Guilty tefillos | Imamother

amother

Forestgreen

Sun, Sep 20 2015, 10:00 am

Does anyone find that davening eases feelings of guilt? I have a guilty conscience and maybe davening would help, even though I usually struggle with davening. (From a siddur. I daven in my own words all the time.). I think maybe I should daven shemoneh esrei.

TeachersNotebook

Sun, Sep 20 2015, 1:25 pm

Well no one's going to tell you NOT to daven shemoneh esrei! If you're feeling inspired, then seize the inspiration!!

However, you also have a chance to do more. Guilt is a very powerful motivator for change, and this is the season for it. If you're feeling guilty about something you transgressed ben adam l'chavero, davening will be a huge help (as always), but will not absolve you of the guilt. Take your motivation and approach the person and work it out! While you're davening shemoneh esrei, you can daven for the right words and the right way to make amends. If you're feeling guilty about something ben adam l'atzmo, use your motivation to concretely work on yourself, or do something good for yourself. Daven that Hashem should lead you down a straight and easy path that helps you effectively work with yourself. And if, and only if, the transgression was purely ben adam l'Makom, davening sincerely might be all you need to absolve the guilt. Along with a change in action for the future of course...

In closing, if you're feeling guilty, it's really an opportunity for you to seize the motivation and make it right. Use davening as a tool, but don't feel like it will solve all your "l'chavero" and "atzmo" problems...