Intention in Prayer
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Question
Dear Rabbi, Shalom. I wanted to ask what it means to have intention regarding the meaning of the words in prayer (and whether there are levels to this). Should one focus on the meaning of each word, or is it enough to say the words and naturally understand their meaning without straining, or is it sufficient for a person to pay attention to what they are reading from the siddur and understand it like when reading a book? Thank you very much.
Answer
Shalom Rav,
The intention is to understand what is being said.
As you wrote, someone who reads a book understands what they are reading and does not need to translate each word in their mind. This is the intention in prayer.