soul restored to me each and every morning. Thus, I immerse myself in these thoughts until the time for prayer is past.”
The Headache
Once, one of Reb Moshe’s chassidim complained that every morning when he finished his davening he had a headache because of the intensity of concentration with which he was accustomed to daven.
When Reb Moshe heard this he replied, “I am very surprised at your words. After all, what does the head have to do with tefillah? Tefillah is the service of the heart and not of the head …”