Kavanah (כוונה) — Intention

Core definition

Kavanah — intention, directed consciousness — is the inner soul of the mitzvah. The Gemara's dispute (Berachos 13a, Eruvin 95a) — whether mitzvos require kavanah — rests on two aspects of every mitzvah: (a) the mitzvah of the King, performed in actuality without questioning, as kabbalas ol — like a servant who "if we had been commanded to chop wood, we would do that too"; (b) the kavanah of the mitzvos — knowing their reason and the sod Hashem, Hashem's secret, in them, since the reason dictates each mitzvah's form (tefillin's four sections = the four mochin of Ze'ir Anpin; tzitzis's 32 strings = the 32 paths; sechach's 100 = Kesser) [31678/maamar_010 :: Summary (עמוד סב)]. A mitzvah without kavanah "is like a body without a soul"; through kavanah vitality is drawn into it [31678/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 475–482].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The essence of kavanah. Kavanah's essence is love and fear (אהבה ויראה), the cleaving of the soul, and "the desire of desires" (רעותא דרעותין) — each mitzvah drawing its own light in its own letter of the name Havayah [31678/maamar_010 :: Intro]. Kavanah belongs to the level of delight (ta'anug): the reason and kavanah are in the level of delight — divided, with each mitzvah having its own delight — while ratzon (will) is equal in all mitzvos, as in "the lightest and the gravest are all equal," the will of the Awtsmoos [31678/maamar_010 :: Summary (עמוד סב)].

The resolution of the dispute. The opinion requiring kavanah seeks to draw light and vitality into the mitzvah: mitzvos are vessels — "248 commandments, 248 limbs" — and kavanah draws the light into the vessels, like oil, wick, and light held in the candle [31678/maamar_010 :: Summary (עמוד סב)]. "Mitzvos need kavanah": to draw the Ohr Ein Sof's revelation through the mitzvos; the mitzvos are the vessels' making (the 248 positive commands = the King's 248 limbs, building Ze'ir Anpin's vessels), and the mitzvos' kavanah draws the light [15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 484–495]. According to the view that mitzvos need no kavanah, fixing the vessels draws the light of itself — but only the light belonging to the vessels; what is needed is "the light above the vessels' level," and "mitzvos = vessels; but to draw in them the light above the vessel's limit and the hishtalshelus — specifically through the mitzvos' kavanah" [15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 501–519].

Kavanah as kabbalas ol. The opinion that mitzvos do not require kavanah maintains that the performance must be in the level of kabbalas ol — "and this itself is the kavanah — for through this too there will be the drawing of vitality into the mitzvah," and the joy of being the King's servant [31678/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 163–166]. Kavanah in the mitzvah's reason "diminishes the kabbalas ol"; through pure kabbalas ol one draws "the level of the essential delight, entirely uncompounded, which is far above the radiance of the delight compounded in Chochmah" [31678/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 167–169]. This is Shaul versus Dovid: Shaul's essence was reason and kavanah — keeping Amalek's sheep to bring sacrifices; Dovid's essence was the bitul of kabbalas ol: "If thus He says: I have no desire — here I am" [31678/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 173–180]. "The way of Hashem" is the kavanah of the mitzvos — drawing additional lights into the name Havayah; "to do tzedakah and mishpat" is the deed's performance with kabbalas ol malchus Shamayim — "this is the essence of the kavanah in the fulfillment of the mitzvos" [31678/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 192–197].

Tefillah — the daily general kavanah. "The general kavanah of the mitzvos every day — this is the tefillah" [15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 520]. Prayer is the da'as level: from the da'as-brain is drawn the spine's thread, and so the tefillah's eighteen blessings correspond to the spine's eighteen joints — hence tefillah is not counted among the mitzvos (like the spine, not counted among the 248 limbs, yet "the main of all the limbs' existence and standing") [15966/maamar_025 :: Summary]. "The main of tefillah is the heart's kavanah" — not mere explanation, but the machon ("readiness") expression: that the heart be made ready (machon) for the Makom — the nefesh's hiskashrus and deveikus in His Divinity [15966/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 559, Summary].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources