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When you daven, how do you visualize to Whom you are speaking?
As our thirteen beliefs according to the Rambam teach us, we cannot visualize a Supreme Being who has no physical form, When we open our mouths, we must keep in mind that we are not worthy to utter our praises to Hashem and ask for help Him to open our lips and give us the strength and abilities to praise Him by asking for our daily needs. When we utter the first three brochos of the 18 or 19 brochos we must keep in mind that we are standing infront of the Almighty who has the ability to grant us all our necessary wishes the way He granted his promises to our forefathers. He is the only One who has the power and ability to do this.
As a loving father and king
Refer to the Sefer Beis Elokim from the Mabit for more details.
I do not need to “visualize him”.
Hashem wants and enjoys to do good as a loving father. We should ask from Him like a poor person knocking on the door without any of his own zechusim but the zechusim of the tzibur. We should daven betzibur. If we can’t, daven in Beis Haknesses where the place of unity makes Hashem’s residence or at least daven at the time when people daven.
The Baal Haikerim asks how tefila works, doesn’t Hashem change His mind
through tefila? He explains that the person praying changes and gets closer to Hashem and therefore listened to.Great question! You should go through the sefer Hachsharas Avreichim, it was written with this question in mind. (There are also two English books on meditation by R’ Aryeh Kaplan on this).
I inquired about it, but the above sefer Beis Elokim about the Rambam’s 13 beliefs, has not been translated into English.
Yud key vav kay, or in each specific month, the correct permutation of those letters.
Another option is yud kay vav kay over the Aron hakodesh, between the kruvim. You can imagine yourself standing in the kodesh hakedoshim davening to Hashem.
You imagine these things with your mind, from your skull, called a kodkod. This is actually the roshei teivos of kodesh hakedoshim.I try to visualize a feeling. Like a warm feeling of like a father giving me a hug, putting his arm around me, before I go to bed sitting by my bed and asking how my day was.
Why do you have to visualize something the way it has to be as opposed to how you want to visualize it
In S”A O”CH 5 explains what to have in mind when we pronounce Hashem. It is pronounced diferently than written. So when we say it, keep in the Master of Universe. It is witten as He existed, exists and will exist. When it comes to the name Elo-him have in mind Strong with All Abilities and All Might.
See Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb’s wonderful audio shiur on this very topic. It’s called “Speaking About G-D” and is in english. It’s available free on simpletoremember.com
(If the direct link is disallowed I’m writing out the website name: simpletoremember dot com)
Once on the site click on Audio/Video Shiurim (top of page), then click on Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb (right of page).
You cannot visualize Hashem. Hashem has no guf and the concept of Him is beyond our grasp. Just have in mind the teitch of the words you are davening.
The techeilis of tzitzis is blue which was supposed to remind us of the sky which inspires awe of the power of Hashem. Today it’s hard to see the sky at night, all we see are lights and buildings. Today, all day and night, 24-7, we are surrounded by materialism and immersed in materialism and that’s why it’s a challenge to be inspired by thinking about the greatness of Hashem. We can only think about the power of Hashem through seeing what he has created but we cannot visualize Him.
They say that you cannot look at the sun only what it does, similarly we cannot look at Hashem only what He does, Veyodato Hayom.
The sun does bad and good, but if it burns, the fault is in the receiver who is not being able to take it and not the provider.
I saw above the Rabbi Kaplan’s book(s) on meditation were recommended. He has 3 books on the subject. If you do decide to pursue his books you would be well advised to FIRST read “Faith and Folly” by Rabbi Yaacov Hillel. Rabbi Yaacov Hillel’s book (originally in Hebrew) was written at the behest of Gedolai Yisroel (Chassidic, Litvish, and Sefardi) and bears their approbations.
Another thing to consider.
Even relationships with people our feelings for them are built on what they do for us and what we do for them. Our sensory experience of people (how they look, sound, smell) is secondary to this.
I don’t know if visualisation is the right word and if the mashal I’m using is the best one but I saw a good animated video clip on it and it is pretty good. Anyhow I relate to Hashem as this Supernal Being Who provides life for everyone and is the life force of everything although the everything isn’t Him. But all of that pales and is nothing compared to Who He really is which is far above anything related to the world (like you wouldn’t praise a king as possessing 100 pennies) and nevertheless He wants us to praise Him with what we appreciate and our puny concerns from our very limited viewpoint.
Anyhow the visual I for the concept would be energy or electricity which is present everywhere, is manifest in lamps and is their essence and being without them being electricity themselves…
כדי להסבר את האוזן – The science of string theory says that everything consists of strings of energy. Hashem is the source of all energy. Things were created from yesh mayin, from energy. According to the Einstein’s Law of Relativity, e=mc(square) when something is greater than the speed of light, it has infinite energy. Hashem being everywhere, is faster than the speed of light.
Laskern, that’s how I look it as well, Hashem is the source of all energy. Matter, which is all physical things in existence, is energy, energy=matter. So to create matter, to create every physical thing, there needs to be a greater source of energy, the threshold energy, which is greater than the matter particles (pair of fermions) which create matter. I believe Hashem is the threshold of energy, or maybe not the threshold itself but the Infinite Source that provides the threshold for the creation of energy, which equals all matter, gashmius, in the universe.
Hashem is also the source of ruchnius, spirituality, which I believe is also a form of energy because souls and spirits enable life. I remember reading in one of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplans books that there is a misconception that God is spiritual. God is not spiritual, He created spirituality and He is above spirituality and the source of it.
In kabalah there are 10 sfirohs with the highest one, being keser. And the major rule in this is, the gaon for one says this, that above the sfira of keser “assur lachshov klal” that it is forbidden to try to understand it, means that we must accept that its beyond human comprehension. So the answer to this question is that we are to understand we are addressing a being that is beyond our comprehension, let alone visualization.
It says in Tomer Devorah that Keser is humility. If someone has a swollen head, his crown will not fit. It is brought down in sefer Peninim Yekorim, it says, wherever you find a greatness (or a multiple) of Hashem, you will find there His humility. This can be shown numerically. The small count of Hashem 26 is 8, When you multiply by 2, you get 52 now 5 and 2 = 7, take it three times, you get 78 where 7 and 8 is 15 and 1 and 5 is 6. Continuing like this, you get down to 1 and then to 9 going down to 1. By Hashem, His humility is His greatness. Since 8 is 1 away from 9, this also works with 8 itself.
I want to clear up my last post when I wrote Hashem as being the threshold of energy that creates matter, I meant to write that He is the Infinite Source that creates energy which is physical matter and spirituality. He is the source of all things in Creation.
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