Bringing Knowledge of "The Purpose" Into Every Mitzvah - Bilvavi

The following is a suggested, example tefillah, which I have translated from the 5th chelek of Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh, #s 8 and 9:

There are so many mitzvos, but Chazal have revealed to us that there are three pillars upon which the world stands; Torah, Avodah and Gemilus Chasadim. Behold, Master of the World, learning Torah is cleaving to you as it was written and expanded upon in the sefer "Nefesh HaChaim." Avodah... since we do not have Korbanos today, in their place the way to get closer to you is through Tefillah. What is Tefillah? It is speaking with You Hashem! And isn't Tefillah, then, a way of getting close to You? Gemilus Chasadim is cleaving to Your ways. All of your ways are kindness, and the whole purpose of the creation of Your world is to give goodness to those who You created. Master of the World, through these three pillars I am able to get close to You. But I must remember all of the time that that these three pillars are the way to get closer to you, and not, G-d forbid, to learn Torah and forget you, Daven and forget you and do chesed and forget you. Because if I, G-d forbid, learn Torah, Daven and do chesed behold I will have forgotten the whole purpose of Torah, TEfillah, and doing chesed, the whole purpose of life. Therefore, Master of the World, I want to remember every time I am involved with one of these three pillars, the reason why I am doing them and what their purpose is.

Master of the World, behold I accept upon myself, Bli Neder, to remember whenever I begin to learn Your holy Torah, not to begin to learn suddenly. Rather, I will first speak to you every time and say 'Master of the World, behold I am going to learn Your holy Torah. Why am I going to learn it? Because I want to be close to You, and I want to get close to You through learning Torah let me merit to attain this! And so too while I am learning, behodl I want to remember every time why I am learning. ThereforeI want to remember this about once every half hour. (Over time, this gap should shrink to just a few minutes and thememory will be triggered automatically.) The matter should be living in me, that everything that I learn should be in order to get closer to You, and I will not give up hope if I forget this. I will try, bli neder to remember this every time. And I beg You, Hashem, that you should help me, and cause me to remember this all of the time until the matter is extremely fixed in my heart...

(Certainly, one needs to clarrify to himself why, indeed he is going and not to say words that his heart does not feel at all. But rather to clarify in his heart what, in truth he wants. And even if this is even part of what his heart wants, he should still say these words with full confidence, that he feels this in his heart and that his desire is that his main feelings should be such and such, etc. But the main thingis that he should speak the truth. "דֹּבֵר שְׁקָרִים לֹא-יִכּוֹן, לְנֶגֶד עֵינָי." "One who speaks falsehood will not dwell before Me." (Tehillim 101:7).

-Dixie Yid

(Picture courtesy of bbc)

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