Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Hisbonenus for women

The story below demonstrates that hisbonenus is desirable for women as well.

A Chossid once went to visit the Rebbetzin Rivka (wife of the Rebbe Maharash). When he arrived, he found that she was in the middle of her prayers, so he waited in a nearby room until she finished. He later related that when she reached the Shema, she meditated upon the word “echod” for twenty minutes.

Le’sheima Ozen p. 83.

1 comments:

Yehoshua Simcha Solomon said...

My mother will be very interested in seeing this.

Tefilloh levels us all - rich and poor, men and women, sane and deranged, adult and child. Everyone is judged according to the refinement of his heart relative to where he once was, in line with how much effort he has exerted in self-improvement. In other mitzvos this can be harder to see, but with tfilloh, we know if someone has exerted himself in serving G-d (or not), as we know of ourselves.
A person can try hiding in learning, or in acts of chesed, or in other mitzvos, but when he himself must be aware that he is standing before G-d, everyone can improved and no one can hide.