In the past, we have likened the relationship between the body and the soul to that of a master and a servant. A loyal servant is one who nullifies himself to the desires of his master. When the body was brought into the world, it was told, “The master will need to daven every day. Your job is to prepare him, stand him erect in place, and open the siddur for him. This is your avodah, your mission: to serve your master.”
The neshamah has every right to approach the Ribbono shel Olam in tefillah. Separating the external and the internal—the neshamah and the guf—is fundamental to our ability to daven. For if we don’t make this separation, what right do we have to daven? Only when we understand that it is our neshamah that is davening can we daven and have our tefillos reach the highest spheres of Heaven.
