Making Amidah Great Again
Each blessing of Shemoneh Esrei has to be utilized that way. I told you only some roshei perakim, some general ideas; there’s so much more to think about, so many brachos. Only that we have to activate our mind and think and think.
And as we practice this day in, day out, one tefillah after another, so little by little it gets into our thick heads. Boruch, boruch, boruch, boruch – I’m becoming more and more bent-kneed before the Giver. Atah, Atah, Atah – before You! I’m talking to You!
Otherwise we are wasting our lives. Day after day, three times a day, we're rattling off these words, glorious opportunities, and we’re not utilizing them; that’s called דָּם שָׁפָךְ. It’s the same as shechutei chutz because we’re taking what could have been the greatest of achievements and squandering it for nothing.
But when you recognize the opportunity and you pray to Hashem properly, you're going to bring forth from your hearts a greatness that has no end. We don't have to go outside and search for greatness and put it into our hearts – it’s already there! We have endless stores of spiritual energy inside of us. The emunah, that’s ‘Atah’, and the bitachon, that’s ‘boruch’ – are buried in our neshamos only that we have to make use of that tremendous opportunity that tefillah gives us.
