April 19, 2018 Prayer in an Age of Distraction thelehrhaus.com/timely-thoughts/prayer-in-an-age-of-distraction/ Zachary Truboff As early as the Talmud Yerushalmi, we find accounts of the struggle to be mindful while praying. Rabbi Matanyah proclaimed that he would thank his head for bowing of its own accord when he reached the modim section of the shemoneh esreh , implying that his prayer was an unconscious act, lacking the ideal spiritual focus. In the ensuing centuries, prayer hasn’t gotten any easier, and in recent years new problems have emerged. Ask any shul rabbi what is one of the things they most detest, and they will probably say it is the sound of a cell phone ringing during the silent amidah. Cell phones, long seen as an anathema in the Haredi community, have recently come to be viewed by the Modern Orthodox community as a potential danger to spiritual life. It recently made the news when a prominent Modern Orthodox synagogue banned all cell phones from daily minyan, requiring those attending to place them in a secure container during services. The problem with cell phones, however, is more pernicious than the distraction of their 1/6