One of the main subjects of chassidus is the significance of preparing oneself to do a mitzvah. Each mitzvah in the Torah has such awesome kedushah that we shouldn’t just do mitzvos by rote. Instead, we should take some time to get ourselves ready to perform each mitzvah. We should learn the halachos of the mitzvah and study about its deeper meaning so that we have more inspiration to fulfill the mitzvah. We should clear our minds so that we can do the mitzvah with focus and concentration. We should yearn to receive the amazing light of the mitzvah. In fact, the sefarim of chassidus say that the preparation that we do for a mitzvah is so important that it is even greater than the mitzvah itself.
All of this especially applies in regards to davening. Tefillah is perhaps the most difficult aspect of avodas Hashem. For most of us, it is very difficult to pray with concentration and find inspiration and deveikus in our prayers. Sometimes, it is even hard for us to recite the entire seder of tefillah. Therefore, if we don’t prepare ourselves ahead of time, our davening can be very weak, and right after we finish praying, we forget about the experience we had during tefillah and move on with the day.
So, it is very important for us to take some time to prepare ourselves for davening every day. This is one reason why Rebbe Nachman emphasizes the importance of waking up at midnight to say Tikkun Chatzos, learn Torah, and do hisbodedus until the morning. Through this, we have plenty of time to awaken our hearts and minds to serve Hashem before we begin the amazing avodah of davening Shacharis, without missing the times for Krias Shema and Shemoneh Esrei.
However, even if we’re unable to wake up at this hour, or if we have to go back to sleep at some point before the morning, nonetheless, we should still try to take a 20-30 minutes to learn before davening in order to awaken our seichel to think about Hashem and concentrate on the awesome words of tefillah.
