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 Arthur Green, PhD
Kavvanah literally means “direction.” In Judaism it refers to kavvanat ha-lev, “directing the heart” to God: praying, studying, performing mitsvot in such a way that we are inwardly turned toward God’s presence, offering our words or deeds as gifts upon an inner altar.
The Talmud debates in several places the question of whether mitsvot require kavvanah. Those discussions seem to understand kavvanah as intent in a more direct sense. Did one intend, when reading the scroll of Esther, to fulfill the obligation of Purim? Has the starving prisoner, unaware of the calendar, fulfilled the obligation to fast on Yom Kippur because he had no food on that day? Generally the rabbis discourage requiring kavvanah, since it is so hard to prove or measure. It is safer to judge acts than to
claim to know the heart of the actor. When it comes to prayer, however, kavvanah is indeed required, because kavvanah is the very essence of the act of prayer. Without it there is only the empty recitation of words.
Kabbalah developed a highly complex system of kavvanot or directed meditations around the text of the daily prayers. Each divine name that appeared in the siddur was taken as a reference to some permutation of the sefirot. The precise wording of the prayer text became the object for seemingly endless commentary and mystical speculation. Praying with the proper kavvanot required great amounts of time and patience, in addition to significant Kabbalistic learning.
The early Hasidic masters turned away from the systematic use of kavvanot, and returned to a simple notion of kavvanah meaning “direction of the heart.” An oft-quoted parable in the Hasidic sources refers to a king who has stored away his precious possessions in a treasure room, locked with a complex set of keys.
The keys were given only to his most special servants, and they too needed instructions in using them. In our generation the keys have been lost altogether. All we can do to get to the treasure (and the King wants us, His beloved children, to have it!) is to smash the lock. The lock in the parable is the human heart, which is filled with arrogance and pride. All we can do is break our hearts. When we come to God in true brokenheartedness, all the locks open on their own. The truest kavvanah, then, is that of the humble heart.
The above excerpt, “Kavvanah—Direction of the Heart,” by Arthur Green, is from These Are the Words, 2nd Edition: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life © 2012 by Arthur Green. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, P.O. Box 237, Woodstock, VT 05091; www.jewishlights.com.
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Arthur Green, PhD, is author of several books, including Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow; Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology; Your Word Is Fire: The Hasidic Masters on Contemplative Prayer; and Tormented Master: The Life and Spiritual Quest of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (all Jewish Lights). He is also author of Radical Judaism (Yale University Press) and co-author of Around the Maggid’s Table: Spiritual Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters (forthcoming, Jewish Lights). He is long associated with the Havurah movement and a neo-Hasidic approach to Judaism.
Dr. Green is recognized as one of the world’s preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality. He is the Irving Brudnick Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Hebrew College and rector of the Rabbinical School, which he founded in 2004. Professor emeritus at Brandeis University, he also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he served as dean and president.
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