An amazing davening thought from rav yitzchok reuvein rubin of manchester, uk
Sometimes things get in the way and we find davening difficult. To understand how this works, picture the akeida. Avrohom Avinu had risen to the highest level of closeness to Hashem. At the ultimate moment, Hashem stayed his hand. Avraham was so enthusiastic he looked around anxiously for some kind of sacrifice to offer. Out of nowhere appeared a ram. But this substitute had one drawback: it was entangled in the thicket by its horns.
Avraham worked on freeing it from the thorns and only then did he sacrifice it. The Torah is telling us something very special here. What emanates from the head of a ram? Its horns. What emanates from our heads? Our thoughts.
Just as the entangled horns of the ram kept it from becoming a sacrifice, so too our thoughts can get entangled in thorns of self illusion or brambles of anger, keeping us from coming closer to our Heavenly source. And like Avraham Avinu, we must get up and untangle. There is always the need to work at clearing the way for our next step.