The advantage of an iconographic religion is that art enhances our ability to concentrate. In Judaism there are no visual props. Concentration in prayer is an inner state achieved through the exclusion of all distractions. When R. Yehuda Hanasi, the editor of the Mishna, would recite the first line of the Shema , he would cover his eyes with his hands, a temporary shield against external distractions. To find God is to lose ourselves first.
Strange thoughts flourish in the soil of our self-consciousness.
Indeed, Hasidic thought is replete with daring exegetical moves to advance the importance of self-transcendence as the key to reaching God in prayer. Still at best such moments remain infrequent and ephemeral. It is their quality and not their quantity that matter. In a brilliant textual insight, the Mishna detects in the opening passages of Leviticus that God is pleased with the burnt offering of an Israelite whether it is an expensive bull, a more affordable bird or inexpensive meal offering. I take the counsel to direct our thoughts to heaven quite literally.