Better less with kavannah than more without?

Question

Right at the beginning of the Tur and Shulchan Aruch, siman 1, it says that it is better to pray a little with kavannah (proper concentration?) than more without. I don't know that anyone argues. I also don't see it put into practice in many places where I might have applied it.
The Rambam (Hil. Tefillah 4(14)) says pretty clearly that we should not daven at all without kavannah, and if we did, go back and pray again. But, later authorities seem to tone it down - after all, we don't have so much kavannah anyhow.
That is pretty much the answer I have gotten when I asked, say: I'm really tired. Maybe I should sleep instead of going to shul for maariv, and hope I get up in time to daven later. No, no! Go to shul now and do the best you can.
Maybe I should say less of Pesukei D'zimrah? No, no! Birkas Krias Shema - are you nuts?
Anyhow, when Slichos comes around I really struggle. Do I have kavannah for more, or am I just stretching the kavannah I have much thinner? By the time I get to Hodu I'm frequently exhausted [I do have health issues with fatigue]. What should one do? "How can you think of skipping prayers at a critical time like the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah?!"
Also, what if a person can follow with the words, and pays attention, but is past the point of enjoying what's happening? He might have felt more inspired if he had said less. Does that play a role?
I'm asking for sources for practical rulings, but also advice on the right attitude.

Update: On re-reading, I don't want the impression that the question is based on my physical situation, as if I'm tired all the time. The real question is more based on a mental weariness, on one's ability to "hold kop", the point where one feels prayers turning into mechanical reading without really paying attention.
Update: tesvov has suggested in a number of comments that the principle stated by the Tur only applies to optional additions, like the Tikkun Chatzos that is the topic where he states it. Interesting suggestion - obviously Rav Avigdor Miller quoted below disagrees - and it would be good to have an explicit statement by a posek about it. [Berachos 34a might be a good source on this, but of course in those days prayers were more fluid.]
Third update: My son-in-law suggested what may be a compromise position, though personally I find it rather a depressing one: The requirement for kavannah is indeed absolute, and according to the Rambam one should perhaps never say any part of the davening, even the Amidah, without proper kavannah. However, since in our times we don't have so much kavannah anyhow, this no longer serves as an excuse to skip anything.

You really have to see the wording of the Rambam there - not really quoted by later poskim, but super-powerful and perfectly clear [ital. mine].

Any prayer uttered without mental concentration is not prayer. If a service has been recited without such concentration, it must be recited again devoutly. A person finds that his thoughts are confused and his mind is distracted: He is forbidden to pray till he has recovered his mental composure. Hence, on returning from a journey or if one is weary or distressed, it is forbidden to pray till his mind is composed. The sages said that he should wait three days till he is rested and his mind is calm, and then he recites the prayers...

I wonder if the much less sharp language of the poskim in OH 98 is evidence to the contrary: These more recent poskim seem to say instead that you really really need to have kavannah, but... let's talk about whether you have to pray again if you pray without. I'm not seeing a nice clear, Don't pray. Still, might that be the logical conclusion?

Further update: Reflections on Yomim Noraim davening

Answer 1

A related question was the topic of an episode of "Dimensions of the Daf." Rambam in one place (which I think is your citation) says about the Amidah that if you did not have kavanah, you must start again. But elsewhere he says that if one had kavanah at the beginning but not in the middle of the Amidah then you don't restart.

The explanation given (in the episode) is that there are two sorts of kavanah. The first is that without the kavanah that you are engaging in a conversation before hakadosh baruch hu, you aren't praying at all; so without that appreciation in mind, you haven't started the Amidah and must daven "in the first place." The second sort is an understanding of the words you are saying and their implications (as opposed to just saying them from habit). It is this second sort of kavanah that the Rambam says if you had it at the start (of the Amidah) you need not repeat the prayer (which of course would not even have been a prayer in the first place if you didn't have kavanah that you are addressing hashem).

Answer 2

I'd like to add my best impression of the answer to my question, taking into account what I've heard so far. I am still sorely lacking in poskim who deal with this directly.

1. The Rambam quoted is pretty clear. Prayer without kavannah doesn't exist and is actually not allowed. [One might restrict the latter to the Amidah; perhaps its special status means that it's sacrilege to devalue it.]
2. The Tur quoted is also pretty clear: It is better to skip prayers rather than say them without kavannah. However, he says what he says in a section on Tikkun Chatzos and it may therefore apply only to voluntary prayers, לפנים משורת הדין. I'll clarify that shortly בע"ה.
3. Many people I've asked have responded pretty sharply [as usual without clear sources]: You cannot use this as an excuse to skip all your prayers. What is in the siddur's prayer service, or - at least - whatever we can determine is from the Anshei Knesses Hagedolah, you ought to be saying. It's a terrible slippery slope to start skipping half the davening.

So let me bring an idea I once heard from R' Tzvi Berkowitz shlit"a. He called it "blackmailing Hashem". Say A is required, B and C are not acceptable. Someone might say, Well, you should be happy I did B, because I might have done C which is even worse!
-You should be happy I only said some of the prayers, but with kavannah, because I might have just bopped through all of them fast without any kavannah at all, like so many other people.
-You should be happy I said the prayers at least, even if I paid zero attention, because so many other people skip and don't say all of them or even any of them.
You can't do either one. There are set prayers, and you must say them with proper concentration and kavannah.
Of course, if you really can't, then that Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch suggest alternatives. You're late for the minyan and can't say all of them properly, skip these and then these. Optional additions, the Tur says it's better only to say what you can say properly. You just came from a journey and can't think straight - don't pray till you can!
But one needs to be erlich and there's a reason the Rambam gave a case of coming from a difficult journey. It probably isn't a proper excuse that you aren't in the mood right now.

On the "slippery slope" argument quoted above, I would add that the slippery slope runs both ways, and I think we might be pretty far down the other way! I'm not sure that the average person davening knows that if he is just rattling off the words without kavannah, he needs to stop doing that and do something else. Could be he heard enough times, "Well, what are you going to do - not daven?" that he thinks this is fine b'dieved, and he'll work on it when he's older.

After all this, I need to point out that I did not say a word about what "kavannah" means exactly. See that Rambam further on, see the R' Chaim, see the poskim. That is an important part of the issue, of course. I don't mean to suggest that something isn't good enough if it really is. And, it would be a further discussion how to choose tradeoffs between different levels of kavannah.

Answer 3

This is not a direct answer to your question but it's worth mentioning here for any readers. I have a Rambam "Siddur" that has every prayer needed for every Jewish event and it all fits into one book. But if you hand this siddur to an average Jew today they will marvel at all the prayers that are "missing." However, the reality is that most of the prayers that we take for granted as being necessary are often recent additions and aren't really required. Even such "standard prayers" like Modeh Ani weren't considered essential even in the time of the Shulchan Arukh. Rambam's son famously complained that people didn't have the proper Kawwanah for the Amidah (required prayer) because they were up all night doing dirges/selihot which aren't required at all.

Based on this I've advised friends who struggle with having enough Kawwanah for prayers to spend time finding out what prayers are actually required vs recent additions/recommendations. Because it's certainly possible that they (or you) have enough proper concentration for the required prayers, but maybe not for all the additions that fill many siddurs nowadays.

When praying alone I use the Rambam siddur or a similar Yemenite siddur so that way I can focus on my prayer and not have to spend mental energy filtering everything else out. I reserve my Sephardic and Ashkenazic siddurs to be used when I'm at synagogue.

Answer 4

while all parts of prayer should have kavana there are some parts that require kavana in order to fulfill your obligation in saying them. The parts that come to mind are the pasuk "poseach es yadecha" in ashre, the first two paskim in shema, and the first the brachos in the amida. (sources needed)

One technique for having greater kavana during davening is one that doesn't require any skipping. Each day taking some time to focus more on a different section of the siddur during shachris, mincha, maariv and this way by the end of the year you have said all of davening many times with your best kavana.

Of course it would be great in theory to just be on the level where all of your prayer all of the time would be like this but what Hashem wants from us is to put forth our best efforts as prayer is defined as "service of the heart" (meseches taanis 2a). "the Merciful One desires the heart" (I think the zohar). Also in regards to making our effort when we do a little Hashem will help us out a lot as it says in Meseches Yoma 39a before the hadran, "if he will mekadesh himself a little bit then he will be mekashin harbe."

Answer 5

Wow. Just saw this over Yom Tov. Rav Avigdor Miller on Tefillah, just published (2021), by R' Yaakov Astor, quotes from his shiurim. [He says in the introduction that some of the quotes were lightly edited. I couldn't tell which shiur exactly it came from.] Anyhow, p. 127:

Question: In P'sukei D'zimrah there are so many selections from Tehilim, and the Rav has told us that every word is a gem and an opportunity for perfection of the mind. But can one really concentrate on so many verses and so many different thoughts?

Answer: Certainly not. And therefore, you shouldn't even try to say everything. Just to rattle off words and not gain any da'as, is worthless. It's not completely worthless, but it's just about worthless.
Instead, take your time. "Tov ma'at tachanunum b'kavanah m'harbeh b'li kavanah - Better to daven a small amount with concentration, than to daven a lot without concentration. Say a little, but think about what you're saying. Study the words and understand what you're saying. That's the real achievement in davening.
Now, of course, if you have a great deal of time, you can start davening three hours before the tzibbur, and you'll be able to do justice to a good part of the P'sukei D'zimrah. But whatever it is, you should spend time using your head in davening, not just your lips.

"You shouldn't even try to say everything."
Too bad they didn't ask him about other parts of tefillah, though.

Counterpoint: A very choshuv yunger man mentioned to me what Rav Shach z"l wrote in his haskamah to R' Meyer Birnbaum's Darchei Hatefillah : [paraphrased] "Use this for studying about prayer, but don't use it while you pray." You aren't supposed to be studying prayer while you pray, you're supposed to be talking to Hashem. That would seem to go against at least the "three hours" part of what Rav Miller said, and perhaps the whole idea of "gems" and "so many different thoughts". The words of P'sukei D'zimrah are indeed gems, but that doesn't mean you should spend time examining all the facets while you pray.
I don't think that would contradict a middle ground, where someone might skip part of the davening in order to do a decent job with the rest.