Davening by one’s self has the power to teach us a thing or two
Among the most trying aspects of quarantine is davening without a minyan. A minyan carries one along on its waves, and if one falters in his kavanah, very often the sight of someone davening intensely helps bring one back into the stream. The minyan itself is an entity that possesses its own power and carries its component parts along.
But when one is alone — literally on one’s own — this requires greater concentration, deeper kavanah. As a result, one discovers elements in the davening that seem to jump out at him, phrases that he might ordinarily have overlooked were he not buoyed up by the currents of the minyan.
For example, right at the preliminary section of Shacharis there appears a flashing red light, causing us to pause and to consider. These are words that are always relevant, but in the midst of a pandemic that confounds the best scientific minds, they are most piercing: “Mah anachnu, meh chayeinu — what are we, what is our life… our strength, our might… like nothing before You… the wise are devoid of wisdom, the perceptive devoid of intelligence….” Our walking on the moon and all our technological brilliance are as nothing against a tiny virus that threatens all of civilization.
In the face of such an invisible reality, a little humility is quite in order. Illusions of man’s mastery of the physical world are once again shattered. In the face of the self-confidence of science — one could say arrogance — stand the many unsolved mysteries of the universe, and the obvious truth that science has limitless limitations.
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