Isn't it stated that one who prays with a broken heart will be heard, so we see a broken heart is advisable for prayer?
ANSWER:
You have to know that a broken heart does not mean somebody who is broken is spirit. When it states in Yeshayahu, nechei ruach, broken in spirit, it doesn't mean a dispirited man. When a man is broken in spirit, he's heading towards an institution. Here it means, he broke the spirit of stubbornness, that's the broken heart. It doesn't mean your heart is broken; he broke his desires, that's what it means and that's the trouble with translation.
Lev nishbor, lev means mind in loshon kodesh, it doesn't refer to the heart, it's the mind, it means he broke his mind, he changed his attitude, that's what it really means.
So when you come to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you broke your arrogance, you broke your tendency to talk all the time, you decided to keep quiet from now on, that's a broken heart. It doesn't mean a broken spirit that this man now has lost his courage.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
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