Tefilla Is Food for the Soul

Rav Chatzkel would often repeat the words of the Kuzari that tefilla is like food for the soul, nourishing it as bread nourishes the body. Shacharis is breakfast, he used to say, and it should keep a person satisfied until lunchtime, which is Mincha. He gave the following moshol. A hungry man once went to a store and bought a variety of food and provisions, enough to satisfy his hunger for some weeks. He stuffed the food into all his pockets, and it was to no avail. The fool remained hungry and could not understand why. Of course he remained hungry: he filled his outer garments with food and never fed his true inner self by eating it. So too we run after our lusts and desires for all manner of gashmiyus, yet we are never satisfied, because while the externals are stuffed, our inner being remains starving. The soul thirsts, and if only the pockets of the outer garment called the body are filled, the hunger of the true inner self, the soul, remains. But if someone ignores the pangs of hunger in his stomach, davens a good tefilla and learns a geshmak seder, he can feel satiated, because this is what it means to do without. The body can go without and feel fine, whereas the soul must be satisfied or the cravings and unquenchable thirst remain.