Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Davening with a Minyan


(Courtesy of www.xanga.com/Shlomo_Chizkiyahu)

I davened many a day in my living room. I always tried to say Shema in time, always tried to daven shachris well before the last minute and always tried to have on my tefillin. Day in and Day out I figured that this was what Hashem wanted from my daily teffilah. Missing Torah reading Monday and Wednesday and Rosh Chodesh. Then one day I came upon a quote from the Talmud Yerushalmi stating that davening in your home is like davening in a steel box. Implying that it is nearly impossible for a Yid, especially one of my spiritual stature to penetrate the heavens with prayer alone at home without a Torah or a Minyan. Then I moved .5 miles from the mikvah, .7 miles from the shul, and 1.0 mile from my Rabbi. Prior to that I had never spent a Shabbos where I lived since I moved out of my parents house. It wasnt to bad, but I did miss my bed on shabbos. I decided when I moved that I was going to make some changes. Sleep is for the weak so i started waking up at 5:45am everyday so I could make it to minyan, usually being the first one there and preparing myself even before the main Shul lights were triggered by their timer. I have this thing about being on time and it really gets to me if I am late for minyan. After a month or so, the members of the shul entrusted me with the code to the front door and I now could learn before Mincha and Maariv instead of sitting in my truck till someone came to open the door. Now that I am a regular for minyan my life is in a new direction. I still have the same tests and troubles I did before but now I feel I am stronger when confronting them because of the time I set aside to be in shul and daven with a minyan. Im not sure how to explain it but I would recommend everyone to make it to daily minyans 3 times a day everyday and see how it affects your life. Hashem wants us to daven ten men strong and this is the only way to rectify the sin of the spies, please HaKodesh Baruchu and usher in Moshiach!

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