{"id":99019,"date":"2022-11-20T05:12:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-20T03:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/?p=99019"},"modified":"2022-11-20T05:12:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-20T03:12:05","slug":"i-smell-a-rat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/i-smell-a-rat\/","title":{"rendered":"I Smell a Rat"},"content":{"rendered":"

I Smell a Rat<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the time of tefillah one day, I could not evoke any enthusiasm in my prayer. Try as I might, I could not manage to direct my thoughts to my Heavenly Father and feel as though I was standing before the Mighty King Who can grant me all of my heart\u2019s desires. I was filled with a deep sense of anguish.<\/p>\n

After prayers ended, I decided to do some serious introspection. Why could I not muster the appropriate feelings of elevation as I had so terribly wished? Maybe I had not laid my tefillin properly, or maybe I had not prayed Shemoneh Esrei as I should have. But I found no solution to my quandary. I remained depressed and disappointed.<\/p>\n

The following week, I sat in the same spot in the Beit Hakeneset, when someone nearby suddenly called my attention to a bad smell. I looked around to find its source. We even moved some furniture. To our utter shock, we discovered a dead mouse.<\/p>\n

Now I clearly understood what had prevented my prayers from reaching heavenward. Everyone knows the halachah which was in effect in the times of the Beit Hamikdash: One who had touched an impure creature was forbidden from entering the holy Sanctuary until he immersed in a mikveh.<\/em><\/p>\n

This dead rodent blocked the way for sanctity to descend upon the worshippers. Therefore, in spite of all my efforts, I felt a lack of enthusiasm and elevation in my prayers.<\/p>\n

Upon reflection, I realized that I alone am responsible for my spiritual level. I certainly was to blame for not focusing sufficiently on my prayer. Maybe the dead mouse was the source of the impurity, but I was required to overcome this problem and resolutely concentrate on my prayers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. With the Torah authority, Maran HaGaon Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, Paris<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I Smell a Rat During the time of tefillah one day, I could not evoke any enthusiasm in my prayer. Try as I might, I could not manage to direct my thoughts to my Heavenly Father and feel as though I was standing before the Mighty King Who can grant me all of my heart\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":27602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sanctity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}