A person has to pray to God, clinging to Him intensely.
But if sometimes you cannot pray with such cleaving to God, don’t say that because you can’t concentrate properly and cling to God in your prayer, and your prayer will not be accepted, that you won’t pray at all.
R. Chaninah ben Dosa said that “when my prayer rolls smoothly in my mouth, I know that it has been accepted…” (Berachot 34b). [At other times, his prayer wasn’t smooth in his mouth—but he prayed at those times too.]
If you pray and cling to God, then your prayer is smooth in your mouth and it is accepted. If not, heaven forbid, the opposite holds true.
Still, don’t let that discourage you. Instead, always pray.
And if you cannot pray and cling to God properly, pray with all your might.
And when you pray and cling to God properly, then you will lift up all of your other prayers as well.
“I pleaded with Hashem at that time, saying” (Deuteronomy
“I pleaded with Hashem”—constantly, whether clinging to Him or not.
“At that time, saying.” When a person can pray and cling to God, when his prayer rolls smoothly in his mouth, when he is saying them easily because he is praying and cleaving to God, then all of his prayers rise to God.
Likutei Moharan 99
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