The Kabbalistic notion of kavanah means intention or desire.
It is associated with the inner feeling or motivation to do something. It is
rather mysterious, difficult to grasp completely, because it is totally
subjective. Rarely is it possible to intuit what another person is truly
feeling when they perform any activity. True, sometimes it is reflected in an
obvious facial gesture or visible reluctance to do the activity, but more often
it is hidden, internal.
The activity is most associated with prayer. Anyone can read
the words, go through the motions, while actually thinking about where they are
going for dinner, the football game they are planning to watch, or the attractive
woman in the next aisle. We often forget this by concentrating on the precise
performance of ritual or prayer itself.
There is a fascinating Kabbalistic story about a small
synagogue in Eastern Europe in the days before Hitler on one of the High
Holidays, Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the year for observant Jews. All
the men were praying in their usual fashion, saying the words, speaking to each
other, looking around. A young boy who had just begun to study the Hebrew
alphabet began to shout out the letters, one after the other. It was obvious to
all that he did had not yet learned the prayers.
The boy's father tried to keep him quiet by 'shushhing' him
as he continued to yell the alphabet as loudly as he could. The elderly rabbi,
seeing the commotion, actually did something totally unheard of: he stopped the
services. Everyone became quite alarmed. They had never seen anything like it.
The rabbi climbed off the bimah and walked straight to the boy and his father.
The father was literally sweating and shaking because this rabbi was held in
such esteem.
Appearing like a Biblical prophet, the holy man with a
flowing white beard and dressed in total white tallis and robes looked at both
of them and said, "How dare you try to quiet this young boy? He may not
know the words, but because he prays from such kavanah, the heavens are open
for all of your prayers!"
I find that story completely compelling. I also know the
proverb that the "road to hell is paved with good intentions, " and
clearly intention alone is impotent. But it demonstrates that it is our
intention to do good, to perform acts of kindness, to offer charity when
someone asks for it, in other words to heal - this intention carries spiritual
power not only to those who receive, but to those who give.
