What is really going on when we praise God in our prayer?
The Shechina, the Divine Presence, when we begin our prayer is in the lowest most unenlightened place possible. When we pray we gradually raise up to the highest place, the World of Atzilut. We cry out the wondrous praises of God not only from a place of awe and humility but also like someone who is trying to comfort a woman and make her happy. The Pesukei DeZimra is a series of compliments we give to God, with the intention to raise up the Shechina within us up from its sadness and loneliness.
The nature of this ascension of the Shechina is not linear. She goes up while continuously coming down again like the movement of a flame that flickers up and down. It is a dance we are partaking in.We move from speaking of God's awesome transcendence, "God is high above all the nation..." to intricate involvment in all parts of creation, "You have created the heavens...the sea and all that is in it, and you enliven all of them." Only through this harmonic dialectic movement can we come closer to the all encompassing Infinite.
(When we find that we are incessantly flitting between concentration and distraction, we should know that this too is part of the Shechina's dance of ascension.)
This is the meaning of the verse in Shir HaShirim, " How beautiful are your footsteps in shoes, daughter of the generous one."
How beatiful is your dance, in shoes, when you rise up from the lowest most gross place, and go towards you Father the source of all kindness.
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